If you like 90’s ambient house such as KLF – Chill Out and The Orb, you’ll love this sunny breeze dream of Departure‘s latest album, Ibiza…a dream?
I think it’s a remix/retake of 2022’s Ibiza Dreams and I especially love the organ and soulful operatic? singing on Europa Point, Isolation & Responsibility (ft. Katherine Bogue) which sounds like a song to the sea, refactoring Father & Son (a song with deep resonance to me) to sound like it was sung on a cliff (Katherine is a friend of Departure’s and there’s a wonderful private moment feel that vocal), and the Intro Intro (Ibiza Dreams).
If it’s a sunny day I really recommend a listen, or if like today it’s dour and grey, it will take you to a private place on a clifftop overlooking the sea, or an old ruin by a harbour for quiet thoughts. The cover images really do reflect the contents.
What I like about it is this isn’t your usual mashup album, or not even plunderphonics, because there is a lot more original recordings and production work here, so although like previous work there is still some elements of that, echoes of The Avalanches, it’s moving into a much more compositional world.
And that’s good to see an artist like Departure grow into production and adding more of their own touches to the music, and indeed the personal touches and friendships coming through that. I think a lot of producers (even myself) can iron out the humanity by searching for the perfect thing, forgetting it’s those human touches that people resonate with in the first place.
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