Hidden Shoal News
Summon the Birds ‘Cloud Cars’ Single & Isophene Remix
We’re very excited to present ‘Cloud Cars’, the new single by Melbourne band Summon the Birds, along with a remix of the track by electronica producer Isophene. The tracks are available via SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Spotify and all good 3rd party digital stores.
‘Cloud Cars’ is the soaring instrumental centrepiece of side B of Blood Love, Summon the Birds’ acclaimed second album. Its chiming guitar arpeggios are swaddled in hazy organs, lulling the listener into a waking dream, only to be woken by the left turns the track takes on its way to a beatific waltz-time climax. It’s an immersive, open-ended example of the deft musical narrative at play across Blood Love as a whole.
“The opening refrain puts me in mind of Go Betweens, but the piece itself heads off in a gentle Talk Talk direction. It’s probably the keys that do it, but I have to say the guitars on ‘Cloud Cars’ are really beautiful” – [sic] Magazine on ‘Cloud Cars’
In the hands of electronica producer Isophene, ‘Cloud Cars’ becomes even more dream-like and transportive. The main theme is stripped away, leaving the focus upon the middle eight and the interplay between guitar and drums, with the spaces between filled by aching synth and washes of reverb. It’s a perfect intro to Isophene’s talents, which will be on full display on his debut album, Reverbatory, due for release later in the year.
Isophene is the moniker of Melbourne producer Brad Buenen, who creates music from his home studio in the Dandenong Ranges. Using ’80s synths, piano, guitar, field recordings and an intricate mix of programmed and live drums, Isophene’s downtempo music is lush and melodic with cinematic cues.
Summon the Birds’ music is available for licensing across film, tv, games, web and beyond. Hit us up for more info.
New Medard Fischer Single & Music Video – ‘Fundamentals’
Medard Fischer’s new single ‘Fundamentals’ is an ominous cloud of generative piano strikes, swelling amid a bed of strings and drones. The track draws on the stochastic processes that form the spine of Fischer’s latest album Lucky You. In the accompanying video, monochrome fractals trace the pulse of the song’s sparse melodic fragments, mirroring the track’s hypnotic evolution.
On Lucky You, Medard Fischer’s creative process was influenced by his father’s struggle with cancer and tragic passing. While coming to terms with his loss, Fischer was intrigued by recent studies suggesting that more than two-thirds of cancerous mutations may be caused by random replication errors, and was inspired to explore how the implications of chance shape lives in both ordinary and profound ways.
Taking its cues from generative music and sound collage, stochastic processes are central throughout Lucky You; they define timbres, melodies and entire song structures. Elements pop in and out like sparks, driven by random number generators, multi-tiered probability gates and feedback loops cycling through old electronics. Yet, despite its conceptual underpinning, Lucky You has immediate emotional resonance, befitting the circumstances that inspired it. Pieces shift from playful to contemplative and from hopeful to haunting – tracing contours of moments lived in the shadow of chance, by turns beautiful and tragic.
Medard Fischer’s music is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Contact us for more information.
Alpha Hall Sign to Hidden Shoal, Debut Album Coming September
We’re very excited to announce the signing of Australian band Alpha Hall to the Hidden Shoal family. Their stunning debut album Omens will see release in September with the first single out in a few weeks. Watch this space!
“mesmerising, with dusky vocals, purring violin, and a rich melodic and rhythmic interplay that erupts into emotional climaxes that ambush and satisfy in equal measures” – Doug Wallen, The Big Issue
Alpha Hall traverse a unique sonic landscape, somewhere between The National’s brooding songcraft and Dirty Three’s violin-streaked majesty. Their cinematic debut album, Omens, conveys many shades of light and dark, veering from delicate and introspective to unnerving and expansive. It captures a band able to convey not only the rugged beauty of their surroundings in regional Australia, but also the complex nature of our tempestuous, globalised times.
Formed in 2016 by Bozhin Petrovski (vox, guitars) and Adam Menegazzo (violin), with Sy Young (drums) and Perry Lane (bass), Alpha Hall have created a formidable sound in a short time. Based in regional Victoria, Alpha Hall take their name from an early gold rush cinema – apt for a band seeking to bridge the past with the present. Written and recorded in Talbot during late 2017 and completed in early 2018 with friend Heath McCurdy (Epicure, Mark With The Sea) in Ballarat, their debut album, Omens, captures something purposeful and persuasive, far from the city lights and hipster sprawl of Melbourne’s musical hub.
Lunar Landscape ‘Siren’s Calling’ Single – Out Now!
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of ‘Siren’s Calling’, the stunning new single by Lunar Landscape. The track is lifted from the band’s forthcoming debut The Infinite Pleasure of Being which sees release through Hidden Shoal on September 12th 2018. The single is available now to stream via SoundCloud and Youtube and to download via Bandcamp.
Striking a hypnotic balance between the muscular surge of shoegaze and the ethereal ambience of dream-pop, ‘Siren’s Calling’ casts a spell that’s difficult to shake. Bringing together Bends-era Radiohead’s majestic arpeggios and the stately grandeur of prime Pink Floyd, Lunar Landscape have mustered a haunting, epic track that conveys the emotive scope of forthcoming debut album The Infinite Pleasure of Being.
