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Snow Palms

Snow Palms - Land Waves (Village Green)

£18.49

RELEASED: 18th December 2020
Black Vinyl LP

Format:  Black Vinyl LP
Cat No:  VGLP057

'Land Waves’, the third album by new minimalists Snow Palms, is the project’s first full length since becoming a duo. At times it is like Terry Riley with Lex Baxter in Japan, at others it could be the soundtrack to a meditation centre in neo-Tokyo dreamed up by
William Gibson and Brian Eno. Its patterns and textures accelerate and resolve with drama and intent, its abstractions rendered by a distinctive kinetic sound world of mallets and synthesizers conjuring real and imaginary landscapes.

The album’s opener ‘Atom Dance’, which is like Martin Denny’s orchestra reinterpreting Steve Reich, crescendos to heart-stirring finale; ‘Everything Ascending’ counts out a human heartbeat before reaching for the stars in glittering synths and galaxies of soaring vocals; ‘Evening Rain Gardens’ is soothing music for a meditation
centre from the future. Title track ‘Land Waves’ is a restrained epic, equal parts vast panorama and decorous motif. The graceful woodwinds of ‘Thought Shadow’ express the album’s more reflective moments, while the shifting rhythmic patterns of ‘Kojo Yakei’ evoke the concept it’s named for - a Japanese trend for night-time visits to factories and refineries decorated in lights. Inexorably enveloping closing track ‘White Cranes Return’ is a requiem for twilight, when soft shadows are drawn over a landscape.
‘Land Waves’ is hallmarked by the voice of Matt Gooderson’s partner Megan, who was pregnant with their son during recording sessions. Her empyrean vocals are woven into the tapestry of the album, grounding the music in the human, as glockenspiels, marimbas and clarinets move in lockstep with arpeggiated modular synthesizers and
glinting percussion. “Adding the human voice to this sound world adds a generous new dimension and opens up and a whole new vista for Snow Palms,” says Sheppard. “It’s a buoyant and uplifting record, which I love deeply,” agrees Gooderson, “That feeling is much needed in these times of crisis.”

TRACKLISTING:

01. Atom Dance
02. Everything Ascending
03. Evening Rain Gardens
04. Land Waves
05. Thought Shadow
06. Kojo Yakei
07. White Cranes Return