Hidden Shoal News
REW<< "Salix Babylonica" EP Out Now
We’re excited to present the stunning new REW<< EP Salix Babylonica. The EP is available now via Bandcamp, Spotify and all other good online stores and streamers and the first single lifted from the release, ‘Salix Amygdaloides’, and its accompanying music video is also available. Don’t forget that REW<<‘s music is available for licensing for film, tv, games and more through Hidden Shoal.
Following on from his beautiful 2018 Hidden Shoal EP Conversation Arctique, REW<<’s Salix Babylonica is a perfectly realised series of neoclassical miniatures. Each of the five tracks is centred around the piano, with the spaces around each note delicately coloured with strings and synth, tracing out a gentle, melodic dance. The feel of the EP recalls Nils Frahm’s masterful Felt – in which the incidental sounds of the piano are as important as the articulated notes – as well as the precise minimalism of Julien Marchal’s Insight series. Perhaps most striking, though, is the EP’s emotional pull, with each piece evoking a timeless, melancholic interlude from a perfectly realised short film.
“Having worked along side acts such as The Promise Ring, Decibully and being one half of the dream pop duo, Eric & Magill, Weber has such an incredible skill set and scope that it’s no surprise his track, “Salix Amygdaloides” is a gorgeous one.” – Rural Sounds
Slow Dancing Society’s “The Dream Council” Out Now
We’re excited to announce the official release of The Dream Council, the masterful new album by post-ambient artist Slow Dancing Society. The album is available now via Bandcamp and is also available across all good online platforms such as Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.
On The Dream Council, the second Slow Dancing Society release of 2019 following the epic Fantosmes, Drew Sullivan embraces his cinematic leanings with full force. Drawing equally on the strident melodicism of John Williams and the brooding low end of Hans Zimmer, The Dream Council excels in its dynamic interplay between light and shade, rest and propulsion. The album offers a carefully mapped out narrative path, exploring a beautiful liminal space between the earthly and the cosmic.
All songs from The Dream Council along with the rest of the Slow Dancing Society catalogue are available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
Chloe March Nominated for Independent Music Award!
Hidden Shoal’s own Chloe March has been nominated for the Pop Album category of the Independent Music Awards! Her stunning album Blood-Red Spark will be judged by the likes of Tom Waits and Robert Smith. So very deserved.
New REW<< Single 'Salix Amygdaloides', EP Out In May
We’re excited to present the stunning new single, ‘Salix Amygdaloides’, and its accompanying music video taken from Salix Babylonica, the new EP by REW<<. The EP will see release on the 14th of May 2019. Don’t forget that REW<<‘s music is available for licensing for film, tv, games and more through Hidden Shoal.
Following on from his beautiful 2018 Hidden Shoal EP Conversation Arctique, REW<<’s Salix Babylonica is a perfectly realised series of neoclassical miniatures. Each of the five tracks is centred around the piano, with the spaces around each note delicately coloured with strings and synth, tracing out a gentle, melodic dance. The feel of the EP recalls Nils Frahm’s masterful Felt – in which the incidental sounds of the piano are as important as the articulated notes – as well as the precise minimalism of Julien Marchal’s Insight series. Perhaps most striking, though, is the EP’s emotional pull, with each piece evoking a timeless, melancholic interlude from a perfectly realised short film.
New Slow Dancing Society Single, Album in April
The flow of amazing new material from Slow Dancing Society is not looking to stop anytime soon. Case in point, the stunning new single ‘There’s Nothing in Motion and I’m Satisfied’, lifted from the forthcoming Slow Dancing Society album The Dream Council. Stream the track via SoundCloud and then head to Bandcamp and pre-order the album ahead of it’s 20th of April release.
The entire Slow Dancing Society catalogue is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
The World of Dust “Samsara” Out Now (Vinyl, CD, Digital)
The day has finally come! Samsara, the utterly brilliant collaboration between Dutch slowcore dream-pop artist The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer and Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils) has now officially entered the world. The album is available now in vinyl, CD and digital formats via Tiny Room Records in collaboration with Hidden Shoal. Also don’t forget to check out the wonderful new music video for single, ‘Tarot’.
