An album that I’ve been falling in love with (and also falling into sleep to) over the last few days is Solan Goose by Erland Cooper. The multi-instrumentalist, also of The Magnetic North (which also includes Breaking More Waves favourite Hannah Peel) and formerly of Erland & The Carnival has created an evocatively beautiful piece of work that has already picked up a small amount of critical praise and has been featured by BBC 6 Music.
Originally created for his own personal use as a response to the anxiety and claustrophopia he felt when working in a large city rather than a commercial release, Solan Goose started as a series of improvisations that gradually grew into something more. A combination of minimal soft piano notes (not dissimilar to something like Nils Frahm’s piano album Solo), ambient tones and effects, beautifully arranged strings and the occasional human voice it’s an album that carries with it a sense of calmness and serenity – much like a bird in flight.
And it is birds that this album particularly references. Erland originally hails from Orkney, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, and each track is named after a feathered friend by its original Orcadian title. It’s a record that you can very much drift away to imagining the flights of the creatures above the land and sea, full of grace and unhurried majesty. Counteract the horrible stuff in the world by finding some tranquility in this.
If you are a fan of ambient, classical, experimental or piano based music Solan Goose comes highly recommended. The title track streams below.
Erland Cooper - Solan Goose (Video)
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