Liminalondon
“Liminalondon…..offers a distinctive and memorable modern twist on what London living sounds like today. A richly diverse and intelligently constructed concept album.” RoughTrade.com
“10 out of 10. Classical-ambient at its finest…. one of the most beautiful 2014 ambient albums I’ve come across.” The Siren Sound
“His subtle beats and obvious melodic sense brilliantly manages to take us on a far-reaching journey of the mind”. IRM
Liminalondon is a “psychogeographical” tour of the Capital city, featuring ten instrumental tracks that interweave “found-sounds” with ambient and left-field electronica, acoustic and electronic beats and contemporary classical minimalism.
The album has been featured on Nick Luscombe’s Late Junction show on BBC Radio 3, and Dai has been performing material from it live across London. (Click on the gigs tab for more details.)
The field recordings and conversations on the album were captured spontaneously in a variety of London locations, including Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath Ponds, The National Portrait Gallery, Curzon Soho Café, The London Underground, along the banks of the Thames, The O2- not to mention some of the Capital’s finest pubs and bars… The music was largely written on a laptop and MIDI keyboard at the Southbank Centre Members’ Area, before being recorded and mixed at The Shed, Dai’s studio in North London.
Dai Watts plays acoustic and electric pianos, flute, acoustic and electric guitars, synths, electric bass and all programming on the album; Al Twist plays electric bass on ‘Return of the Unreliable Narrator’.
liminal: 1 of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process. 2 occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
psychogeography: 1 The study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. 2 the active search for, and celebration of, chance and coincidence, concurrently with the divination of patterns and repetitions thrown up by the meeting/collision of the chaos and structures of cities, personal histories and interpretations. It is based on the technique of the “dérive”, an informed and aware wandering, with continuous observation, through varied environments. It can be sought and can lead anywhere. 3 a concept with “a rather pleasing vagueness”.