Hidden Shoal News
AWMA – Debut EP Announcement
From the ashes of Half Film (no we didn’t burn them) and via [the] caseworker, Red Thread and Mist and Mast comes AWMA – Conor Devlin (vocals, guitars), Eimer Devlin (vocals, bass), and Jason Lakis (vocals, drums, guitars). We’re excited to announce the release of their self-titled debut EP which drops October 14 preceded by the single ‘Broadcast History’ out September 17.
Check out their artist profile for more info and be sure to check out the gorgeous ‘Broadcast History’ next week.
“Running Man” A MixTape by Liminal Drifter
The wonderful Liminal Drifter, aka Dr Simon Order, brings us the next installment in our mixtape series. The mix, lovingly produced by Warren S, is inspired by Order’s other life as a long distance runner and includes some gorgeous ambient electronica and downtempo works. Let’s hand it over Liminal Drifter to explain further,
“Running Man is drawn from the long-distance running tunes of ambient electronic producer Liminal Drifter. Delicately mixed by DJ maestro Warren S, these are songs that fuel the run and relax the body, moving through space, floating on the groove, effortlessly, in movement. Songs inhabiting the wandering psyche of the runner, paths of calm, shifting melody and gentle shuffling beats. Warren S resonates the mix in sympathy, a playful and harmonically uplifting curation.” – Liminal Drifter
“Running Man” A MixTape by Liminal Drifter by Hidden Shoal on Mixcloud
Medard Fischer’s “Four Songs for the City of New York” Out Now
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the official release of Medard Fischer‘s stunning sophomore EP Four Songs for the City of New York. On his sophomore solo release Fischer brings all of his considerable musical sensitivity to bear to create exquisitely moving neo-classical ambient. Although best known for his solo work as Arc Lab and Tyyson, and as half of Hidden Shoal’s electronic duo Down Review, Medard Fischer’s solo work distills the warm ambience and impressionistic piano work of his previous releases into cohesive new forms.
Four Songs for the City of New York is available now via Bandcamp. Check out Medard Fischer’s artist profile for all links and more info.
New REW<< Single and Music Video
We’re excited to present the third single and accompanying music video from REW<<’s recently released sophomore album Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs. ‘Cupid’s Empty House’ lays out wonderfully naive musicbox melody, counterbalanced with shuffling rhythms, ethereal wordless vocals and synth strings of a defiantly emotional tenor. Its accompanying video by Japanese video artist Haruka Shibuya builds a hazy narrative around the song’s roving quality. The video plays out like an intimate half-memory, a kind of internalised travelogue of an angel who lost their way in Tokyo.
Stream the video via YouTube or Vimeo and be sure to check out the brilliant Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs while you’re at it.
“Melody Makers” A MixTape by Todd Tobias
The latest installment in our mixtape series finds the wonderful Todd Tobias curating a deliciously melodic time capsule. The mix features tracks from across a 30 year period starting in the 40’s and featuring artists such as Nat Cole, Sam Cooke, Neil Young, Nick Drake, David Bowie and even some Andrew Lloyd Webber! Let’s hand it over to Todd to explain,
“Here is a collection of 13 melody-driven songs written in a wide time range (1947-1977). Melody is the one element I struggle with in my own music, so I have an appreciation for it as a listener. In many of these songs the writers and performers convey a melancholy mood without being cute, maudlin or sentimental – something I admire because I know it’s not easy to achieve.
Many of the artist names will be familiar, but in a few cases perhaps not the names of the songwriters or vice-versa. Where it applies, the name of the writer is included alongside the performer. Thanks to Cam at Hidden Shoal for asking me to share this mixtape.” – Todd Tobias
“Melody Makers” A MixTape by Todd Tobias by Hidden Shoal on Mixcloud
Featured Track – The Star Department ‘Stitches and Sleeves’
At the heart of The Star Department‘s superb debut album The Pea Green Boat lies ‘Stitches and Sleeves’. The track is bound together by a heartbreaking guitar line, a silvery waltz-time figure that sends shivers up the spine. Combined with shuffling drums, a muted yet ominous horn section, and Justin Commins vulnerable, almost defeated vocal, the song radiates melancholic pop magic.
Liminal Drifter’s Stunning Debut Released
We’re excited to announce the official release of Troubled Mystic, the debut album by Australian electronic artist Liminal Drifter, featuring collaborations with English dream-pop artist Chloe March.
