We're excited to present the first single lifted from 'The Greatest Thing That Never Happened... Yet', the debut album by Swedish trio Otinget. A mesmerising suite of songs, the album blends delicate folk, strident post-rock, lilting Americana and brooding slowcore, and also features a special guest appearance by Dungen lead guitarist Reine Fiske. The album sees release through Hidden Shoal on the 17th of September 2021.
 
On title track and first single, Fiske helps build the song from its gentle rollicking intro to its feverish conclusion. Opener ‘The Sea’ weaves mesmerising, spidery guitar lines before the bassline references the Hendrix classic ‘Hey Joe’. ‘The Vagabond’ manages to seamlessly fuse math-rock guitar lines with a bluesy swagger, highlighting both the band’s songwriting smarts and their formidable ability as performers. ‘But Something Came Over Me’ is a brooding slice of atmospheric pop, building up and falling away in equal measures over its runtime. And the album closes with ‘Further’, a majestic re-working of a song by one of Otinget frontman Erik Nilsson’s other projects, The Slanted City.

“delights at every turn… an unfailingly tuneful and entertaining whole that transcends its techniques through sheer musicality” – Music is Good on Otinget frontman Erik Nilsson’s album Recollage

The music of Otinget is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games etc) through Hidden Shoal -www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

The Greatest Thing That Never Happened...Yet

Otinget - The Greatest Thing That Never Happened

‘The Wooden Heart’is the title track from the expansive new EP by dream-pop singer-songwriter Kramies, out now - http://store.hiddenshoal.com.

Produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), ‘The Wooden Heart’ is a kaleidoscopic introduction to Kramies’ beautiful new release. The song’s windswept grandeur is married to an emotional directness that demands your attention and doesn’t let go. Akin to The Moody Blues’ classic ‘Nights In White Satin’, ‘The Wooden Heart’ renders an immersive, widescreen pop vista that takes your breath away.

In addition to Todd Tobias’s production (on ‘The Beginning’, ‘The Wooden Heart’, ‘Upon The Northern Isles’ and ‘The Ending’), The Wooden Heart EP also features the production and instrumental talents of Jason Lytle of Grandaddy fame (on ‘Sea Otter Cottage’ and ‘Clocks Were All Broken’). Rounded out by the beautiful artwork of French photographer Jérôme Sevrette, The Wooden Heart EP is a lovingly constructed work of art.

Free Download

Kramies - 'The Wooden Heart'

'Goodbye' is the first single from True Sound, the new album from The World of Dust, the musical project of Stefan Breuer, featuring Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils). 

In some ways a concept album, True Sound charts a very personal exploration of the life and death of Stefan Breuer’s grandparents. The unique overarching narrative that plays out with each song, and the warmth of the delivery, unites the album into a moving and consistent whole. As with The World of Dust’s acclaimed previous album, Samsara, the instrumental elements on True Sound were created by Todd Tobias, who sent them to Breuer to write and sing the lyrics. Tobias’s wonderfully melodic compositions call to mind his work with Robert Pollard, creating a haunting marriage when combined with Breuer's pure vocal tones, reminiscent of The White Birch’s Ola Flottum. 

The mesmerising, drumless opening track ‘Sailing’ introduces Breuer’s grandfather, Jan (whose personal effects are on display in the Museum of Vlaardingen), over insistent, metallic guitar and burbling modulation. First single ‘Goodbye’ has a charming, wistful sway and gorgeous vocal harmonies, which belie its sobering story of Jan’s battle with cancer. Jan’s first wife, who passed away during childbirth, is commemorated on ‘Petronella’s Death’, with its elegant, descending guitar figures. And Breuer’s grandmother is touchingly memorialised on the elegant tempo shift and eerie arpeggios of ‘Nel’s Passing’. Ultimately, True Sound is testament to the liberation that comes from letting go.

“Its power lies in the intimacy… without drowning in desolate melancholy” – hifi.nl

The World of Dust is Dutch artist, musician and manager of Tiny Room Records, Stefan Breuer, based in Bilthoven, near Utrecht in The Netherlands. Breuer released his debut album, Bhava, in 2013, followed by X in 2014. On 2015’s Womb Realm, Breuer first collaborated with Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), with Tobias contributing keyboard arrangements. Then, in 2017, Breuer released the experimental compilation Golden Moon. Samsara (2019) is Breuer’s second collaboration with Tobias, and his first release on Hidden Shoal. True Sound (2021) is his latest release, continuing his collaboration with Tobias.

