................................................................................................ ..................Photography by Oliver Barton
A slow rumble sneaks across the dreamy haze of a winter's moor... like an aural spectre; never quite visible, but definitely there. The haze burns off as a crisp sun rises through the hills scorching a path through the landscape as though its energy were focused through a magnifying glass. Atom Eye is the glass that pierces through you, darkly.
Welcome to the world of Elsie Martins.
A musician who takes raw elements of atonal field recordings and morphs them into compositions and rhythms - both dark and light, intense and subtle, whole and transient - an artform she developed in her guise as the driving force in the previous musical vehicle, Phantom. Broadening those horizons and introducing new elements such as analogue tape loops, ambient drones and world percussion, Atom Eye takes you on a journey : it's the soundtrack to your dreams... or your nightmares.
Following the release of the cinematic EP Trilogy 120 (May 2012), Atom Eye returns with an ambitious full length album The Otolith Sessions; the culmination of a year’s worth of sound experiments captured on various machines of a bygone era. The materials underlying each composition were formed from experiments with magnetic tape manipulation - deconstructing, layering, looping, suspending, pitch-warbling… carefully tended arrangements that unravel gently, to glorious, dramatic effect.
Intense and rich sound designs harnessing oscillating tones, chime-like guitars, symphonic drones, saxophone swirls, trills drenched in echo and orchestral percussion - the sheer iridescence of the sound harnessed in The Otolith Sessions exacts a mournful beauty, at once delicate and immense.
Drawing influences from film soundtracks, experimental music and sound art, The Otolith Sessions was mixed & co-produced by James Aparicio (Liars, Spiritualized) and features guest appearances from regular collaborators; award-winning percussionist Pete Lockett (Björk, David Holmes, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lee Scratch Perry, Primal Scream) and Mute Artist, Composer and Producer Simon Fisher Turner; whose work includes soundtracks for Derek Jarman's Caravaggio, The Last of England, The Garden and David Lynch-produced Nadja.
The Otolith Sessions is available now on the Forwind imprint.