Hidden Shoal News
“Moonchy & Tobias III” Out Now!
Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records are proud to present Moonchy & Tobias III, the sublime third collaborative album of vocalist Pat Moonchy (Faust, Sothiac) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Todd Tobias (GBV, Robert Pollard) under the Moonchy & Tobias banner. The album is available now on CD and in digital formats via Bandcamp, streaming via Spotify and is available to download or stream at most online stores. The music of Moonchy & Tobias is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
On their third collaborative album, vocalist Pat Moonchy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Todd Tobias delve deeper into the shadowy recesses of their intoxicating sound, creating an immersive soundtrack to our most uncanny nightmares. Moonchy’s primal vocals, mostly sung in Latin, thread through Tobias’s nocturnal atmospheres like smoke. As Moonchy explains, “When I sing in Latin it feels like discovering the details of ancient lives lost in time.” There’s a definite sense that something latent and primordial is being summoned – yet the full extent of its power is cloaked in mystery.
In an unintentional parallel, the album that III most resembles is Portishead’s majestic Third, which creates and inhabits its own haunted space. Where Moonchy & Tobias differ is in employing a more rustic approach to songcraft, while still evoking an exquisite sense of atmosphere. There’s an undeniable melancholy across these 12 tracks, but it never feels cloying, instead leavened by a poised theatricality and sense of play. The midnight hour has a new transportive soundtrack.
“Musically you have references such as Mi And L’Au, The Caretaker, Cranes, Dead Can Dance and Portishead , although they never quite cover what this pair brings here. In conclusion, you can safely say that you are certainly not dealing with an average combo. What a great, versatile and mesmerizing album!“ – De Subjectivisten
Chloe March “Starlings & Crows” Out Now!
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of the stunning new Chloe March album Starlings & Crows. The album is available now in CD, cassette and digital formats via Bandcamp, streaming via Spotify and is also available via all good online stores and streaming service. The music of Chloe March is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
For her fifth album, March drew inspiration from her early childhood in the Warwickshire countryside, nineteenth-century nature poet John Clare, and Lewis Carroll’s fantastical Alice Through the Looking Glass. Throughout the album there’s a palpable sense of wonder at the natural world, shot through with a deep concern for nature’s vulnerability. Starlings & Crows resonates with notions of home on a macro and micro level.
First single ‘To a Place’ is an elegant waltz built around swooning strings and piano. ‘Landing 1969’ sounds as astral as its subject matter would suggest, pulsing at the same tempo as Buzz Aldrin’s heart-rate as Apollo 11 left earth. ‘Remember That Sky’ is achingly emotive, showcasing March’s innate talent for creating an atmosphere of intimacy without compromising compositional depth. Despite running to a succinct 38 minutes, Starlings & Crows is lush and expansive, while distilled to its crystalline essence.
“The latest album by Chloe March is another heady trip through electro pop… The air is thick with atmosphere throughout and March is a masterful creator of mood… a beautiful sound somewhere between The Blue Nile and David Sylvian” – The Underground of Happiness
Oft compared to singular artists such as Nina Simone, Beth Gibbons and Elizabeth Fraser, Chloë March follows her own independent path, writing, engineering and producing from her home studio in south-east England. Inhabiting musical territory somewhere between art song and folk, dream-pop and electronica, the ambient and the cinematic, March embraces all these influences to create poetic, emotionally charged and intensely atmospheric songs and soundworlds.
Memorybell ‘Day Glides After You’ Live Performance
Check out this stunning live rendition of ‘Day Glides After You’ from the new Memorybell album Solace. Do yourself a favour and wrap yourself is this warm, 12 minute blanket of sound. You’ll thank us. The album is available to purchase on CD and in digital formats via Bandcamp, stream via Spotify and is also available from all good online stores.
The music of Memorybell is available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal.
The Slanted City Debut Out Now!
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of the brilliant self-titled debut album by The Slanted City, the new minimalist pop project from Erik Nilsson. The album is available now via Bandcamp, Spotify and all good online stores and streaming services.
