Aside from being a BAFTA-nominated composer and member of bands like Tea with the Queen, Naomi Hates Humans and The Leaf Library (as a guitarist, bassist and drummer respectively), north London‘s Lewis Young records under the moniker Beneather. The project is a vehicle for the full diversity of Young’s creative sensibilities, allowing him to pursue ideas across genres and moods in search of the most fulfilling styles. “I just needed to make a project which spoke to all the aspects of music I’ve loved creating as a multi-instrumentalist,” Young explains. “Plugging things into things to make satisfying little electronic loops, then layering extremely minimal bass and guitar lines with a lo-fi aesthetic.”
With vocals by Melinda Bronstein, the result falls somewhere between Grouper and Emeralds. But despite this collision of ideas, the Beneather sound has a sense of natural order. A deceptive simplicity born of its intuitive style and inherent in the project’s thematic concerns. “Beneather depicts the journey of recollecting memories,” Young continues:
How we process what we remember and what we don’t. Some moments are strong and clear, others feel lost. Beneather explores how we observe our history. How a thought has vague edges. A road we can’t quite recall the end of. Missing faces. Faded buildings. Fond memories become hazy and meandering. Beneather’s abstract sounds, frequencies and rhythms create melodies you can’t quite keep a hold of.
Ahead of an album, released by Where Its At Is Where You Are Records, Beneather has unveiled lead single ‘Dreamgaze’ by way of introduction. The track captures the project’s spacious melancholy, offering a sound both reflective and simmering with a certain force. A haunted soundscape where the energies of the past still linger, where history accumulates in strange patterns and new futures arise with preordained determination.
‘Dreamgaze’ is out now via Where Its At Is Where You Are Records and you can get it from the Beneather Bandcamp page.
