Newly released single "Vika" by artist Tewksbury, now playing on M.P.R Ambient.
Tewksbury – the project of Hamilton, Ontario musician and sound artist Douglas Tewksbury– releases the new, ambitious 4-part collection of long-form ambient synthesizer and tape loop works, Floes: Volumes I-IV, on 21 March 2024 on Tridek Records, 'Vika', the first single is out now.
This is slow music for the Anthropocene, a collection of long-form works recorded over 2023. Each of the 16 tracks unfolds over its 10+ minute runtime: different melodies and textures emerge, intersect with one another, build, and wither over minutes. It's over 3 hours of glacial ambient music.
“I’m deeply inspired by the natural world, and time spent in the slowness of the Canadian and Arctic winter, when much of this album was recorded. These are uncertain times, for our people and our planet, and I wanted to make art that’s a reminder to slow down, to reflect, to think about where we are and where we’re going.”
These unhurried, long-form works were recorded on very long analog tape loops on vintage ¼” multitrack reel-to-reel machines. Repeating patterns emerge and dissipate, notes drift and blend, melodies enter and pass, almost imperceptibly. And imperfections abound in this very-much alive record: Tape splices begin to fail, loops stray off the spools, reels’ speeds begin to drift.
All of this is a reminder of the hand-made quality of the compositions, and the passage of time becomes an instrument, itself, as these works bring the listener on a meditative, personal journey.
Tewksbury says, “I wanted to put out a collection of slow, meditative music, long-form works that take the listener on a journey that reflects on humans and our place in the environment, on nature, on the North, in a suite of four movements of long-form compositions. It’s a lot of music. I guess I’m still surprised at how much I had to say.”
“I like doing new things, and I’m not interested in repeating myself from project to project. Here, with the works of Floes: Volumes I-IV, I wanted to make a suite of tape-based works that uses the passage of time, of loops on the tape heads over and over again, to reflect on our natural world, of the bloom and withering of the seasons. I suppose I just wanted to give listeners a sense of slowness, evolving, collage-based music, of belonging to this moment. And in the end, I hope that it brings folks some joy and contemplation, and reminds us of our place on the earth in this moment.”
The work is available on streaming, digital, and limited edition 4x cassette box set.
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