Staccato Signals [Vinyl]

Working from The Vennel, his home studio in South Queensferry, Scotland, composer and producer Ben Chatwin creates a musical language permeated with an ambiguity, or tension, between the electronic and acoustic worlds. Much more than just a meeting of the two, what emerges is a daring, vivid and emotionally-charged music unshackled from a traditional sense of structure and genre. Following The Sleeper Awakes (2015) and Heat & Entropy (2016), Staccato Signals is Bens third album under his own name. Set for release on 6th July 2018 through Village Green Recordings, its a bolder and more ambitious record than anything he has written before, largely the result of relinquishing different levels of control over the musical process. Its an album which smoulders with an almost aggressive darkness, yet one that is laced with melodic glimmers of light.

This constant pull between the acoustic and the electronic, man versus machine, and the agile production Ben utilised to maintain their balance, is what gives Staccato Signals its powerful and beguiling character. Throughout the album mournful strings are engulfed by harsh, all-encompassing synths, while disorienting climaxes of blazing electronics recall the deafening loudness of an inferno. Yet while the jagged, synthesized textures that needle the album together might call to mind such devastating imagery, the acoustic instruments that feature throughout the album continuously provide a more human counterbalance.

'Staccato Signals' will no doubt appeal to fans of the hybrid forms of Ben Frost, Board of Canada and Tim Hecker. Ben has performed live across the globe with the likes of William Basinski, Hauschka, Tim Hecker, Oneohtrix Point Never and Loscil.