stevendeeds-thefan
Playfully post-nostalgic soundscapes and compositions that remind me of the joy that can come from an album when a well-disciplined writer hones in on a sonic concept.
Antonymes
One of the most beautiful records I’ve heard in a long time. Absolutely mesmerising. Andrew, thank you for making such incredible music.
Favorite track: Last Sunbeams of Childhood.
Lost Tribe Sound
A little more sun-dappled than Wasylyk's previous albums, though I love them all. This leaves behind some of the lonesome General Hospital-vibed horns, and instead sounds like the most tender and thoughtful 70's soft-core ost ever made, crossed with something more modern, a bit funky, perhaps even classical. Fans of Bibio, The Gentleman Losers take note.
World of Echo
Transcendental, warm, and gorgeous fusion of chamber & spiritual jazz and soundtrack-type instrumental music. Highly recommended whether you like any jazz or just any instrumental music in general--you need to check this out.
mini50records
Probably my favourite of the last 3 records and that's saying something. Was the perfect sound track to the September sunshine. A gorgeous, rich record. Highly recommended.
Subscribe
now to receive all the new
music
Athens Of The North releases,
including
90 back-catalog items,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
You’ll also get access to
subscriber-only
exclusives.
Learn more.
Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation is the third in a trio of records by Andrew Wasylyk which unearth and reshape the landscape of Eastern Scotland as shimmering and inventive instrumental music. Where Themes for Buildings and Spaces (2017) toured the architecture and industry of Dundee, evoking a place caught between decay and regrowth, the Scottish Album of the Year Award shortlisted The Paralian (2019) explored the littoral exchanges between sea and shore on the North Sea coastline.
Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation carries a trace of this arc on a return upriver, drifting back inland along the River Tay’s inner estuary: a record of the low light on winter fields, empty suburban streets at dawn, the deep clear waters of the quarry excavated to build the city. Ten songs circling landscapes for meaning, channelling half-heard melodies and misremembered memories; caught somewhere between settling down and setting out towards the shining levels of the estuary and beyond.
The record is threaded with the influences of people, place and musical lineages – David Axelrod, John Barry, Virginia Astley, Mark Hollis, Alice Coltrane – yet as with all of Andrew’s solo work it has a deft, clear voice all of its own. Recorded between Summer 2019 and January 2020, Fugitive Light… displays his talent as a multi-instrumentalist and composer: all hushed drum grooves, rolling waves of plucked acoustic guitar, cascading upright piano, Bob James-inspired Fender Rhodes, rippling clàrsach harp, and ECM-worthy electric guitar motifs. As on The Paralian, string arrangements are by fellow Tayside musician Pete Harvey, known for his work with King Creosote and Modern Studies.
This is a record scored through with patterns of light: the song titles evoke last sunbeams, the fugitive light of water, the violet hour of autumn, cemetery silhouettes, and the half-light of the moon; the arrangements aglow with subtle shifts of texture and refractions of melody. Fugitive Light… is an atmospheric (in both the sonic and elemental sense) evocation of the ebb of the world, something that Andrew describes as, “simultaneously about knowing loss and accepting love, the optimistic and the downhearted, where the lightness and dark gather together.”
Andrew has a knack for writing melodies that seem at once timeless yet entirely individual: emerging somewhere between spiritual jazz, neo-classical and library music, diffracted by the blues and greys of the wide Tay firth. The instrumentation has a soft-focus glow of its own: piano keys gently pressed, the metronomic click of analogue drum machines, the well and wash of strings and brass, a singing saw whirring into the heavens. Fugitive Light And Themes Of Consolation is another Wasylyk song-cycle wonder; a wander through glimmering internal and external landscapes.
The title is an attention-getter to be sure, but this collection of trippy psych-pop more than earns it with its wavy, acid-laced melodies. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 17, 2021
This riveting new LP from Philly artist flanafi gorgeously blends post-rock with soul music, with striking results. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 20, 2020
supported by 216 fans who also own “Fugitive Light and Themes of Consolation”
Perhaps this is Hampshire & Foat's most sublime effort yet. For those not yet acquainted with their music, get moving. Some of the most warm, well-composed, and textural instrumental music being made. Makes complete sense that the duo is one part Warren Hampshire (The Bees, Band of Bees), one of my all time favorite bands. Lost Tribe Sound