The state51 Conspiracy
is proud to be releasing ‘Geography’: the debut album from
experimental sound art group
VÄLVĒ.
"Absolutely delightful” -
Independent Music Podcast
"Electronics jitter with spiky, austere
minimalism that is plenty groovy but seems to predate synthesised dance
music." – Noel Gardner, greedmag
"this is music that occupies strange
territory between the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the BBC’s Radiophonic
Workshop, between the Boards Of Canada and Nurse With Wound, and as such
deserves our attention indeed.” - The Quietus
VÄLVĒ was initially the
brain(y)child of Londoner Chlöe Herington, who plays bassoon foremost and
several instruments in practice, but she’s a lynchpin and a beneficiary of
the always-expanding musical family tree branching out from underground legends
the Cardiacs. Circa seven-song debut album Geography,
VÄLVĒ is a trio, also featuring Elen Evans (harp) and
Sullivan (bass, synth and vox – she and Herington have both done time in
spacediscodoom megaunit Chrome Hoof), and they have hit on a wonderful sound
here! Or a variety of them.
Woodwind-led numbers are equally pastoral and
insistent (Fig. 2a, a redux of a piece from
VÄLVĒs Silent Reflux EP from early 2021); electronics
jitter with spiky, austere minimalism that is plenty groovy but seems to predate
synthesised dance music. And bouts of improv, as on Powerlines and Caroline,
show a knack for the form unexplored in previous
VÄLVĒ releases – unexpected, yet quite
unsurprising.
"What a privilege to work with The Quietus, a
musical institution I have total respect for, and The state51 Conspiracy who
have completely understood the vision and ideas behind the music and treated it
with such care, attention to detail and love. To have
VÄLVĒs music lathe-cut and encased in such beautiful and magical
forms is more than we could have wished
for.
The music examines relationships with geography; be that
walked and traced on a map, remembered from places visited long ago, imagined
from stories, dreamt or observed hyper-locally. Louise Mason has taken an
annoated map used during the musical process and transformed it into a series of
images that beautifully and intuitively capture the essence of the album.
We’re very excited to birth this record and invite you to explore these
seven lands, discover our worlds and trace their paths.” - Chlöe
Herington/VÄLVĒ
The physical version of the album will
be the inaugural release in state51’s ‘51
Editions’ lathe series. Each record will be cut by Bladud
Flies and hand packaged in The state51 Atelier. The 51st
edition is presented in a specially hand made box. Preorder
now: https://state51.greedbag.com/buy/geography-15/
Artwork for 'Geography' was developed
by Louise Mason and was inspired by the OS pathfinder
maps Chlöe used on her walks during the process of making the
album.