Artist Info: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/the-world-of-dust
Licensing info (film, tv, web etc): https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

True Sound

Goodbye

More Info

The World of Dust - 'Goodbye'

‘Dore Strauch’, the new single and its accompanying video by Perth-based multi-instrumental pop sextet Apricot Rail, taken from their 2013 album Quarrels.

‘Dore Strauch’ is perhaps the most incandescently beautiful track on Quarrels. Cascading glockenspiels, haunting guitar arpeggios and rhythmic eddies are stirred into confluence by gorgeous updrifts of woodwind melody, which buoy the song along a circuitous path towards an uneasy resolution. Directed by Jules Gay and shot in various locations in Germany, including Berlin, the accompanying video depicts a young woman’s hallucinogenic journey through both forest and city, through colour and monochrome, between memory and the now (http://youtu.be/VeTN3QNo2Ck).

‘Dore Strauch’ is taken from Apricot Rail’s second album Quarrels. A foray into more experimental territory than their self-titled debut, the album features lusher, denser instrumentation, is rich in ideas yet toys with new levels of restraint. The band’s trademark harmonic guitar passages and syncopation sit beneath languid brass and woodwind, balanced by glitchy electronica, dramatic crescendos and opium-infused oriental explorations; slow, meandering waltzes give way to moments of ethereal lightness and beauty. This music transcends fads and trends to appeal to anyone drawn to beautiful, supple songcraft.

Apricot Rail - 'Dore Strauch'

Cut Out’, the single from new Liminal Drifter, is the perfect way to usher in the Australian springtime. Clean and shimmering, punctuated by golden horns and keys, the song’s positive momentum is counterbalanced by the bittersweet taste of leaving something behind. The track is lifted from Liminal Drifter’s forthcoming EP, due out later in the year and follows his amazing recent run in the U.S. college radio charts (#1 chill record of 2020!).

More on Liminal Drifter here: www.hiddenshoal.com/project/liminal-drifter

License the music of Liminal Drifter via Hidden Shoal -www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Cut Out

Liminal Drifter - Cut Out

‘Greasy Moon’ is the second single to be taken from perth's new album What’s Your Utopia? (Nov. 14th 2013). The track is an echoing, disorientating, addictive stomp that offers a tantalising hit of the wonderful songcraft woven throughout What’s Your Utopia?’s expansive, eclectic patchwork. As reassuring as it is creepy, as uplifting as it is doggedly despondent, ‘Greasy Moon’ exemplifies the perverse pleasures and ear-bending dichotomies perth draw upon for their sophomore album.

'Greasy Moon' is the second taste of perth's forthcoming sophomore album, following on from the opener 'Drank and Kites and Tomorrow'. What’s Your Utopia? manages to meld psychedelic pop, folk-laced electronica and shoegaze into a beautifully cohesive statement – a tribute to the idea of a fond place, or utopia, quietly residing in ‘no place’, beyond ourselves. The band’s magic lies in their ability to refract the individual members’ unique sensibilities through an experimental lens; kaleidoscopic sound design is matched by the band’s songwriting dexterity throughout the album’s nine tracks.

perth - 'Greasy Moon'

Fourth single from "Cortisol 22", the wonderful fifth album from Perth-based electronica artist Liminal Drifter. "Cortisol 22" sees release on the 19th of September 2022.

More on Liminal Drifter here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/liminal-drifter

Though shot through with undeniable beauty and hope, the music on Cortisol 22 is shadowed by a number of serious health issues faced by Simon Order (aka Liminal Drifter) over the last couple of years. The album title refers to the hormone produced by the body during stress – something that Order faced repeatedly after experiencing a heart attack in late 2020. While recovering in hospital, Order began working on the music that would form Cortisol 22. The resulting album is an hour-long exploration of music as balm and recuperative destination.

Opener ‘Child’s Play’ is a deceptively emotive slice of chilltronica, drawing on some of the dub vibes of 2020’s Connected, while wrapping the whole thing in a blanket of ethereal nostalgia. Latest single ‘Box Seat’ is a sun-drenched sonic playground, with an insistent acoustic guitar line, intricate percussive details and beatific electric piano. ‘Cut Out’ is clean and shimmering, punctuated by golden horns and keys, with a positive momentum counterbalanced by the bittersweet taste of leaving something behind. And ominous Boards of Canada vibes are woven into standout ‘Once a Day’.

