Vanishing Twin’s seminal LP, The Age Of Immunology, receives a LTD edition pressing on None ‘Pink’ and Sine ‘Teal’ vinyl, limited to 500 units each and paired with matching sleeve art. As essential take on psych-pop futurism and a must for fans of Broadcast, Sun Ra and Ennio Morricone.

Establishing the band as innovators in their field, the record was declared “a masterpiece” by The Line Of Best Fit, while The Quietus asserted Vanishing Twin as “one of the most original and exciting acts of the moment”.

This was the group’s first LP for Fire Records, at the time of recording the band’s evolving lineup consisted of songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion.

The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. ‘KRK (At Home In Strange Places)’ summons up the spirit of Sun Ra’s Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio and was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk. The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury.

TRACK LISTING

1. KRK (At Home In Strange Places)
2. Wise Children
3. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life
4. You Are Not An Island
5. The Age Of Immunology
6. Magician’s Success
7. Planète Sauvage
8. Backstroke
9. Invisible World
10. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!)

BONUS TRACKS: Download ONLY
1. The Age Of Immunology (Version)
2. Magician’s Success (Live)
3. Backstroke (Live)
4. Language Is A City (Let Me Out!) (Live)
5. You Are Not An Island (Version)
6. Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life (Extended Life Version)

While possibly not the first ambient record to be inspired by J Dilla’s Donuts, Secret Pyramid’s A Vanishing Touch is in rarified company. The two seem antithetical—with Donuts a now classic collection of short beats compiled together and A Vanishing Touch being a forty-minute suite consisting of fourteen pieces. However, like any genre, ambient music has a lot more going on beneath the surface than might be initially gleaned.

From the start, Amir Abbey dropped his usual songwriting process of long contemplation and careful sculpting. “I let the pieces live and breathe, and I spent a lot less time tweaking and editing. Doing this brought an energy and mystery to the music that was missing from what I’ve made in the past.” This allowed the record to come together quickly”, with Abbey working on it nightly after his work day had ended. “Each album is a snapshot of where I am at that point in time. With this album, I have been thinking about shifting memory, how a moment in time does not need to be thought of as endless, but rather part of a cycle. Every beginning is as important and salient as the ending that follows.”

Working at home, as he always has, Abbey embeds synths, tape loops and processing, horns, ondes martenot, guitar, bass, and organ within the multi-tiered composition of A Vanishing Touch. Sounds morph, bleed, fade, and permeate with moments where a listener is able to make out what is being played at that moment. “I’ve intentionally blurred some of the instrumentation and it can’t be easily made out, so even if you pay attention to the sound, there’s something ephemeral about it.” Each measure feels deep, singular, mysterious, and unconfined. It’s a new approach to ambience—the magic of the moment as a moment, not stretched beyond its point in time. “A Vanishing Touch is about impermanence and the beauty that can result from it.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Whim
2. Slow Softly
3. Broken Wing
4. Kiss The Hold
5. So So
6. Out Of The Sky Into The Ground
7. Valerian
8. Bloom Nightly
9. One Twelve (feat. Ilyas Ahmed)
10. Blush
11. Hands To
12. First Rotation
13. Turning Into Air
14. Cradle

Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome.

Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas’ left-field song-craft, Magaletti’s singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai’s long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop.

These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album’s title track and the constrained minimalism of “Subito”, to the ambitious heights of pieces like ‘The Down Below’ and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker.

Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Vanishing Twin take all the best elements of easy listening and psych-pop and wraps them in a veil of mystery and woozy unease. It's got gothic charm, but it's also got a litany of perfectly written hooks and masterfully crafted atmospheres. Yet another giant leap forwards for a brilliant band.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1 Melty
A2 Afternoon X
A3 Brain Weather
A4 Lotus Eater
A5 Marbles
Side B
B1 The Down Below
B2 Lazy Garden
B3 Subito

55°N, 5°E sees Smith presenting a multi-format representation of a naval disaster in 1904 that saw took the life of his great-grandfather in the North Sea. Russian Warships fired upon a fleet of British fishing trawlers, mistaking them for Japanese Warships killing two, and injuring six of the fishermen. This recording sees an audio narrative unfolding, representing the various stages of the incident, and skilfully moving between a fractured vocal narrative and a slowly building suite of modern-classical composition that falls somewhere between chamber classical and experimental music concrete.  

It's best listened to as a continuous piece of work (download available as detailed on the supplied insert), and results in a wildly absorbing work, both foreboding and beautiful. Definitely a must for fans of Constellation Records, or any of the more shadowy Gizeh records outings (Aiden Baker et. al.)

