‘High Desert’ is the first taste of the self-titled debut album by instrumental pop project Rewilding. Teeming with disorienting organic details and often taking surreal detours, Rewilding possesses a rare, meandering beauty. While the album’s precedents are clear – Fridge, Pram, Broadcast – the personality and texture of these instrumental miniatures is unique and disarming. Instrumental pop is rarely so approachable and beguiling.
With each track seemingly inspired by a specific environment, creature or atmosphere, there’s a natural, evocative ecology at work in the album as a whole. From the dry expanses of single ‘High Desert’ via the warbling analogue tones of ‘Under Water Footage’ through to the melancholic slow-motion motorik of ‘Lonesome Briar Patch’, this instrumental journey is a deeply felt ride.