“The world has become so surreal we don’t know what to make of it. But to hear these sounds is a comfort.” – A Closer Listen on Connected

The music of Liminal Drifter is available for licensing via Hidden Shoal. For more information - https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Cortisol 22

Box Seat

Bandcamp

Liminal Drifter - Box Seat

01 Do You Remember Buffalo Headstand

Taken from the forthcoming Willem Gator album "The Encyclopedia of Failure". The album will see release on the 1st of October 2022 through Hidden Shoal.

More on Willem Gator here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/willem-gator

The music of Willem Gator is available for licensing. Head to Hidden Shoal for more details: www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

The Encyclopedia of Failure

When Stuck, Hit The Road

More Willem Gator

Willem Gator - When Stuck, Hit The Road

Something new has emerged from the Apricot Rail musical lair. ‘Romance Under the Blossom Tree’ sneaks out ahead of their first live show in years at RTRFM’s Springtime Social on November 5th.
 
Tickets  - https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/rtrfms-springtime-social-a-fundraiser-event/145071?ref=RSS_rss_freosocial&skin=freosocial
 
More on Apricot Rail - https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/apricot-rail

The music of Apricot Rail is available to license for film, tv, web etc. Head here for more info -https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

Romance Under The Blossom Tree

More

Apricot Rail - Romance Under The Blossom Tree

First released in 2011 by Luxus-Artica Records and then reissued in 2016 by Hidden Shoal, Erik Nilsson’s brilliant debut album Recollage is being re-released in a somewhat altered format. Earlier in the year, Nilsson revisited Recollage’s eclectic mix of electronics, live instruments and field recordings to create a new iteration. Recollage Reworked recontextualizes the original album’s often dizzying compositional style, reminiscent of The Books’ cut-up approach to songcraft, and casts it in a freshly addictive new light.

More on Erik Nilsson here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/erik-nilsson/

The music of Erik Nilsson is available to license for film, tv, web etc. Head here for more info -www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

Recollage (Reworked)

Erik Nilsson - Recollage (Reworked)

Taken from "Wild Eye" which sees release on December 9th, 2022 via Tiny Room Records and Hidden Shoal.

More on Moonchy & Tobias here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/moonchy-tobias

The music of Moonchy & Tobias is available for licensing via Hidden Shoal. Contact us for more details: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/contact-us

Wild Eye

Moonchy & Tobias - Shangri La

The GUM remix of ‘Drank and Kites and Tomorrow’ by Australian outfit perth is taken from the forthcoming album Where’s My Dystopia? (May 1 2014), featuring remixes of tracks from the band’s acclaimed second album What’s Your Utopia?

On ‘Drank and Kites and Tomorrow (GUM Remix)’ Jay Watson (Tame Impala) takes perth’s majestic original and streamlines it further into a Spiritualized-esque drone-pop beauty. The song is taken from the forthcoming album Where’s My Dystopia?, which also features remixes by Mei Saraswati, Seams, No. 9, Usurper of Modern Medicine, Valerio Cosi among others.

perth’s second album What's Your Utopia?, which forms the raw material for the new remix album, manages to meld psychedelic pop, folk-laced electronica and shoegaze into a beautifully cohesive statement – a tribute to the idea of a fond place, or utopia, quietly residing in 'no place', beyond ourselves. The band’s magic lies in their ability to refract the individual members' unique sensibilities through an experimental lens; kaleidoscopic sound design is matched by the band’s songwriting dexterity throughout the album’s nine tracks.

perth - http://music.hiddenshoal.com/artists/perth/
GUM - https://www.facebook.com/gguumm

perth - Drank and Kites and Tomorrow (GUM Remix)

Taken from Gilded's brilliant 2012 debut "Terrane". Check out more at Hidden Shoal - http://www.hiddenshoal.com

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com

Gilded - 'Tyne'

Taken from the Kryshe EP "In Between" out 25 September 2014 through Hidden Shoal. Read more here - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/kryshe/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com

Kryshe - 'Africa'

Taken from the Slow Dancing Society's acclaimed 2006 debut album "The Sounds of Lights When Dim".  The album has recently been reissued and lovingly remastered, available in vinyl and digital formats. The release is also accompanied by a wonderful remix album. Available now - https://slowdancingsociety.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-of-lights-when-dim-2017-remaster

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Slow Dancing Society - A Song That Will Help You Remember To Forget

YouTube non-commercial license - These tracks are available for free usage on non-commercial, non political and non-religious video productions posted specifically to the YouTube platform. 

