Gramsci: In Formation1: A Shift in Prospects (bandcamp)

About 8 months ago Gramsci – Paul McLaney, Greg Haver and Marika Hodgson – released The Hinterlands, an album we described as existential rock, cinematic yet personal.

It joined a long line of albums by McLaney – some as Gramsci, some as his more ambient persona Impending Adorations, a few under his own name – which have found considerable favour at Elsewhere.

So any new release we anticipate with high expectations.

This album however has very different origins and is at some considerable remove from The Hinterlands and closer to Impending Adorations' more intimate style.

When short-film director Richard Bell decided to make T/HERE using Hinterlands material he also asked McLaney to write some new music which would tie the pieces and the film together. Hence In Formation 1: A Shift in Prospects.

These 10 ambient instrumentals are also independent pieces given release under the Gramsci name because of their association with the the film and Hinterlands, but might just direct people to the Impending Adorations.

If so, good.

As with much ambient music there is a weightless and stateless quality to some of these pieces, with The Time It Takes and Intrepid very Eno-influenced, especially by his Apollo album.

That is perhaps recommendation enough for many, as is McLaney's name.

Thoughtful, intimate, warm and spacious pieces, and check out the film to hear how they are interpolated between The Hinterlands' more dramatic or abrasive sounds.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here