Self-released on his own imprint Slowcraft Records, Floods comes packaged in a natural cardboard sleeve, hand-stamped with the necessary information and logos and generally being of very minimal design. This is reflected in the music, which is largely based upon expansions of sparse skeletal motifs gently layered with corresponding atmosphere and instrumental texture as tracks loop along their paths.

The album has a morose, rainy-day territory feel to it as each composition wraps you up with a nostalgic sense of ‘what once was’. A great example of this would be in track two which is finely balanced between the liveliness of the opener and the melancholia that is to come. A simple looped bass pad plays out the foundations; atop it glistens a canopy of twinkling arpeggio stars and beeps. Very much like the opening track from Sigur Ros’ incredible BabaTikiDido EP.

The title track utilises acoustic guitar as the focus instrument against which fizzy droning synths, soft bass and various other adornments are placed in a hypnotic, clockwork dance. There is a new tension present in this track that contrasts so much with the album’s beginning, it really does feel like the music has lost itself – a definite highlight. This tension is broken in places by what could almost be described as a chorus section, where the bass pads rise in a cold haze of vocoded voice-like layers.

Greenlands is revisited on the penultimate track albeit in a sparser fashion, chimes and gentle low frequency taps keeping pace in the droning electric fog. And, thankfully resisting the temptation to resolve into something lighter in mood, the album sustains the strained sombre atmosphere right until the end with a delicate sprawl of whistling synths and icy atmosphere on closing track Hold Your Breath.

Floods is most certainly a successful venture into the ambient field and is worth spending time getting to know. There may be a sense of repetition in the ideas and techniques used – but the atmosphere instilled very early on refuses to let up and by the end its a pleasure to be immersed in its spell. And that is what makes this a good album – it has a sad, intoxicating character that, once identified, really sets in. It’s a ‘rainy spring Saturday afternoon spent staring out of a window onto a city street’ type affair and plenty of us have a large enough appetite for those.

- Daniel W J Mackenzie for Fluid Radio

www.jamesmurray.info
www.slowcraft.bandcamp.com

When deep in production I tend to listen to very little else. This monocular approach usually best serves the project but does also mean that much escapes my radar during these intense periods.

Concluding the musical marathon of Anne Garner’s latest record earlier this year has allowed me to take exploratory steps into what’s been going on elsewhere in the meantime.

I’m very pleased to be able to share some of my findings with you and extend heartfelt thanks to all artists involved and to Daniel Crossley at Fluid Radio for hosting this mix. – James

James Murray is a composer, producer and owner of Slowcraft Records.

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Track List:

Aether [extract] – The Necks | www.thenecks.com
The Little Green Box (Landscape) – Hummingbird | www.fac-ture.co.uk
Every Heart I Know Has Been Broken – Seasons (pre-din) | rtjm.wordpress.com
Losing Transmission – Spheruleus | www.audiogourmet.co.uk
Song Six – Rome Pays Off | www.tracerecordings.com
Islands and Quiet Ships – beneath us, the waves | www.neilmilton.co.uk
Fjarskanistan – Amiina | www.amiina.com
Naono – Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto | www.raster-noton.net/anrs
Slow Pulse of Epocal Light – Offthesky | www.offthesky.com
Acoustic Tale 3 – Field Rotation | www.fieldrotation.de
Strand – Dollboy | www.dollboy.co.uk

www.jamesmurray.info
www.slowcraft.info

Following her 2005 debut album ‘Remaking The Pearl’, Anne Garner returns with ‘Trusting A Twirled World’, an album comprising six hauntingly beautiful pieces defined by delicate vocals, piano and manipulated sound. London based Garner was born in Burnley to a Baptist minister and then subsequently raised in Glossop, Derbyshire. A move to Sheffield coincided with the artists’s artistic blossoming and her early adulthood was spent performing, painting and composing until the devastating loss of her mother prompted songwriting with a new focus and resolve.

‘Trusting A Twirled World’ is a labour of love created over a two year period, with the input of experimental music producer and owner of Slowcraft Records, James Murray. Originally consisting of piano and vocals, the tracks were then stripped to their elements before being carefully reconstructed with layered textures of complimentary acoustic and electronic structures. This painstaking method has given life to an album experimental in nature but anchored with an almost pop sensibility, comparable to Joanna Newsom’s earlier material, albeit from a different perspective distinctive to Garner and Murray.

The opening moments of first track ‘Haunt Me’ pairs evocative piano with Garner’s unique vocals, the artists’ floating voice punctuated by creaking floor and the sound of piano hammer strikes clearly. This technique is executed with subtle taste and makes for a very immersive listening experience, the gradual introduction of effects and electronics serving to whet the appetite. These electronics and effects are complimentary only and their success lies in the restraint of Murray and his choosing to highlight the existing beauty of the artists voice and piano.

‘The Tower’ utilises sparse electric keyboard melodies and reversed notes. There is an ancient quality to Garner’s voice, harking back to forgotten Celtic hymns lost to the ages. To describe ‘Trusting A Twirled World’ as lo-fi would be misleading as the recording is lush, clean and precise, yet their method of composition and subsequent recording imparts an organic essence into the songs.

Following tracks tend towards ever more noticeable ambience and experimentation until the abrupt end of ‘When To Stay’. It is to both Garner and Murray’s credit that there is not a moment of filler and all within ‘Trusting A Twirled World’ is executed without fault. If there is anything negative to be said about this album of rare beauty, it is only that the music has to eventually come to an end.

‘Trusting A Twirled World’ is released February 1st on Slowcraft Records

- Review by Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

www.slowcraft.info
www.annegarner.com

A delicate electroacoustic affair from James…

Listen/Download here

Track List:

Rose – Bark Psychosis
Una – Murcof
Thin Faces – Fognode
A Secret – Arovane
Mort Aux Vaches [extract] – Tim Hecker
Salvation – Ryuichi Sakamoto (Pan Sonic Remix)
Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco – Jonathan Harvey
Measure de Mesure – Set Fire to Flames
Away – Múm
Frosti – Björk (Feisar’s Across The Lake Remix)
So Many Ways – Metamatics
Her Eyes Sparkled And She Walked Away – Xela
Trust is Important – Elite Barbarian
Awayward – James Murray
Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel – Atlas Sound

James Murray is a London-based electroacoustic sound artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist. his productions weave together elements of electronica, downtempo, jazz and dub in emotive explorations of how the organic and electronic interact. All at once the city and the middle of nowhere, jm’s recursive themes draw hi-tech sound design, live instrumentation and lush pastoralism together in a sonic world where nothing is ever quite as it seems.
Previously released on em:t, psychonavigation and part2 records, he has recently completed his debut album “Where Edges Meet” on Ultimae Records and works as a freelance composer, producer and sound designer.

www.jamesmurray.info