Music

2022 | Album

This album is the culmination of a significant chunk of time and effort, spent during a couple of personally and globally frustrating years. It has been a great source of exasperation in and of itself, but has overall been a really enjoyable and satisfying experience to put it all together. The main theme for this record is water and overwhelming feelings akin to drowning.

Once again I've tried a few new techniques and ideas which I may or may not carry forward to future releases. Once again I have also included a virtual gatefold bonus download to enhance the experience for those that appreciate that kind of thing.

A huge thanks to Karthik for taking my crude sketch and creating this awesome front cover that I think we can both be proud of.

The biggest thanks of all however goes out to my ever-supportive wife who puts up with all the late nights and endless sulking as I try and hatchet my way through another project.

The record is also available on all major streaming sites.

2021 | Collaborative album with Arx Atrata & Arx Silvestris

The Warrior Cycle is a collaborative split album between myself and the immensely talented Ben Sizer of Arx Atrata and Arx Silvestris. Fully instrumental, it tells the tragic story of The Warrior through tracks of atmospheric post black metal, interspersed with 3 ambient interludes provided by Ben's Arx Silvestris project.

This release was really interesting to work on, and once again allowed me to try out a few new techniques for recording and mixing, including some bodhran playing and a greater use of synths than previous releases.

The pay-what-you-like download at my Bandcamp page includes a full virtual inlay, intended to emulate a vinyl gatefold. This was also something new which I am planning to create for all future releases. The inlay includes the The Warrior Cycle story concept, as well as a some liner notes from each of us about how the release came together.

The record is also available on all major streaming sites.

2021 | Collaborative album with Beyond the Below and Fabio Keiner

Eruptions is a collaborative instrumental album which blends the styles of progressive, hypnotic ambient music with blackened post metal.

The trans-European collaboration features Bleakwinter Shrine (United Kingdom), Beyond the Below (Finland) and Fabio Keiner (Austria), and looks to the natural power of volcanos for thematic inspiration. Volcanos are an interesting subject matter because they are incredibly dynamic structures: slumbering and effusing gentle smoke one moment, then deafening and explosive the next. We felt that this was the perfect analogy for a release which blends textured, synth-rich ambience with the contrast of weighty heavy metal.

We met whilst posting on the forums of ambientonline.org, and over the course of many months exchange ideas and demos to create the finished album which now finally sees the light of day.

For the best experience, download and listen to all tracks in sequence.

2020 | EP

The two tracks on Fulmination represent my contribution to the 'Eruptions' collaboration project I completed with two ambient artists: Fabio Keiner and Beyond the Below

2019 | Album

My first release, Foundations, is out now in digital-only format as of 26th July 2019. It is available for pay-what-you-like download on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms.

I wrote and recorded the vast majority of the music between summer 2016 and late-winter 2017. I have gone back to the recordings 2 or 3 times since, re-mixing, tweaking and obsessing over them each time until I lose interest again. This time, I've decided that the songs are at a point where I am happy enough with them that I can let them go into the wild. I have messed about with them for long enough, it's time to draw a line under them and move on to working on the next release.

As I worked on the tracks, it seemed natural to name each one after large natural features that came to mind as I listened back to them, I hope this is something that comes across for anyone else who hears the record.