An enthralling, vivid instrumental LP by the London DJ and multi-instrumentalist Felix Manuel who combines electronica with piano, harp, mbira, and percussion with added cello, evolving from the mellow into the frenetic in a musical journey created over several years. It had started originally in 2017, then during the 2020 lockdown in earnest, but had to be completely rebuilt and written after a catastrophic hardware breakdown and consequential mental crisis. Still, the final results are beautifully original, variously soothing, stimulating and at times spectacular. Opener A Tune For Us slowly ripples with piano, and nature sounds such as frog and birdcalls, with a delicious cello melody by Zosia Jagodzinska, who also contributes on two other tracks. Waxcap starts on a similar rippling style, adding ambient, shimmering sounds and quirky bleeps and beeps with a naturalistic, vintage jungle and techno. Unweaving has more of a restless classical piano lead, as does L’Ancienne, underpinned by mysterious, evocative scratchy electronica before evolving into some futuristic dancehall number. Hold is quieter, more meditative, while Galaxy in Silence fuses intricate cello, piano into a catchy acid house mix. But perhaps the standout is the fast mbira plucking, piano, and percussive electronica of Three Foxes Chasing Each Other, a beautifully odd wild ride mixing African, jazz, club culture, with an energy that is kept up in subsequent tracks before Let Me, Out of Dust and the 11-minute finale, Sycamore, which unleashes into a helicopter seed frenzy before returning to the album’s lush, meditative, gently rippling motif roots. Out on Houndstooth Records.
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