Samsara is effectively a full-length collaboration between The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer and Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). Previously contributing keyboard arrangements for 2015’s World of Dust album Womb Realm, Tobias created all the instrumental backdrops for Samsara’s evocative songs. A shadowy universe of forlorn beauty, this lo-fi bedroom pop experiment is shrouded in elemental imagery and laden with ennui. Intimate and wistful, Samsara mines a similarly rich emotive seam to Norwegian slowcore legends The White Birch.
The process for Samsara saw Tobias send Breuer 26 instrumental ideas, from which Breuer chose those which resonated with him most. Over the course of nearly two years, Breuer wrote and refined an especially personal suite of lyrics, reflecting his struggles with his mental health and his experience of becoming a father. The result is World of Dust’s most fully realised and vivid album to date.
All tracks from Samsara as well as the music of Todd Tobias is available for licensing for film, tv, web, games and beyond via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more info.
New Single from The World of Dust ‘Tarot’ – Music Video & Stream
We’re very excited to present the the second single lifted from Samsara, the fifth album by Dutch slowcore dream-pop artist The World of Dust. The single is accompanied by wonderfully playful music video The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer. Check out the video here and stream the song here. The album will see official release on the 1st of March 2019 via Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records with pre-orders available now.
Samsara is effectively a full-length collaboration between The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer and Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). Previously contributing keyboard arrangements for 2015’s World of Dust album Womb Realm, Tobias created all the instrumental backdrops for Samsara’s evocative songs. A shadowy universe of forlorn beauty, this lo-fi bedroom pop experiment is shrouded in elemental imagery and laden with ennui. Intimate and wistful, Samsara mines a similarly rich emotive seam to Norwegian slowcore legends The White Birch.
The process for Samsara saw Tobias send Breuer 26 instrumental ideas, from which Breuer chose those which resonated with him most. Over the course of nearly two years, Breuer wrote and refined an especially personal suite of lyrics, reflecting his struggles with his mental health and his experience of becoming a father. The result is World of Dust’s most fully realised and vivid album to date.
All tracks from Samsara as well as the music of Todd Tobias is available for licensing for film, tv, web, games and beyond via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more info.
Slow Dancing Society “Fantosmes” Out Now (Vinyl, Tape, CD & Digital)
We’re very excited to announce the release of another slice of Slow Dancing Society brilliance. The sublime four track long player Fantosmes is now available on vinyl, tape, CD and in digital formats. The tape release is in collaboration with the wonderful folks at Dreamshore Tapes and all other physical and digital formats are available at the Slow Dancing Society Bandcamp page and all good third party digital stores and streaming services.
Following on from The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II, voted as the best ambient release of 2018 by Textura, Fantosmes finds Slow Dancing Society expanding his twilight enquiries in multiple dimensions. Comprising four eleven-plus-minute tracks, the expansive breadth and depth of this album is tempered by its attention to texture and detail. Sullivan masterfully terraforms astonishingly vivid and robust soundscapes from otherwise fragile, ephemeral sounds. Whereas The Torchlight Parade Vols. I–II felt like a night drive through cities and suburbs, Fantosmes seeks to escape our earthly bounds, with a more universal, cosmic trajectory.
“More than a decade after the release of his first Slow Dancing Society collection, The Sound of Lights When Dim, Drew Sullivan continues to uphold the high standard of that debut with his two-volume The Torchlight Parade… an encompassing portrait of this distinguished ambient-electronic artist” – Textura on The Torchlight Parade, their #1 ambient album of 2018
“Drew Sullivan continues to confirm his status as a master of instrumental melodic ambience” – Long Live Vinyl (Wyndham Wallace) on The Torchlight Parade
The entire Slow Dancing Society catalogue is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Check out our licensing page for more info and don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can work together on your project.
Three Questions With Connected View
Connected View produce trojan horses. On first listen their output is littered with seemingly innocent, naive late-night instrumental jams, but on each successive spin you begin to notice the patterns and the purposefulness. By this time the woozy, rolling melodies have begun to mesmerise and before you know it you’ve fallen through the wormhole. Kinetic synths, sinuous basslines, live drums and found sounds intertwine to create an atmosphere akin to eavesdropping on Boards of Canada improvising with Fridge. Playful, dirty, brooding, radiant and rhythmic. Magic stuff!
