We know you’ve been loving Erik Nilsson‘s sumptuous new track ‘On and Onward‘ and waiting for his second album to drop (we have cameras in your house). Well quit your waiting and start your listening as the beautiful sophomore release from Nilsson, Hearing Things, has just landed. Drawing on folk, classical and electronica, Erik Nilsson blends acoustic instruments with field recordings and computer-generated sounds, crafting music akin to early Four Tet, Tortoise at their most minimal, and fellow Scandinavian soundscapers The Gentleman Losers. His Hidden Shoal debut Hearing Things advances the compositional strategy Nilsson first explored on his acclaimed debut Recollage: simple rhythmic and melodic elements are manipulated and recontextualised into richly textured, emotive pieces.
Erik’s previous work includes the album Recollage, released by Luxus-Artica Records, and the score for Ahmed – Almost 13, a Norwegian documentary screened at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam. His music can be heard in Project Power, which chronicles civic resistance to privatisation in New Brunswick, Canada, and in Are You Still There?, finalist in the 2011 edition of the short film competition The 24 Hour Film Race. Erik is a regular contributor to the Disquiet Junto Project, an online collective exploring the creative potential of constraints. He is also singer and guitarist of folk-rock trio Otinget, whose debut album will be released in 2015.
Check out the opening track ‘Ex Nihilo’ below or via SoundCloud and stream and purchase the album here.