Please read the license terms here - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/free-youtube-licensing/


Slow Dancing Society - The Warm Familiar Smell Of September

Taken from Battlestations' 2012 album "In a cold embrace". Find out more about Battlestations and stream full albums - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/battlestations/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com

YouTube non-commercial license - These tracks are available for free usage on non-commercial, non political and non-religious video productions posted specifically to the YouTube platform.

Please read the license terms here - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/free-youtube-licensing/

Battlestations - Comrade /The Way We Grieve

Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of ‘Towards Tragedy and Dissolution’, the stunning new single by acclaimed neo-classical ambient artist Antonymes, taken from the forthcoming album "(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly".
 
Sonically minimal yet emotionally formidable, ‘Towards Tragedy and Dissolution’ features the stirring string arrangements of James Banbury (The Auteurs) and Christoph Berg (Field Rotation), which engage in reflective conversation with Ian M. Hazeldine's plaintive piano. Its emotional potency and compositional dexterity draws you into an evocative world, demanding engagement.
 
In addition to James Banbury and Christoph Berg, "(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly" also includes contributions from composer Stefano Guzzetti, Joanna Swan (Ilya) and writer Paul Morley. Mixed by Stefano Guzzetti and Paul Humphreys (OMD), and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri (The Sight Below), the album’s depth of sound is awe-inspiring. It is released by Hidden Shoal on 21st April 2016.

http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/antonymes/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Antonymes - Towards Tragedy And Dissolution

Antonymes track 'Delicate Power' as remixed by Marconi Union. The remix is lifted from the new EP, "Delicate Power (In The Hands Of Others)". Released digitally on 31st May 2016, the EP also features remixes by Markus Mehr, Lvmark and Antonymes.

Delicate Power is the second single to be taken from Antonymes’ new album "(For Now We See) Through A Glass Dimly". Marconi Union tease the original into a beautifully orchestrated anti-gravity ballad.

To hear more, purchase and find out more about Antonymes: http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/antonymes/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Delicate Power (In The Hands O

Antonymes - Delicate Power (Dissolved by Marconi Union)

Taken from the 2017 reissue of Slow Dancing Society's acclaimed 2006 debut album "The Sounds of Lights When Dim". The reissue has been lovingly remastered, is available in vinyl and digital formats, and is accompanied by a remix album. Pre-orders available now - https://slowdancingsociety.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-of-lights-when-dim-2017-remaster

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

The Sound Of Lights When Dim (Reissue)

Download

Slow Dancing Society - Radiance (2017)

The first taste of Dyschronia, the brilliant  seventh album by prolific German experimentalist Markus Mehr. The album drops on the 16th of May 2017 through Hidden Shoal in digital and limited edition cassette formats.
 
Dyschronia is a complex, musically exhilarating exploration of our modern perception of time. As our temporal relationships have become unmoored from natural rhythms, we experience profound disconnection and distortion, leaving us disoriented and disturbed. Mehr crafted the seven pieces over the course of more than five years, resulting in a dizzying collage of sound that both conveys and charts a path through digital consciousness.

Dyschronia simultaneously employs and dissolves electronic markers, creating a heady and at times groundless ride. As with all Mehr’s work, the album is challenging yet incredibly satisfying, shot through with moments of quite staggering beauty, such as the haunting acoustic guitar melody in ‘Dyschronia 4’. At the album’s conclusion, the sample “Why didn’t you destroy the tapes?” speaks to our inability to escape surveillance, our very lives enmeshed in the technology we have created in our attempts at liberation.

