With Lawrence English’s latest album, Cruel Optimism, due out next week on his Room40 label, above we are giving you the chance to listen to ‘Somnambulist’ taken from the album.
A drone-led piece, the track is bathed in somewhat harsh yet comforting noise, as hazy as ‘Object Of Protection’, the first track unveiled from the album late last year.
The album owes its title to a text by American theorist Lauren Berlant. "In Cruel Optimism, I found a number of critical readings around the issues that have fuelled so much of the music I have been making recently… particularly her writing around trauma I found deeply affecting," says English. "It was a jumping point from which a plague of unsettling impressions of suffering, intolerance and ignorance could be unpacked and utilised as fuel over and above pointless frustration."
You can read our recent interview with Lawrence English here and our lead review of Cruel Optimism here.
He plays live as part of the HEXA project at a number of UK dates across this month too with shows at London’s The Forge (February 15), Bristol’s The Lantern (February 16), Leeds’ Howard Assembly Room (February 17) and Glasgow Film Festival (February 19) all lined up.