Expanding on the progressive shoegaze of previous incarnation Beautiful Lunar Landscape and the instrumental rock of sister project Les Limbes, the album is a definitive statement from principal songwriter Arnaud Sigonney (piano, keyboards, guitar, vocals). Back in 2007, Hidden Shoal released Sigonney’s previous band Beautiful Lunar Landscape’s stunning debut EP Alone in this Dark Romantic Night, which received widespread critical acclaim. He then took a break from music, before returning with instrumental rock band Les Limbes in 2015. The songs that comprise the debut album by new project Lunar Landscape have been written throughout Arnaud’s musical life. The Infinite Pleasure of Being was recorded by Marco Gomes at Studio Carat with a new band in 2016, featuring Les Limbe’s Yoann Roy (bass), Franck Lantignac (drums), Line Senium (piano) and Marine Hebard (vocals).
Lunar Landscape‘s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and more) via Hidden Shoal. Read more about Hidden Shoal’s music licensing services here.
New Single from Todd Tobias & Chloe March – ‘Lallulow’
We’re incredibly excited to present ‘Lallulow’, the first single from Amialluma, a collaborative album by Todd Tobias and Chloe March. The track is available to stream via SoundCloud and to download via both artist’s Bandcamp pages. See Todd Tobias and Chloe March‘s profile page for more info and links. Amialluma will see release through Hidden Shoal on the 4th of September 2018.
After a number of stunning track collaborations on Todd Tobias’s 2015 album Gila Man, Chloe March and Todd Tobias have joined forces on their new full-length, Amialluma. Following on from Tobias’s recent album Massabu Evening Entertainments and March’s own Blood-Red Spark, this new album brings both artists’ distinct musical sensibilities together to create a bewitching brew. Dwelling in a mysterious hinterland somewhere between Cocteau Twins’ seminal Victorialand and The Caretaker’s Persistent Repetition of Phrases, Amialluma dances between the earthly and heavenly. Chloe March’s celestial voice shines a light through Todd Tobias’s dark, fantastical soundscapes, resulting in a sublime, uncanny experience that enraptures and unsettles in equal measure.
The tracks from Amialluma along with the solo work’s of Todd Tobias and Chloe March are available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
Connected View “Energy Negative House” Out Now!
We’re excited to announce the release of Negative Energy House, the new EP by US-based experimental instrumental pop outfit Connected View. The EP is available now via the Connected View Bandcamp.
“As though pulled from some rarely seen and certainly forgotten, straight to VHS sci-fi cult classic soundtrack, ‘lizard’ prowls with playful impishness ducking between the narrowing corridors that divide the worlds of the Stranger Things community and Zombi, its mooching mutant funk gouging tripping imagined wastelands of dystopic future worlds.” – The Sunday Experience
Following on from their stunning Hidden Shoal debut release Chun Pop, Connected View’s Energy Negative House finds them at their playful best, weaving rugged analogue tones with playful percussion, aching synth lines and growling bass. Recorded during the course of a single inspired evening, the jumping off point for the tracks was the drum loop from Chun Pop’s ‘Energy Positive House’, which was then reworked to create opening track ‘Empty Surroundings’, effectively becoming a continuation, but shadowy inverse or negative, of the album’s sun-dappled positivity. Reminiscent of Tortoise at their most obtuse, or Dialogue-era Four Tet, Energy Negative House is simultaneously playful and malevolent – a party played out in a maze of warped mirrors.
Connected View’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
Fantastic Interview With Liminal Drifter on RTRFM
Check out this wonderful interview with our very own Dr Simon Order (aka Liminal Drifter) on Perth’s best radio station RTRFM. Listen to Simon wax lyrical on his sumptuous new album The Dreams along with his own actual dreams. It’s therapeutic and informative all at the same time!
Liminal Drifter Top NACC College Radio Adds!
Liminal Drifter‘s brilliant new album The Dreams has just landed in the top 30 NACC college radio add chart this week at number 17! Even better it sat at number 2 in the Electronic adds chart! Go Drifter!
Christopher Sky Joins The Hidden Shoal Family
We’re very excited to welcome the wonderful Christopher Sky to the Hidden Shoal family. Sky brings with him the gorgeous By The Ocean album, released early 2018 and which now forms part of the Hidden Shoal licensing catalogue. His stunning forthcoming album Vastness will see digital release through hidden Shoal and vinyl release via Aagoo Records on the 9th of November.
Christopher Sky is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer based in Los Angeles. His first EP, Cotton Dream, featuring contributions from Paul Espinoza on guitar, was released in 2011 through his own label, Sejatski Ltd. This was followed by Audio Memory, with a stronger emphasis on guitar-based loops and sound design.
After taking some time off to focus on his Let’s Drive to Alaska project – releasing In the Fifth House in 2016 – Sky returned in 2018 with By the Ocean, his first solo work in seven years, featuring five brand new songs, plus remixes by Mirror, Jubilant Ecstasy Dream and HEARTMIND. Two-track EP Orpheus and Eurydice, an ode to the classic tale of love and loss, was released on Valentine’s Day 2018.
Christopher Sky’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
Liminal Drifter “The Dreams” – RTRFM Feature Album!
Liminal Drifter‘s stunning new album The Dreams continues it’s dream run (I am so very sorry) this week as it scoops RTRFM Feature Album status. Listen in all week to the station to hear choice cuts from the album and to also be in with a chance to win yourself a copy.
Don’t forget that Liminal Drifter’s cinematic vibes are available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
