You might recognise Hidden Shoal from our piece on Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs, the latest album from REW<<. The label has recently released Long Range Transmissions, the first in a series of themed compilations which showcase the ambient/neo-classical acts in their catalogue. It’s the perfect place to introduce yourself to a diverse and interesting collective of musicians.
While the collection comes from a particular genre, there is still room for much variation across the thirteen tracks. Antonymes and Kryshe favour fragile, graceful piano, Cheekbone push a sci-fi inspired electronica and Chloe March creates a lush chamber pop. Todd Tobias evokes a mixture of shimmering bliss and nostalgia, his track ‘Nan Madol’ playing like a super-cinematic missing number from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, while Stockholm’s Erik Nilsson’s gently tropical ‘Drawing/Dreaming’ feels like watching the sun set into the sea on the last night of your holiday. Other highlights include the goosebump-inducing melodrama of Slow Dancing Society’s ‘Pull’, Elisa Luu’s ethereal ‘Chromatic Sigh’ and the aching melancholy of closing track ‘Empty Cradles’ by Sleeping Me.
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Tracklisting:
Antonymes – The Siren, Hopelessly Lost
My Majestic Star – Meaning Less
Markus Mehr – Hubble
Chloe March – Old Tree, Mon Coeur
Cheekbone – Far
Erik Nilsson – Drawing/Dreaming
Slow Dancing Society – Pull
Gilded – Velar
Todd Tobias – Nan Madol
Elisa Luu – Chromatic Sigh
Kryshe – Africa
Medard Fischer – Five Years Almost to the Day
Sleeping Me – Empty Cradles
You can buy Long Range Transmissions now on a pay-what-you-can basis from the Hidden Shoal Bandcamp page. Find all the latest news on Hidden Shoal releases via their website.
P.S. The artwork is by Perth artist/graphic designer Gabrielle Harcourt.