Hidden Shoal News
New Target Archery Single and Forthcoming Album
We’re very excited to present the new single from Target Archery, ‘Dragonfly Angels’. The track is lifted from The Nomenclature of Kites, the second album from the Perth-based indie-pop project which sees release on the 2nd of October 2020. Download ‘Dragonfly Angels’ on Bandcamp, stream on SoundCloud and watch the accompanying music video 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.
Stunning New Chloe March Single
We’re excited to present ‘To a Place’, the stunning new 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. ‘To a Place’ 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.
New Moonchy & Tobias Single and Music Video
Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records are proud to present ‘Sericum’, the first single from Moonchy & Tobias III, the new album by Moonchy & Tobias. The album sees release on the 30th October 2020. Stream the single on SoundCloud and check out the accompanying music video on YouTube. 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 – New Single and Forthcoming Album
Hidden Shoal is proud to present ‘French Song’, the first single lifted from 1, the debut album by instrumental piano/guitar duo The Lizard Point. The album will see release on the 25th of September 2020 with the single being available to stream on SoundCloud now.
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.
New Single from The Slanted City
Hidden Shoal is excited to announce the release of the second single lifted from the self-titled debut album by The Slanted City, the new minimalist pop project from Erik Nilsson. ‘Further’ is a stunning slice of lullaby pop and along with first single ‘False Starts’ speaks volumes about the depth of songcraft on The Slanted City’s debut. The track is available now via Spotify, Bandcamp and SoundCloud ahead of the album release on the 9th of October 2020.
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.
New Memorybell Single and Music Video
We’re very excited to present ‘Sigh of Floes’, the stunning new single from the forthcoming Memorybell album Solace. The track is accompanied by a beautiful music video from Australian video artist and Hidden Shoal founder Cam Merton. ‘Sigh of Floes’ is available to stream on Spotify and the music video can be streamed in 4k on YouTube. Solace will see release through Hidden Shoal on the 2nd of October 2020.
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.
The Slanted City – New Single and Forthcoming Debut Album
Hidden Shoal is excited to announce the release of the first single lifted from the self-titled debut album by The Slanted City, the new minimalist pop project from Erik Nilsson. ‘False Starts’ is available now via Spotify, Bandcamp and SoundCloud ahead of the album release on the 9th of October 2020.
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.
Paraphon “Soviet Cities on the Moon”
Hidden Shoal is excited to announce the release of Soviet Cities on the Moon, the epic debut release from Paraphon. The album is available for download now via Bandcamp and is also available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal.
Soviet Cities on the Moon is a soundtrack for interstellar travel. Like a warm, electronic bath it suspends the listener in its lush, sweeping tones and arpeggiated rhythms. This is the future we were promised but never eventuated. Paraphon crafts sprawling, mesmeric synthscapes for a future that never eventuated. This is cinematic music in the truest sense – immersive, narrative driven and emotive.
Rewilding Feature at Anchorage Press
Check out this awesome feature and mini-interview with Jake McFee (aka Rewilding) over at Anchorage Press. Jake talks about the new album, Rain Patch, and his experience as a Park Ranger at The Grand Canyon and Glacier Bay.
Following on from 2017’s self-titled debut album, Rain Patch continues Rewilding’s exploration of the neglected, dusty spaces found between lo-fi indie-pop, post-rock and film soundtracks. While there are the obvious recent touchstones, such as Fridge, Beak and Olivia Tremor Control, and the less obvious, such as the soundtrack to cult 1980s sci-fi movie Liquid Sky, Rain Patch mines a primitive yet mesmerising vein of instrumental music in which process and result are intimately entwined. The songs on Rain Patch are their own ecosystems, requiring the listener to step inside to fully experience their vivid details.
Karl Blau & The World of Dust – “Blue Herons” Split 7″
We’re excited to announce the release of Blue Herons, the new split 7″ from Karl Blau & The World of Dust. These two gorgeous tracks will be released through the wonderful Tiny Room Records with licensing of The World of Dust track ‘The Life of Gods’ through Hidden Shoal. The vinyl is limited to a run of 200. Head to the Tiny Room Records Bandcamp to buy and head to Spotify, iTunes and the rest to stream and download. Check out the video for ‘The Life of Gods’ via YouTube and stream the track on SoundCloud.
Karl Blau (USA) and Stefan Breuer from The World of Dust (NL) cross paths when they perform together in an old mill in The Netherlands, September 2017. Being a longtime admirer of Blau’s work (both solo and with The Microphones, Laura Veirs and LAKE), Breuer was touched by the unfiltered niceness and sincerity of the person behind this music. They stayed in contact and decided to make a record together.
Karl Blau recorded his side of the vinyl ‘Slightly Salted’ in Germantown, Philadelphia, where he currently resides with his family. The song was originally written by Bryan Elliott and recorded by his band Pounding Serfs in 1989. Since then, it more or less became the theme song to Anacortes, Washington (also the home of Mount Eerie and Beat Happening). The lovely, seaside village of Anacortes was Blau’s home for 25 years, until his recent move to Philadelphia. Spiritually he may still be found in Anacortes of Skagit Valley, northwest Washington State.
Four years ago, Stefan Breuer and his family moved out of Hoograven, Utrecht to a nearby village called Bilthoven. Hoograven is a grey neighbourhood with a lot of flats, sandwiched between two busy highways. Apart from the uninspiring surroundings, the vibe was unfriendly and hostile. Eventually, Breuer and his wife decided not to raise their kids in Hoograven. In Bilthoven they found peace, serenity, and woods. The first half of ‘The Life of Gods’ is about Hoograven, the second half is about Bilthoven.
The music of The World of Dust is available for licensing (film, tv, web and more) via Hidden Shoal. Contact us for more details.