Fir Wave : Ltd Neon Pink Vinyl LP

Release Date : 26/03/21

The new album, a sonic shimmer of textures and pulses that switches between raw atmospheric edges and environments, arrives with a fascinating history.

As Peel explains, “The specialist library label KPM, gave me permission to reinterpret the original music of the celebrated 1972 KPM 1000 series: Electrosonic, the music of Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop.”

Her process of re-sampling and generating her own new digital instruments, allowed for fresh inspiration in pioneering, experimental electronics from the early 1970s is at the core of the album. Peel has made connections and new patterns that mirror the Earth’s ecological cycles through music.

Peel explains, “I’m drawn to the patterns around us and the cycles in life that will keep on evolving and transforming forever. Fir Wave is defined by its continuous environmental changes and there are so many connections to those patterns echoed in electronic music – it’s always an organic discovery of old and new.”

As Delia Derbyshire revealed in 2000 to BBC sound engineer, journalist and academic Jo Hutton: “I like new things that don’t seem new . . . as though they’ve always been there.”

Drawing on the Japanese Ensō design movement, the artwork is made by ceramics designer James Pegg, making fresh connections between the artwork, music and original creation of the work. The mixer / engineer TJ Allen (Bat For Lashes, Portishead and Anna Calvi) collaborated with Hannah Peel on the beat-driven tracks ‘Emergence In Nature’ and ‘Ecovocative’.

1 Wind Shadow
2 Emergence In Nature
3 Patterned Formation
4 Carbon Cycle
5 Ecovocative
6 Fir Wave
7 Reaction Diffusion