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MARK BARROTT

Mark Barrott

I Am The Sun, You Are The Moon (feat. Norma Winstone & Leo Taylor)

Featuring the otherworldly vocals of the legendary jazz singer Norma Winstone whose vocals were recently sampled in Drake's 2023 chart topping single IDGAF (feat. Yeat) and Leo Taylor (Floating Points, Hot Chip, Joy Crookes) on drums, the EP is the amalgamation of Barrott's long term fascination with sunset music, and the ways the change of seasons impact the way we co-exist with the sun. As winter draws closer and we move on from the Autumn equinox to Winter solstice, Barrott's latest release captures the transformative yet paradoxical feeling of melancholy over the end of Summer and the start of winter while creating an eerie sensation of serenity.

The EP follows from the release of Barrott's critically acclaimed and deeply personal 2024 album Everything Changes, Nothing Ends.

The new EP sees Barrott return to his beloved sunset music, as he continues his eternal quest to find new ways to soundtrack this sacred Ibiza moment.

Crowned as the"master of sunset music"by Pitchfork, Barrott's new EP is filled with celestial grandeur that stops you in your tracks. A profound musical meditation and an homage to the sunsets of the Autumn months, the EP captures the sonic poetry of the changing skies and the seasons.

The haunting combination of Barrott's production & arrangement skills, Taylor's jazz drums and Winstone's endlessly ethereal vocals soar in a harmonious union across the title track of the EP while the openerI Am The Starssummons you in for a brief respite from the cacophony of the modern world. The wistful second trackMy Blue Heartlingers with you with its melancholic jazz horns swelling side by side with Winstone's vocals while the closing trackI Am The Airfloats through your ears with its sublime contemplativeness. I Am The Sun, You Are The Moonsees Barrott returning to his sonic ruminations on sunsets, however they are more profound and life affirming than ever.

"At the end of the summer, on a clear bright starry night I climbed to the top of a mountain in Ibiza with a pair of headphones and listened to these tracks and lost myself in the vastness of the night sky and the endlessness of Norma's voice. At that moment everything made sense in my world for the first time in a long while and it just felt right", Mark Barrott says.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Am The Stars (feat. Norma Winstone & Leo Taylor)
2. My Blue Heart (feat. Norma Winstone & Leo Taylor)

Most music does not come out of nowhere. Arising and appearing in a pre-existing system of influences, cross-references, roots, memories and desires, it either directly points towards a heritage or into the future. Mark Barrott’s "Nature Sounds of the Balearics" is a bit of both. The mastermind behind the International Feel label and the Sketches from an Island series presents an intermediary.

Technically, it’s his departure from a software based workflow and onto (or back to) a hardware driven creative point of view. Philosophically, it deals with the schizophrenia of our times: the late Paul Virgilio’s dromology and logistics of perception versus a decelerated life outside of cities, internet algorhythmics (sic!) versus meditation, the excessive stock market (all track titles are derivates of that world) against a tactile way of living.
Musically, it is the outcome of what Barrott himself described as his "techno album". For people whose definition of techno has to do with speed (again) and kick drums that might seem like a misinterpretation. Listeners who remember the Artificial Intelligence and Freezone compilations, various chill out channels or Detroit’s mellow moments, will tend to agree. "Nature Sounds of the Balearics" miraculously evokes those days and times, without breaking his neck. It is as much at home in a Caribbean water utopia between dolphins and old fishing boats as it feels current and applicable in a Ridley Scott dystopia. And if meta levels aren't your thing: it’s just a beautiful album.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Moving away slightly from the beach-bound cocktail-fuelled halcyon lysergia of the previous outings, Barrott opts for off-kilter melodies and hardware-based sequencing to create a more rhythmically diverse offering, as fascinating as it is engrossing. Lovely stuff.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Aroon
A2. Morning Star
A3. Point & Figure
A4. Heikin-Ashi
A5. TRIX
B1. Keltner & Chalkin
B2. Ichimoku
B3. Donchian Reprise
B4. Boolean Hawks
B5. Evening Star 


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