To learn a little more about what makes Connected View tick we asked the boys to pull three questions out of the bag…
What’s the best show you’ve ever been to?
The best show we’ve been to was Stereolab opening for Sonic Youth at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia in the year 2000. It was a crossroads in many respects. We were young and impressionable and it changed our view of music henceforth. At the time, we were huge Sonic Youth junkies, had been for years. We had heard of Stereolab, but never really investigated. Their set blew us away. It was a lot of stuff from the Microbe Hunters/ Cobra era. From there on we were Stereolab fanatics. It was just what we needed at that time. The next day I went to the record store and bought everything by Stereolab that they had in stock. Instead of noisy guitar-based music, we started seeking out more synthy and baroque stuff. We dug into the types of music that inspired the Stereolab sound and sought out decades worth of influences and then the influences of the influences. Kraut, psych, electronic, edm, tropicalia, different styles of jazz, synth pop, shoegaze, ect. We loved it all. Its been like peeling an onion. That show set us on the path to eventually making our own music.
Why make music?
We’ve been asking ourselves that question forever as well. Not sure its ever been adequately answered or ever will be. It doesn’t have to be. Whenever I ask myself this question I think of a few of my acquaintances who are not creative, or not involved in art in any way, and I just couldn’t imagine living that way, without a creative outlet. It seems like a pointless existence. Sometimes I wish I could go without music, it would save us a lot of time in editing. I’ve realized that whenever I feel down or I am having some difficulties in life, I turn to music more. It is the great escape. Other artists I’ve read in interviews have said things like “it’s the search for the unknown, a beautiful mystery that you get to unfold.” We can go with that too. There’s some kind of nervous energy within us that can only be released through music.
What’s one of your favourite albums that’s unlikely to be featured on anyone else’s list of favourite albums, and why do you love it?
One of our favorites that has seemed to be in the rotation for a long, long time & probably isn’t well known is Movietone’s ‘Blossom Filled Streets.’ We enjoyed all of Movietone’s output, but this one most. I was instantly drawn in by how it sounded as if it was recorded on the beach and the ocean imagery imbedded within. It enlightened me to the idea of concept albums beyond the proggy stuff I had previously been exposed to. It helped to form my concepts of what an album is supposed to be. A cohesive group of songs with a central theme tying them together. A theme, but also similar instruments and a style spread over a group of songs. When I hear ‘Blossom Filled Streets’ it connects me to moments and places over many years and now has that nostalgic importance that some albums obtain. To describe the sound to someone who hasn’t heard it would be difficult. The album is kind of a post-rock-ish array of horns, rhythm section, electric guitar, keyboards, bass, and sea sounds with great singing and lyrics.
The World of Dust (feat. Todd Tobias) – New Single, Album Soon!
We’re very excited to announce the release of the new single by Dutch slowcore dream-pop artist The World of Dust. ‘Blood’ is lifted from The World of Dust’s fifth album Samsara, which features our very own Todd Tobias. The album will see release on the 1st of March 2019 through Hidden Shoal and Tiny Room Records. ‘Blood’ is available to stream now via SoundCloud and will available on Spotify soon.
Samsara is effectively a full-length collaboration between The World of Dust’s Stefan Breuer and Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). Previously contributing keyboard arrangements for 2015’s World of Dust album Womb Realm, Tobias created all the instrumental backdrops for Samsara’s evocative songs. A shadowy universe of forlorn beauty, this lo-fi bedroom pop experiment is shrouded in elemental imagery and laden with ennui. Intimate and wistful, Samsara mines a similarly rich emotive seam to Norwegian slowcore legends The White Birch.
“Its power lies in the intimacy… without drowning in desolate melancholy” – hifi.nl on Womb Realm
The process for Samsara saw Tobias send Breuer 26 instrumental ideas, from which Breuer chose those which resonated with him most. Over the course of nearly two years, Breuer wrote and refined an especially personal suite of lyrics, reflecting his struggles with his mental health and his experience of becoming a father. The result is World of Dust’s most fully realised and vivid album to date.
This music is available for licensing across film, tv, web and beyond. Contact us at Hidden Shoal for more details.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