“pushing his emotionally-charged sonic sculptures into much more dangerous and unpredictable territory... Totally mesmerizing and beautiful.” – Decoder Magazine on Binary Rooms

 Read more about Markus Mehr here - www.hiddenshoal.com/project/markus-mehr/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Dyschronia

Dyschronia 4

Markus Mehr - Dyschronia 4

'Expectorant Ballad' is the first single lifted from "Transhumante [Extended]" by Spanish electronica producer Crisopa. The album will see release on the 1st of May. More on Crisopa here - https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/crisopa

Crisopa’s original 2017 release of Transhumante (via the Sound in Silence label) presented an immersive suite of deeply evocative and melodic ambient electronica. The new extended version of the album includes six beautiful new additions, bathing the listener in waves of ecstatic synth swells, textural loops and insistent rhythms. These surging, emotive tracks simultaneously summon forth aching nostalgia and a blissful state of hopefulness. Anyone who enjoys deep, vivid electronica in the vein of Boards of Canada, Manual and Hammock will find themselves right at home in Crisopa’s beatific compositions.

This music is available for licensing via Hidden Shoal -https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

Transhumante [Extended]

Crisopa - Expectorant Ballad

First Single from Amialluma, a collaborative album by Todd Tobias and Chloe March. The album 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. 

American producer and instrumentalist Todd Tobias is perhaps best known for his work with Guided by Voices, but since 2012 has been releasing uncompromising cinematic and engrossing instrumental albums under his own name. English artist Chloë March inhabits musical territory somewhere between art song and folk, dream-pop and electronica, creating poetic, emotionally charged and intensely atmospheric songs and soundworlds from her home studio in south-east England. 

Todd Tobias - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/todd-tobias
Chloe March - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/chloe-march

This music is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Head to Hidden Shoal for more info - www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

Amialluma

Todd Tobias & Chloe March - Lallulow

Created in collaboration with Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices) and Jerry Becker (Train), Kramies’ epic new EP, Of All The Places Been & Everything The End, transports the listener through an enchanted forest of the imagination. Profoundly coloured by Kramies’ time staying at an ancient castle in Ireland, the music is steeped in fables, myths and eerie reflections, resulting in his most vividly realised release to date.

A prog and folk-influenced mini opus akin to Mercury Rev’s classic Deserter’s Songs, the EP covers more ground across its 23-minute run-time than many albums double its length. Given it was the site of the music’s gestation, it’s fitting that the eight-minute epic ‘Ireland’ is the EP’s swaying centrepiece. Single ‘Everything The End’ is an enchanting, unearthly tale of time and loss, coloured by melancholic optimism. And ‘The Hill Dweller’ brings the EP to a goosebump-raising conclusion with its sleigh bells and strings, as Kramies intones, “Now I’m home…”

Kramies - https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/kramies

Contact cam@hidenshoal.com for all media and licensing (film, tv, games etc) enquiries.

Of All The Places Been & Everything The End

Kramies - Everything The End

Taken from "Of All The Places Been & Everything The End", the new EP by American dream-pop troubadour Kramies. The EP will see release via Hidden Shoal on the 19th of October. More on Kramies here - http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/kramies/

Check out the beautiful music video for the track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDTBYfrqcw0

Created in collaboration with Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices) and Jerry Becker (Train), Kramies’ epic new EP, "Of All The Places Been & Everything The End", transports the listener through an enchanted forest of the imagination. Profoundly coloured by Kramies’ time staying at an ancient castle in Ireland, the music is steeped in fables, myths and eerie reflections, resulting in his most vividly realised release to date.
--
Credits:
Song & lyrics by Kramies
Produced by and feat. Jason Lytle
--
This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Kramies - Everything The End (feat. Jason Lytle)

‘Les nuits célestes’ is the latest single by Bordeaux-based atmospheric rock band Lunar Landscape lifted from their debut album "The Infinite Pleasure of Being" (12th September 2018).

More on the band here - www.hiddenshoal.com/project/lunar-landscape/

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 debut album The Infinite Pleasure of Being.

This music is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games and beyond. Head to Hidden Shoal for more info -www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/

The Infinite Pleasure of Being

Lunar Landscape - Les nuits célestes

The first single from the 10th-anniversary re-release of Chagrin by ambient artist RL/VL. The album will be reissued alongside the rest of his sublime catalogue on the 30th October 2018.

More on RL/VL here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/rlvl/

Chagrin
Presenting an impeccably crafted minimalism and focus married to an ineffable sense of human frailty, Chagrin unfolds like the stories of ageless artefacts buried in the earth, still covered in the dirt that was once their home, brimming with micro-histories and rootless memories. Painstakingly layered from a vast array of analogue synths, tape machines, old cassettes and toys, Chagrin’s beauty lies in the fact that no sound is too small, no detail too elusive. This is ambient electronica of staggering emotive power.

