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LP
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MORR 199LP
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Robin Saville -- one half of the influential duo ISAN -- returns to Morr Music with Lore, his fourth solo album to date. After 2020's Build A Diorama (MORR 172CD/LP), the British musician takes his love for field recordings, whirring pads, hovering bells, and subtle electronics further, adding extra depth to both his sonic palette and his storytelling, focusing on biological diversity and its implications for human life. For many years now, "look and listen" has been Robin Saville's motto on his regular environmental explorations. The avid ambler does not just enjoy being out and about in nature; it is an important inspiration for his creative work as well. Sounds, smells, colors, and even soil properties add to the experience. Equipped with a microphone and a recording device, Saville documents his strolls, using these recordings as a base for his compositions. "The field recordings on the album were made very locally this time, for obvious reasons," he says. Welcome to the sonic landscape of the UK's East Anglia. "Judith Avenue," the opening track, is a great example of how Saville evolved his perspective on the sounds of nature: "It is a residential street, fading into a scrubby, wild landscape. There, I made a recording of nightingales at dusk. Such romantic birds! The males fly here from Africa a couple of weeks ahead of the females. They find a good territory, and at dusk, when all the other birds are going quiet, they start to sing to tempt the females down from their migratory flight paths. This has happened for thousands of years. However, the patch of ground where I made the recordings is earmarked for development and I don't suppose it'll happen there again. The recordings therefore become part of the history of that place, the lore." Recording the sounds of nature and enriching them with electronic sorcery, Saville is not only a documenting preservationist; he also translates these recordings into meaningful musical miniatures. Building on the soundscapes that marked his previous LP Build A Diorama, Lore is dominated by both open-hearted melancholy and more upbeat rhythms. But even when the music sounds quirky and loose, there is always deeper meaning. The album is characterized by an ever-present melancholy about the threatening loss of living spaces, and a celebration of their beauty. This simultaneity turns the tracks into existential meditations about our human habitat. Includes printed inner sleeves; includes download code; edition of 300.
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CD
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MORR 172CD
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ISAN's Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones, and acoustic instrumentation. A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let's get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one's own rhythm in life. Robin Saville is such an ambler. His walks inspired him to base his third solo album -- his first one for Morr Music following releases on Static Caravan and Second Language -- on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, Build A Diorama is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow -- like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focusing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning. Built around quiet field recordings, Saville's six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes, and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville's Build A Diorama is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn, and understand.
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Artist |
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LP
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MORR 172LP
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LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code. ISAN's Robin Saville reveals an ambient album, which merges the electronica aesthetics of his main project with field recordings, drones, and acoustic instrumentation. A lot of things have been written about what happens to the mind when the body starts moving. Instead of reciting poems of the inevitable self-help books, let's get straight to the point: For many, taking walks on a regular basis is both liberating and empowering. It is not necessarily so much about the exercise, but rather finding one's own rhythm in life. Robin Saville is such an ambler. His walks inspired him to base his third solo album -- his first one for Morr Music following releases on Static Caravan and Second Language -- on the out of the way places he came to see and experience while being out and about. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes in total, Build A Diorama is both a subtle culmination and a poignant antipode to what Saville has achieved together with Antony Ryan as ISAN. While the aesthetics might seem similar in places, Saville opts for a decisively different pace when it comes to writing and producing. Progress is steady, and change, however, is slow -- like looking at a diorama for a long period of time in the ever so slightly changing light or as a flaneur focusing on one particular spot, a found object so-to-speak, waiting for the mind to orchestrate it appropriately, giving it sense and meaning. Built around quiet field recordings, Saville's six compositions transform this highly personal and, therefore, difficult-to-convey experience into a comprehensible exploration of beauty. Where ISAN almost exclusively uses electronics, Saville deliberately expands this well-established palette with acoustic instruments like bass guitar, chimes, and glockenspiel, aiming for an even more suitable musical manifestation of what the walker sees and feels once he fully engages in his passion. Ranging from blissfully pulsing pads allowing for complete associative freedom ("The Deepdale Halophyte Economy") to the playful minimalism of an orchestra dominated by busy bells ("Bosky"), Saville's Build A Diorama is not just a valuable addition to his musical output, but an essential audio guide for those striving to explore, learn, and understand.
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