The Slanted City sees Erik Nilsson shape the experimental instrumental work of his previous two Hidden Shoal releases with his exquisite sense of songcraft and pop nous. The delicate marriage of melody and tone in opener ‘Density’ typifies The Slanted City’s elegance and charm. Each part feels carefully placed, the song’s robust structure swaggering and shifting over its 5-minute runtime. Single ‘False Starts’ is as if Split Enz collaborated with King of Limbs-era Radiohead, insistent rhythms interplaying with expansive guitars, synths and Nilsson’s vocal repetitions reminiscent of Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard.
Gentle lullaby ‘Further’ hypnotises with its melancholic piano refrain, hushed vocals and subdued sonic treatments. And ‘Don’t Think of an Elephant’ further emphasises Nilsson’s compositional restraint as he gently marries the song’s two distinct movements before unleashing a wonderful fuzz guitar crescendo. Across these nine tracks and 43 minutes, Nilsson demonstrates a master craftsman’s attention to detail, resulting in an album that blooms on repeat listens.
The music of The Slanted City is available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal.
Target Archery Feature Album at RTRFM
Target Archery‘s gorgeous new album The Nomenclature of Kites is this week’s local feature album at the wonderful RTRFM. Tune in to the station to hear tracks featured all week. The album is available now for download via Bandcamp, streaming via Spotify and from all the other usual online stores and streamers. Be sure to also check out the music video for the album track ‘The Flat Earther and his Rocket’ on YouTube.
New Chloe March Single – ‘Remember That Sky’
‘Remember That Sky’ is the gorgeous second single from English ambient-pop artist Chloë March. The track is lifted from her forthcoming album Starlings & Crows which sees release on the 23rd of October 2020. The track is available now via Spotify, SoundCloud and Bandcamp. The music of Chloe March is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
For her fifth album, March drew inspiration from her early childhood in the Warwickshire countryside, nineteenth-century nature poet John Clare, and Lewis Carroll’s fantastical Alice Through the Looking Glass. Throughout the album there’s a palpable sense of wonder at the natural world, shot through with a deep concern for nature’s vulnerability. Starlings & Crows resonates with notions of home on a macro and micro level.
First single ‘To a Place’ is an elegant waltz built around swooning strings and piano. ‘Landing 1969’ sounds as astral as its subject matter would suggest, pulsing at the same tempo as Buzz Aldrin’s heart-rate as Apollo 11 left earth. ‘Remember That Sky’ is achingly emotive, showcasing March’s innate talent for creating an atmosphere of intimacy without compromising compositional depth. Despite running to a succinct 38 minutes, Starlings & Crows is lush and expansive, while distilled to its crystalline essence.
“The latest album by Chloe March is another heady trip through electro pop… The air is thick with atmosphere throughout and March is a masterful creator of mood… a beautiful sound somewhere between The Blue Nile and David Sylvian” – The Underground of Happiness
Oft compared to singular artists such as Nina Simone, Beth Gibbons and Elizabeth Fraser, Chloë March follows her own independent path, writing, engineering and producing from her home studio in south-east England. Inhabiting musical territory somewhere between art song and folk, dream-pop and electronica, the ambient and the cinematic, March embraces all these influences to create poetic, emotionally charged and intensely atmospheric songs and soundworlds.
Memorybell “Solace” Official Release – CD & Digital
Hidden Shoal is proud present Solace, the sublime new album from Memorybell. The album is available to purchase on CD and in digital formats via Bandcamp, stream via Spotify and is also available from all good online stores. The first single from the album, ‘Sigh of Floes’, is available to stream on Spotify and it’s accompanying music video can be streamed in 4k on YouTube.
Taking inspiration from moments of repose, Solace sees Memorybell expand upon the pockets of stillness introduced in Obsolete and enlarge them until one can become lost. Solace explores the kinds of natural phenomena that can calm an anxious mind, such as watching an orange sunrise over snow or sitting alone in a quiet forest. These moments of inspiration provide the core of each song, with a few seconds transformed into expansive meditations.
The mechanics of creating the album mimic the ideas that inspired it. In late 2016, Outerbridge began building a modular synthesizer that became the source instrument, alongside piano. Notes are sustained and re-shaped into resonant tones effacing their initial impulses. Piano phrases bounce between filters and echo into themselves; arpeggiated strings become mist; one thought dissolves into many. This scattering of focus creates a blanket of sound, a feeling that there is nowhere to look but everywhere.