“... whenever his small, melodic textures threaten to disappear they always return calmly, in themes and droves and memorable parts, from two minute intros to extended ponderings… The underlying hook throughout the whole is that you can feel the spare alienation melting off every track, which become warmer and warmer as the thing wisps along at a floe pace… And it never stops evoking, which is how you could tell there was youth in it without even knowing Hamill’s only 18. The imagination’s too wild and unrefined to sleep.” – Resident Advisor

RL/VL was the brainchild of Belfast-based electronic composer Jack Hamill. An acronym for Real Life/Virtual Life, Hamill’s music works at the often fragile boundary between humankind and the world around us. Hailing from the tree-lined suburbs of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jack found the epicentre of his inspiration in a sun-soaked autumn spent in the USA in 2006, and has been excavating his compositions ever since. Jack now records under the moniker Space Dimension Controller, releasing music via Dekmantel, Ninja Tune and R&S Records.

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Chagrin

RL/VL - Kweens

Taken from new album On by German experimental ambient artist Markus Mehr, the second part of a triptych that also includes recent release In and the forthcoming Off.

On is a continuation of the experimental direction of Markus Mehr’s previous releases, with eight diverse tracks employing samples, field recordings and slathers of Mehr’s trademark distorted drones. This approach is apparent right from opener ‘Gonna Make You Mine’, as scything slashes of sound leap from the speakers. Single ‘Flaming Youth’ counterbalances fragments of static against a gorgeous sleepy-eyed loop of mangled lounge-jazz. A track as expansive and moving as ‘Duck Became Swan’ is followed by brief rhythmic piece ‘Olympia’. This tightrope walk between dizzying samples and exacting digital manipulation is walked with aplomb throughout On’s adventurous and thrilling 45-minute runtime.

On is preceded by In, the first part of the triptych, which comprises two monumental tracks, ‘Komo’ and ‘Ostinato’, each of which clocks in at around 25 minutes, circling around and building upon hypnotic instrumental motifs. The final part of the triptych, Off, released on 24 January 2013, includes the most epic piece yet, ‘Transit’, which clocks in at 49 minutes and will be performed live in collaboration with video artist Stefanie Sixt, who created the video to Mehr’s single ‘Cousteau’.
 
“one of the best releases so far this year and one which will absolutely be appreciated by fans of abstract ambient music and soundscapes” – Petal on In

“They’re ‘big’ compositions, the sheer scale of the sonic work is rather awe inspiring, but they never sound antagonistic or uncomfortable… it sounds like the ebb and flow of space itself – individual snippets of a grand, repeating, organic process that keeps the universe in balance…” – No Ripcord on Lava

Markus Mehr - 'Only For A While'

Taken from Salix Babylonica, the new EP by REW<<. The album will see release on the 14th of May 2019. Check out the music video for the track here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSe0r30l6gM
 
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.

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

Salix Babylonica

REW<< - Salix Amygdaloides

The first single lifted from By any other name, a compilation of remixes of recently released tracks by Hidden Shoal artists. The album will see release on the 19th August 2019, available as a free download via Bandcamp and streamable via Spotify.

For By any other name, Hidden Shoal invited a number of emerging Perth artists to rework a selection of tracks from the label’s catalogue. With 11 artists reimagining tracks by Target Archery, Erik Nilsson, Glanko & Daniel Bailey, Summon the Birds, Chloe March and Isophene, what’s most striking about By any other name is both the expansive nature of the individual tracks, and the cohesiveness of the overall listening experience.

By any other name features remixes by Boy In Nature, Austy, Alexi, Michael Tyrie, Sue Summers, Ryan Jose, Daniel Zinetti, Crier, Cron, Shane Isard and JW. Boy In Nature infuses the languid tones of Target Archery’s ‘Opium Den’ with an effervescent buoyancy. On Michael Tyrie’s reimagining of Summon the Birds’ ‘Tactile Hallucination’, the structure of the song is inverted, with the epic climax acting as a cinematic scene-setter. Cron’s re-envisioning of Glanko & Bailey’s ambient masterpiece ‘Adiaphora’ injects the original with urgency without losing its sense of grandeur. And Daniel Zinetti’s brilliant deconstruction of Chloe March’s ‘Old Tre Mon Coeur’ breaks the original into a thousand pieces and then ejects them into space.

