Stationary Travels (BLOG)

Will Samson has always had a penchant for incorporating delicate textural layers and achingly beautiful strings into his fine spun brand of pop music – just consider Ground Luminosity (2015) or Balance (2012) – but when a recent facial injury sustained while relocating from the UK to Portugal forced him to temporarily put singing aside, he decided to extemporize with tape recording equipment and purely instrumental motifs and ended up creating a most serene and salutary album called Lua.

“The whole process was about being open and allowing the music to flow out naturally, without letting my analytical mind become involved. To just press record on my tape machines and see what happens. This experiment allowed me to produce some honest documents of how I was really feeling at the time with all that was going on in my life.“ – Will Samson 

There is no denying the beauty or curative powers bestowed on these five tracks and they find an ideal home on the 12k label alongside other luminaries of electroacoustic sound artistry such as Taylor Deupree, Marcus Fishcher, and Illhua, to name a few. Each piece is saturated in a warm glow with a gently exfoliating graininess and a tender emotional undercurrent. The last three  in particular form an exquisite trilogy – “Père” with violin parts played by Beatrijs De Klerck, “You Are An Ocean” which is enhanced by the collaboration of Benoit Pioulard, and the idyllic closing title track. It is hard to imagine a better example of the healing power of music or a better tonic for the weary soul.

Lua is currently available via 12k as a digital download only and features fine cover art by Gregory Euclide (also known for his artwork for Bon Iver).