The music of Memorybell is available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal.
Target Archery “The Nomenclature of Kites” Out Now!
We’re very excited to announce the release of The Nomenclature of Kites, the second album from Perth-based indie-pop project Target Archery. The album is available now for download via Bandcamp, streaming via Spotify and from all the other usual online stores and streamers. Be sure to also check out the music video for the album track ‘The Flat Earther and his Rocket’ on YouTube.
Target Archery’s The Nomenclature of Kites further refines Target Archery’s incandescent blend of left-of-centre guitar music and Icelandic post-pop. The album journeys from Middle America and the absurd story of ‘Mad Mike’ Hughes, the flat-earther who built his own rocketship, to nights out in Perth’s inner east. Primarily written and recorded in the Western Australian wheatbelt by Ambrose Nock (Apricot Rail), the new album was produced by Justin Manzano and features contributions from Matt Harley (vocals) and Majuka Juber (vocals, woodwinds, pianet).
“Sitting somewhere between alt-folk, alt-pop, and post-rock… Endearing, but not without gravitas, the music is playful and yet full of emotion and drama too” – Overblown on Clock of the Long Now
Following on from his work with Perth’s sun-dappled musical instrumentalists Apricot Rail, Ambrose Nock explores the fertile realm of delicate, experimental post-pop with his new project Target Archery. Influenced by the likes of Sound Dust-era Stereolab, left-of-centre indie-pop bands such as Lacto-Ovo, The Go! Team and Ninetynine, and a dash of late ’80s Sonic Youth, Target Archery mine an inspiring new seam of life-affirming melodies and instrumental texture.
The music of Target Archery is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
New Moonchy & Tobias Single and Music Video from the Forthcoming “III”
Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records are proud to present ‘Petali Caduti’, the second single from Moonchy & Tobias III, the new album by Moonchy & Tobias. The album sees release on the 30th October 2020. Check out the wonderful accompanying music video by Alice Murace on YouTube and stream the single on SoundCloud. More on Moonchy & Tobias here.
On their third collaborative album, vocalist Pat Moonchy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Todd Tobias delve deeper into the shadowy recesses of their intoxicating sound, creating an immersive soundtrack to our most uncanny nightmares. Moonchy’s primal vocals, mostly sung in Latin, thread through Tobias’s nocturnal atmospheres like smoke. As Moonchy explains, “When I sing in Latin it feels like discovering the details of ancient lives lost in time.” There’s a definite sense that something latent and primordial is being summoned – yet the full extent of its power is cloaked in mystery.
In an unintentional parallel, the album that III most resembles is Portishead’s majestic Third, which creates and inhabits its own haunted space. Where Moonchy & Tobias differ is in employing a more rustic approach to songcraft, while still evoking an exquisite sense of atmosphere. There’s an undeniable melancholy across these 12 tracks, but it never feels cloying, instead leavened by a poised theatricality and sense of play. The midnight hour has a new transportive soundtrack.
The music of Moonchy & Tobias is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal.
The Lizard Point “1” Out Now on Vinyl and Digital
Hidden Shoal is excited to present 1 the debut album by instrumental piano/guitar duo The Lizard Point. The album is available now as a limited run vinyl and in digital and streaming formats. Head to Bandcamp to order the vinyl and digital and stream the album via Spotify and the other usual suspects.
Named after the opening track of Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land, The Lizard Point are Conor Devlin (AWMA, The Caseworker) and Geoffrey Scott (Slowness). True to their name’s origins, 1 paints an evocative landscape filled with unique locales. Each track feels like its own unique lens on an imagined place, tapping into the remnants of what feels like a collective memory. The duo employ piano and guitar to craft elegant instrumentals that evoke a nocturnal, pastoral space, vivid enough to step inside.
Recorded at Monte Vallier’s Ruminator Audio studio in San Francisco, many of the songs originated with parts that Geoff played on a piano that once belonged to Charlie Chaplin, before Conor coloured the pieces using the studio’s huge array of amplifiers and guitars. The raw songs were captured on tape, then the duo developed the arrangements, employing samples and found sounds, before the album was mastered by legendary producer Kramer (Galaxie 500, Low, Daniel Johnston, Urge Overkill).
The music of The Lizard Point is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal. More info here.