Drawing on the seminal Warp releases of the ’90s, including Black Dog, Plaid and early Autechre, as well as more contemporary peers, Liminal Drifter evokes a spectrum of emotions across beautifully detailed electronic tapestries. Moving from downtempo dream-pop to shimmering, spacey electronica, this suite of songs works as if by osmosis, gently irradiating your subconscious.
Liminal Drifter roves widely and deeply across Troubled Mystic’s hour-long run-time, allowing the songs to breathe and cross-pollinate. The title track punctuates a bright, shuffling groove with golden swells of brass and an aching vocal from Chloe March. ‘Dark Sunlight’ recalls the brooding majesty of Massive Attack’s ‘Inertia Creeps’. And gorgeous closer ‘Soothed by Summer’ vibrates with crystalline melancholia, resonating long after the last note has dropped.
Troubled Mystic is available now via BandCamp, iTunes and the usual range of digital stores.
New Medard Fischer Track Stream
We’re excited to be able to present ‘Five Years Almost to the Day’, the first taste of the forthcoming Medard Fischer EP Four Songs for the City of New York. Reflective piano chords are suspended amid glowing tones, rendering these three minutes utterly transportive. Neo-classical ambient has a new and essential voice.
The song is available for streaming via SoundCloud ahead of the release of Four Songs for the City of New York on the 3rd of September 2015.
Erik Nilsson “Hearing Things” Out Now!
We know you’ve been loving Erik Nilsson‘s sumptuous new track ‘On and Onward‘ and waiting for his second album to drop (we have cameras in your house). Well quit your waiting and start your listening as the beautiful sophomore release from Nilsson, Hearing Things, has just landed. Drawing on folk, classical and electronica, Erik Nilsson blends acoustic instruments with field recordings and computer-generated sounds, crafting music akin to early Four Tet, Tortoise at their most minimal, and fellow Scandinavian soundscapers The Gentleman Losers. His Hidden Shoal debut Hearing Things advances the compositional strategy Nilsson first explored on his acclaimed debut Recollage: simple rhythmic and melodic elements are manipulated and recontextualised into richly textured, emotive pieces.
Erik’s previous work includes the album Recollage, released by Luxus-Artica Records, and the score for Ahmed – Almost 13, a Norwegian documentary screened at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam. His music can be heard in Project Power, which chronicles civic resistance to privatisation in New Brunswick, Canada, and in Are You Still There?, finalist in the 2011 edition of the short film competition The 24 Hour Film Race. Erik is a regular contributor to the Disquiet Junto Project, an online collective exploring the creative potential of constraints. He is also singer and guitarist of folk-rock trio Otinget, whose debut album will be released in 2015.
Check out the opening track ‘Ex Nihilo’ below or via SoundCloud and stream and purchase the album here.
Three Questions With Liminal Drifter
Dr. Simon Order, aka Liminal Drifter, wears many hats – academic, marathon runner and of course musician. Whilst it’s the latter we’re most interested in Order’s other two areas of activity inform his music in many key ways. The often wistful, open spaces of his work as Liminal Drifter feel like the perfect accompaniment to a runners high – internalised, slightly out of body and always moving forward. His debut album Troubled Mystic, featuring a number of collaborations with Chloe March, presents dreamy, evocative slices of ambient electronica sitting alongside some brooding downtempo gems. Check out the title track here ahead of the album release on the 19th of August 2015.
But that’s enough from us for now. Let’s hand it over to the good doctor as he pulls three questions out of the bag.
What kind of activity is your music made for?
Running, cycling, body action, movement in time, just breathing, washed in sonic waves, a back and forth, an up and down, a vibration, a passage of time. Time allows music. No time, no music, no movement. Resonance is all we have. I’m drawn to the resonance.
Why make music?
The human psyche; an almost unbearable number of excitable notions trying to break into the world, visceral and cerebral, stuff to be expressed and articulated. I think that’s where music comes in, tapping into that flow, reimagining, a crafting of emotions into sonic resonances that hopefully mean something to a listener. I’m drawn to that reimagining.
What’s your most treasured item of musical gear?
My bass guitar stands proudly in the corner reminding me there’s always a groove; the low, guttural, trouser-flapping power of music.