New Exclusive Olympic Heights
Another masterful album full of microscopic found-sounds, wildlife-documentary vignettes, de-tuned midnight chimes and ageing celluloid lullabies - Henrik Johnson's 3rd album for City Centre Offices is his most beautiful, complete release to date. "Tools for Trains" sets things in motion with a slow rustle of static and the distant chimes of a lonely vintage synth, gradually enveloping itself within layers of warm effervescence that sound like a cross between Kompakt's Pop Ambient and Boards of Canada's 30-second interludes. It's a breathtaking, fragile opening that sets the velvety props in place for what's to follow. "Giftwrap yourself, Slowly" heads to an autumnal 1950's Parisian sidewalk and the memories of a long-faded romance, played out in a black and white, analogue fashion, while "Cubical Fever" evokes "the mid-point between Sun Ra and the half-remebered soundtracks of 70's mid-morning nature programmes" to quote The Wire magazine. There's an incredibly evocative narrative running through these 14 tracks, something that's enhanced greatly by the fact that most of the pieces here are just shy of the 2-3 minute mark, yanking you out of one glassy-eyed daydream into the next before coming to a close on the magnificently widescreen "Vingar Av Svard", an effect not unlike emerging into unfathomable sunshine after a few days burrowed deep under the thick cover of the Scandinavian forest in which these tracks were written and recorded. Although it's a cliché often associated with instrumental recordings of this nature, "New Exclusive Olympic Heights" is truly a record out of time and out of place - a solitary beacon for lonely hearts and nostalgic souls looking for something to trigger all those long forgotten memories tucked away in the furthest recesses of the mind. As such, it's quite easily one of the most involving, beautiful records you'll hear all year. Essential purchase.
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Another masterful album full of microscopic found-sounds, wildlife-documentary vignettes, de-tuned midnight chimes and ageing celluloid lullabies - Henrik Johnson's 3rd album for City Centre Offices is his most beautiful, complete release to date. "Tools for Trains" sets things in motion with a slow rustle of static and the distant chimes of a lonely vintage synth, gradually enveloping itself within layers of warm effervescence that sound like a cross between Kompakt's Pop Ambient and Boards of Canada's 30-second interludes. It's a breathtaking, fragile opening that sets the velvety props in place for what's to follow. "Giftwrap yourself, Slowly" heads to an autumnal 1950's Parisian sidewalk and the memories of a long-faded romance, played out in a black and white, analogue fashion, while "Cubical Fever" evokes "the mid-point between Sun Ra and the half-remebered soundtracks of 70's mid-morning nature programmes" to quote The Wire magazine. There's an incredibly evocative narrative running through these 14 tracks, something that's enhanced greatly by the fact that most of the pieces here are just shy of the 2-3 minute mark, yanking you out of one glassy-eyed daydream into the next before coming to a close on the magnificently widescreen "Vingar Av Svard", an effect not unlike emerging into unfathomable sunshine after a few days burrowed deep under the thick cover of the Scandinavian forest in which these tracks were written and recorded. Although it's a cliché often associated with instrumental recordings of this nature, "New Exclusive Olympic Heights" is truly a record out of time and out of place - a solitary beacon for lonely hearts and nostalgic souls looking for something to trigger all those long forgotten memories tucked away in the furthest recesses of the mind. As such, it's quite easily one of the most involving, beautiful records you'll hear all year. Essential purchase.
Another masterful album full of microscopic found-sounds, wildlife-documentary vignettes, de-tuned midnight chimes and ageing celluloid lullabies - Henrik Johnson's 3rd album for City Centre Offices is his most beautiful, complete release to date. "Tools for Trains" sets things in motion with a slow rustle of static and the distant chimes of a lonely vintage synth, gradually enveloping itself within layers of warm effervescence that sound like a cross between Kompakt's Pop Ambient and Boards of Canada's 30-second interludes. It's a breathtaking, fragile opening that sets the velvety props in place for what's to follow. "Giftwrap yourself, Slowly" heads to an autumnal 1950's Parisian sidewalk and the memories of a long-faded romance, played out in a black and white, analogue fashion, while "Cubical Fever" evokes "the mid-point between Sun Ra and the half-remebered soundtracks of 70's mid-morning nature programmes" to quote The Wire magazine. There's an incredibly evocative narrative running through these 14 tracks, something that's enhanced greatly by the fact that most of the pieces here are just shy of the 2-3 minute mark, yanking you out of one glassy-eyed daydream into the next before coming to a close on the magnificently widescreen "Vingar Av Svard", an effect not unlike emerging into unfathomable sunshine after a few days burrowed deep under the thick cover of the Scandinavian forest in which these tracks were written and recorded. Although it's a cliché often associated with instrumental recordings of this nature, "New Exclusive Olympic Heights" is truly a record out of time and out of place - a solitary beacon for lonely hearts and nostalgic souls looking for something to trigger all those long forgotten memories tucked away in the furthest recesses of the mind. As such, it's quite easily one of the most involving, beautiful records you'll hear all year. Essential purchase.