Hidden Shoal is an Australia-based independent music label and licensing agency. Since its inception in 2006, the label has earned a reputation for releasing and licensing exciting and engaging new independent music that is not bound by genre or style. Hidden Shoal has been selected multiple times as one of Textura’s favourite labels and has been dubbed “This generation’s 4AD” by prominent New York radio host DJ Mojo.

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com | www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing

By any other name

Target Archery - Opium Den (Boy In Nature Remix)

Following on from his brilliant 2016 EP with Daniel Bailey, Isometrik, Glanko presents ‘Vague Hope’, the first single from his album, Remission. ‘Vague Hope’ is an urgent and insistent piece of widescreen noir electronica, pulsing with the throb of the electrical grid. The track builds and surges throughout its 5:30 runtime, its brooding atmosphere building in intensity before ultimately reaching a moment of cathartic release. 

More on Glanko here: https://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/glanko

“a masterclass in the use of space, poise and timing, a frail and fragile ghost light whose hypnotic lull comes teasingly shimmered in a sparse sleepy headed detailing” – The Sunday Experience on Glanko & Daniel Bailey’s ‘Isometrik’

Glanko is the musical moniker of Italian electronic composer Giuseppe Fallacara. For years, Fallacara played guitar in many bands, before beginning his explorations with electronic music in 2012. His debut album, Alset, was released in 2014. Isometrik, a joint EP with Daniel Bailey, was released on Hidden Shoal in 2016. Second solo album Osmosi was released in 2017. Remission is his third album – and his first full-length solo release for Hidden Shoal. On 22nd February 2020, Glanko will be opening for Janus Rasmussen (one half of Kiasmos with Ólafur Arnalds) at MAT Laboratorio Urbano in Terlizzi, Italy.

Remission

Vague Hope

Artist Profile

Glanko - Vague Hope

Taken from Soviet Cities on the Moon, the epic debut release from Paraphon. The album is available for download now via Bandcamp (https://paraphon.bandcamp.com/album/soviet-cities-on-the-moon) and is also available for licensing (film, tv, web etc) via Hidden Shoal (https://www.hiddenshoal.com/licensing/).

Soviet Cities on the Moon is a soundtrack for interstellar travel. Like a warm, electronic bath it suspends the listener in its lush, sweeping tones and arpeggiated rhythms. This is the future we were promised but never eventuated. Paraphon crafts sprawling, mesmeric synthscapes for a future that never eventuated. This is cinematic music in the truest sense – immersive, narrative driven and emotive.

Soviet Cities on the Moon

Paraphon - Voyager L

‘Blue Ceiling’ is the new single by German minimal ambient-electronica maestro Jumpel, taken from his forthcoming fourth album "Bloc4". The track is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store - http://store.hiddenshoal.com

On ‘Blue Ceiling’, Joe Dürbeck continues his breathtaking collaboration with Chloë March (who contributed vocals to the 2010 single, ‘Edinburgh’). ‘Blue Ceiling’ has an utterly heartbreaking drift, its pellucid atmosphere like winter sunlight refracting through raindrops on a window pane.  

Jumpel’s new album "Bloc4" centres around the elevated yet lonely world of a tower block, each track poetically investigating its multi-faceted elements and spaces. The songs were written throughout 2012, with ideas collated, reviewed, developed and remixed. Following the wonderful results of his collaboration with Chloë March on "Europa" single ‘Edinburgh’, Joe Dürbeck presented the ideas for "Bloc4" to March and invited her to select tracks and develop vocal ideas. The results are stunning – and offer a perfect counterbalance to the more melancholic, spacious instrumental pieces.

Jumpel - 'Blue Ceiling'

Hidden Shoal is an Australia-based independent label & licensing agency. All music is available for licensing across film, tv, web, games, compilations and more. Contact us at http://www.hiddenshoal.com/contact-us/

Hidden Shoal has earned a reputation for releasing exciting and engaging new independent music that is not bound by genre or style. The label was chosen as one of Textura magazine’s favourite labels, has been dubbed “This generation’s 4AD” by prominent New York radio host DJ Mojo, and has been described by The Mountain Goats’ frontman John Darnielle as “one of the great wonders of our age”.

Popular tracks by Hidden Shoal