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.
 
Listen to Geography now on all music services:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Tidal
SoundCloud
YouTube