JAMES MURRAY – SAFEHAVEN
James Murray‘s Landscapes of Lovers was originally released on the Fluid Audio label in 2018. But the releases on that label usually sell out quickly, so a physical release was unavailable – until Home Normal recently re-released it. I won’t write the same words about this release again, just click the link in the title to read my 2018 recommendation. So, if you’re unfamiliar with Landscape Of Lovers you can now make up for that.
I mention this re-release because Home Normal not only re-releases this album but celebrates the re-release with two extra (digital) releases featuring James Murray‘s music.
And they are spoiling us even more by offering these two as Name-Your-Price downloads!
The first is a brand new track called Safehaven. Written and recorded over Christmas 2024 at Home Normal Headquarters ‘inspired by the quietude of the surrounding environment and a new studio set-up to work from’.
It is presented as a ‘long-form track’, but with 10 minutes and 40 seconds, I would not call it that myself – although it’s probably too long for most radio stations.
(When do we speak about ‘long-form’ music? One hour? Three hours? 24 hours? 25 minutes? 11 minutes).
But that is hardly relevant: the track is as beautiful as can be expected from Murray.
The other pleasant surprise is a remix of tracks from each solo and collaborative release by James Murray on the Home Normal label.
Thirteen tracks, all from different releases (including one yet to be released in April) were carefully mixed by label owner Ian Hawgood into a seamless 80-minute mix. (Track details on the Bandcamp page).
Not only a perfect introduction to ‘the sheer breadth and creativity of this truly great artist’ and a wonderful addition to those already familiar with his work.
And don’t forget: this is a pay-what-you-can release with all donations going to the artist.
LANTSCAP – FRAGILE PEAKS
Lantscap is the (somewhat unusual) name for the Ian Hawgood and Warren Forrest Kroll duo. Hawgood is a well-known artist and label curator but I knew nothing about Kroll, who – according to the liner notes – ‘has been releasing music as Forrest and Dorosoto for years, and is one half of the widely and wildly loved High Tides duo with acid-electro x hazy synth releases on Rad Cult’.
As Lantscap, the duo previously released ‘Varying Degrees Of Alive’ in 2013.
Fragile Peaks, released on the first day of this year, is a very quiet ‘piece of tape-looped mellotron and synth tones, with multiple guitar drones floating and weaving in and out’.
35 Minutes (and 20 seconds) of ambient in its purest form, to ‘gaze over the fragile peaks of our imminent future with no small amount of love and hope’.
IAN HAWGOOD – SAVAGE MODERN STRUCTURES
A few weeks after releasing the Lantscap album Ian Hawgood also presented a new solo album called Savage Modern Structures. The title may suggest some ‘savage’ music, but the music is surprisingly soft-natured.
Using his guitar, mellotron and some classic amps, Hawgood wanted to ‘capture the sound of his amps and tapes within the dynamics of his small studio room to absorb the reverberations as they hit him when he makes music’. Recorded entirely at night and mixed in the early hours Hawgood ‘poured a lot of late night exhaustion and frustration into the music here but ended up creating something deeply cathartic and melodic, whilst grabbing the wonderful dirt, fuzziness and hum of these old pieces of kit through the recording techniques used.
It is a deeply personal album that originally was not intended to be released. In the liner notes, Hawgood describes a difficult time in his life, physically as well as mental, which took many months of rehabilitation and coundselling to recover. Re-visiting and re-working these recordings were a major help in his recovery.
It was a part of the therapy for ‘the deep frustration with the expectation of music’ and the ‘feelings towards the music industry or scene(s) in the current climate and how damaging the modern affliction of these attitudes and narcissicm truly is’.
Being a creative musican and a passionate label manager can clearly take its toll: “I let it get to me over a sustained period of running a label and over-giving my personal self to others to be blunt”.
So there’s the relation with the title’s ‘Savage’, perhaps. This album is the gentlest way to ‘look into the savagery of the modern heart and tells it to go fuck itself with righteous anger and furious rage’.
