Matthew Herbert is to release a new album this autumn.
Musca is the third instalment in the producer’s domestic house series, with the previous one coming in the form of his 2001 album, Bodily Functions. The new album, which will be released via Herbert’s own Accidental Records label, sees him pair field recordings with the kind of jazz-infused house that has characterised much of his work in the past.
Recorded during last year’s COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, Herbert worked remotely with a number of artists, including eight vocalists that he has not worked with nor met before. These includes the likes of Bianca Rose, Verushka Grebenar-George and Yakoto Kieck, who features on lead track ‘The Way, which you can listen to just above.
Speaking about the album, Herbert says: "Like presumably many other albums made during the last year, Musca reflects on navigating the challenges and joys of our most intimate relationships while the world is in turmoil. Not just with COVID-19, but with the rise in state and political violence, Facebook-friendly fascism, white supremacy and a climate in crisis.
"The week last year, when I wrote most of these songs, seems like another era altogether. I have no idea how they will sound a year later now that the context has changed so markedly. The optimist in me wants to leap forwards, vaccinated into the sunshine brandishing the NHS logo, but the realist in me is aghast at the wave of death unleashed upon this country by an incompetent and corrupt government."
Accidental Records will release Musca on October 22, 2021.