A superb collaborative outing from some of the top artists working in and around the bustling Northeast avant-ambient scene, and a thoroughly spellbinding listen

TRACK LISTING

1. 55°N, 5°E 06:54
2. Shell 05:22
3. Crane 04:59
4. Compass 09:21
5. Statue 08:03

Bella Union introduce Dog In The Snow, the moniker of Brighton-based artist Helen Ganya Brown. Dog In The Snow’s Bella Union debut is ‘Vanishing Lands’; an imposing, haunting and luminous collection of songs in the darker spaces between dream-pop, art-rock and electronica, lifted by euphoric melodies, ravishing vocals and absorbing lyrics.

‘Vanishing Lands’ was initially created at Brown’s home in Brighton before co-producer Rob Flynn helped her add shifting, impressionistic swathes of colour, from the ominous chords that open ‘Light’ to the vocal eddies that close ‘Dark’.

Brown wrote 8 of the 10 songs in a 3-week spell after a period of “strange dreams.” She recalls: “Dreams in black and white. I found myself in a dreamland and discovered it was being destroyed. I chose ‘Vanishing Lands’ as an album title because it sounded suitably desolate, and lent the songs a feeling of cohesion.”

TRACK LISTING

Light
Bloom
Dual Terror
Monochrome
This Only City
Icaria
Gold
Roses
Fall Empire
Dark

Hyperdub launch new sub-label Flatlines for the release of ‘On Vanishing Land’, an audio-essay by Justin Barton and the late Mark Fisher. ‘On Vanishing Land’ evokes a walk along the Suffolk coastline in 2006, from Felixstowe container port ("a nerve ganglion of capitalism") to the Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo. A walk under immense skies, through zones of deep time, and within sunlit, liminal terrains, into the eerie. Everywhere there are charged atmospheres, shadowy incursions, enigmatic departures. A derelict radar base, coastal heathland, drifting thistledown, towers of overgrown shipping containers - music haunted by wider levels of reality, narrations about rarely visited zones and potentials, voices of dreams and stories.

This music includes newly-composed tracks by John Foxx, Gazelle Twin, Baron Mordant, Raime, Pete Wiseman, Farmers of Vega, Skjolbrot, Eerie Anglia, Ekoplekz and Dolly Dolly. Alongside these are glimpsed views toward M.R.James’s ‘Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad’ (1904), Joan Lindsay’s ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ (1967), and Brian Eno’s ‘On Land’ (1982). Beyond the surface of the day something becomes visible, a way forward, an escape-path from capitalist reality. ‘On Vanishing Land’ is about following the lines of terrains and dreams. It is about a micropolitics of escape, of disappearance. A micropolitics of waking the faculties. ‘On Vanishing Land’ was initially part of an exhibition commissioned by The Otolith Collective and The Showroom in London, and after ‘londonunderlondon’ (2005) it was the second audio-work collaboration by Justin Barton and Mark Fisher. 

'Vanishing Twin is songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion; and on this album they have made their first artistic statement for the ages. Some of its great power comes from liberation. The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. ‘KRK (At Home In Strange Places)’ summons up the spirit of Sun Ra’s Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk. The magical Morricone-esque lounge of ‘You Are Not an Island’, the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of ‘Invisible World’ and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, ‘Planète Sauvage’, were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury.

The only two outsiders to work on the recording were ‘6th member’ and engineer Syd Kemp and trusted friend Malcolm Catto, band leader of the spiritual jazz/future funk outfit The Heliocentrics, who mixed seven of the tracks (with Lucas taking care of the other three). Vanishing Twin formed in 2015 - their first LP, Choose Your Own Adventure, which came out on Soundway in 2016; followed by the darker, more abstract, mostly instrumental Dream By Numbers EP in 2017. The band explored their more experimental tendencies on the Magic And Machines tape released by Blank Editions in 2018, an improvised session recorded in the dead of night, offering a glimpse into their practice of deep listening, near band telepathy, and ritually improvised sound making. These sessions formed the basis of The Age Of Immunology.

STAFF COMMENTS

Emily says: Vanishing Twin have returned this year with a second album of transcendent psychedelic pop. Drawing on far reaching influences in a similar manner to Stereolab, they incorporate elements of krautrock, tropicália and lounge into their expansive soundworld. The comparisons which can be drawn between the two bands are abundant - you can even hear echoes of Lætitia Sadier in Cathy Lucas’ pure, unaffected lead vocals. But the output of Vanishing Twin is not simply derivative. Its members are unique artists in their own right, and their collective sound already bears its own significance.
Listening to ‘The Age Of Immunology’ feels like drifting off to a strange, mythological world somewhere in the unknown depths of space. Each track glides effortlessly into the next and is steeped in dreamlike imagery. In “KRK (At Home In Strange Places)” Lucas’ vocals weave around a loose, polyrhythmic groove and soaring string arrangements. The acoustic guitar steadily sets the pulse in “You Are Not An Island”, suspended above gently glowing electronics and hints of Reichian minimalism. And “Planète Sauvage” is an ode to the cult animated sci-fi film of the same name, featuring a french spoken word monologue which gives way to cinematic strings and a curious synth-organ solo.
It seems Vanishing Twin are a group intent on creating music that defies borders and dissolves genre into genre. Perhaps they fit into an alternative definition of “World Music”, with their influences which reach as far around the globe as their combined nationalities - Belgian, Japanese, Italian, French and American. Who knows where their psychedelic voyage will take them next? For now, let’s delight in their twinkling, cosmic splendour.

