Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the official release of The Licence To Interpret Dreams by neo-classical/minimal ambient artist Antonymes. The Licence To Interpret Dreams, Antonymes debut for Hidden Shoal, is an album of resonant beauty, as expansive as the wilds of North Wales from which it came, yet as delicate and intimate as a loved one’s breath upon your skin. Each song deploys a modest array of instruments and textures, giving them ample space to breathe and glow. The album’s scope is immediately apparent on breathtaking opener ‘The Slow Beginnings of a ‘A Fragile Acceptance’, where faint piano notes are overwhelmed by an aching surge of cellos, and the timeless, lingering chord progression of ‘The Siren, Hopelessly Lost’.
Single ‘Endlessly’ weaves traces of nature with unearthly, oscillating tones before giving way to a strident piano theme. On ‘Doubt’, Jan Van Den Broek delivers the words of Paul Morley, cradled against a bed of melancholic piano, violin and cello, leaving an indelible emotional mark. ‘A Light From The Heavens’ almost feels like a natural conclusion to the album, with its sense of reflective yearning, but it is followed by the devastating metaphysical breakdown of ‘On Arrival at the Strange Museum’, a cavernous piece that calls out like some giant magnetic spirit.
“This album is probably the most heartbreaking set of songs I’ve heard since Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago, or I Am A Bird Now by Antony And The Johnsons. It’s Brian Eno meets a dagger to the heart….a record that deserves album of the year, even four months into 2011.” – Delusions of Adequacy
“There is so much to experience and so much the music will conjure for the listener. The music on The License to Interpret Dreams can influence how one views the world, their inherent sensibilities, of knowing, and, finally, of returning.” – Fluid Radio
The Licence To Interpret Dreams is available now physically and digitally through Hidden Shoal Recordings, distributed via n5Mailorder. Read a full press release here.
Antonymes – ‘The Siren, Hopelessly Lost’