Luke Abbott has shared details of his first solo album in six years, Translate.
The album comes in the wake of a number of collaborative projects that Abbott has focused on since his last solo LP, 2014’s Wysing Forest, including two albums that he’s released as part of Szun Waves in 2016 and 2018. Above, you can listen to Translate lead track, ‘Kagen Sound’, which Abbott describes as "one of the simpler tracks" on his new album.
"It’s based around the Korg Monopoly, which is one of my favourite sounding synths," Abbott says. "The track is named after an American puzzle box maker, he makes the most incredibly intricate wooden puzzle boxes.
"I’ve been interested in puzzle boxes since I saw Hellraiser when I was about 11 years old, maybe I shouldn’t have seen that film so young. To me the track feels like a a huge opening in the earth, like a cosmic doorway, which is why it’s the opening track on the album."
Working from James Holden’s studio in Norwich last summer, Abbott set about assembling what’s described as a "speaker-henge of up to eight speakers" around the room to which the various individual component parts of each track were dispersed. From there, he approached the recording process as a series of improvised solo live performances.
"I’ve always been interested in trying to capture spontaneity in music – there’s a moment of excitement when you first make something where it’s totally fresh and new, and that’s the moment I want to record," Abbott says. "So when I write music now I tend to spend a long time preparing and thinking about what I’m going to do, and then when I come to make it I work very quickly."
Border Community will release Translate on October 30, 2020.