TRACK LISTING

1 KRK (At Home In Strange Places)
2 Wise Children
3 Cryonic Suspension May Save Your Life
4 You Are Not An Island
5 The Age Of Immunology
6 Magician’s Success
7 Planète Sauvage
8 Backstroke
9 Invisible World
10 Language Is A City (Let Me Out!)

Tombed visions newest beautifully crafted outing comes in the form of 'Vanishing', featuring Paddy Shine of Gnod fame and a host of talented and likeminded drone soldiers. 'Brighton' presents a softly spoken northern monologue draped liberally over a dark backdrop of chamber classical strings, gothic organ swells and earth-shaking percussion. Presented like dark ambient, but showing the grace of classical music and the melodic intonations of soaring post-rock buried under a shroud of gloom. As we move into 'Night Vision', the pensive vocal flourishes turn quickly into beastlike distorted whispering, while the percussion steps up a notch into syncopated distorted mayhem, gating airy swells and cavernous basses into an amalgamation of industrial and electronic influence. 

Moving further along and 'The Forger' is once again led by a bleak spoken monologue, but the backing has progressed into an echoic chamber of lengthy plate verbs applied to squeaks of noise and what sounds like train sounds, all underpinned by a heartfelt but shadowy piano refrain. 'Bronze Misnomer' threatens to break into full electronic meltown at any point, with droning feedback and Paddy's free-jazz sax noodlings providing relief to the stark electronic backbone. 

It really is brilliant this one, it takes time to devlop and it demands your attention, turning from a noisy drone into a nuanced and impeccable ambient masterstroke with repeated listens. Bleak, bold and stunningly beautiful. 

TRACK LISTING

1. Brighton 84 04:29
2. Night Vision 04:29
3. Fountain 07:49
4. The Forger 04:37
5. The Cleaners 04:44
6. Bronze Misnomer 02:59
7. The World Paused 03:57
8. Glacier 08:21

This week sees gruesomely named London ensemble Vanishing Twin release their debut album "Choose Your Own Adventure" via Soundway Records. The band enlisted the help of producer Malcolm Catto (Heliocentrics, DJ Shadow, The Gaslamp Killer) and began work at his London studio, Quatermass Sound Lab, last spring. Recording the basis for eight tracks, they blended structure and improvisation in pop songs that describe a personal mythology through the adventures of Lucas' vanished twin. Formed in 2015, Vanishing Twin came together to make an exploratory record that marries oblique English pop with a palette of arkestral sounds. Having previously released a string of conceptual cassettes under the name Orlando, founder Cathy Lucas (Innerspace Orchestra) named the group after her vanishing twin, an identical sister absorbed in utero, when they were both still a cluster of cells. Drawing on sounds outside of the usual pop vocabulary, the group used forgotten drum machines, home-made electronics, vibraphones, tablas, and harp to invoke the esoteric psychedelia of lost soundtracks, radiophonic experiments and minimal music orchestras. In a studio that Catto built for maximum atmosphere and minimum interfere, and crammed with obscure vintage equipment, he brought his own distinctive sonics to the table, informed by outsider jazz, Italian library music and ethnographic field recordings. Vanishing Twin is made up of singer Cathy Lucas (Fanfarlo, The Oscillation) drummer Valentina Magaletti (Raime, Tomaga, Uuuu, Neon Neon), bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin, Floating Points), library music head Phil M.F.U. (Man From Uranus, Broadcast) on strange sounds, and film maker and visual artist Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion. 

TRACK LISTING

Vanishing Twin Syndrome
Telescope
Floating Heart
Eggs
Under The Water
The Conservation Of Energy
Choose Your Own Adventure
Truth Is Boring
It Sends
My Heart Into A Spin

Over the course of their recording career, WWVV have proven to be a multi faceted and difficult to define. Their discography, which contains numerous cassettes, CDRs and a little bit of vinyl, all of which display their twisted and droning take on psychedelic folk has been constantly evolving and has seen each of their superb releases build upon the strengths of its immediate predecessor. "The Flood" is an exploration of the goodness inherent in the human heart and how that decency can help transform the world into a better place. WWVV recorded this record over the spring of 2005 to act as a sonic testament to this principal.