STRFKR - Ambient 1 (Cream Vinyl) - VINYL LP

Vinyl LP pressing. 2019 from Brooklyn-based ambient artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Tracing Back the Radiance includes contributions from Mary Lattimore (harp), Chuck Johnson (pedal steel guitar), Gregg Kowalksy (synthesizer), and others.

STRFKR's sound has morphed over the years through variations of hyper catchy, danceable pop, but on Ambient 1 - the band's first fully instrumental album - the band has achieved something very different. For a little shy of an hour, Ambient 1 drifts through softly glowing electronic instrumentals that extract the synth core from the group's well established synth pop sound. It's patient, playful, and calming music that travels through passageways of chaos and anxiety on a journey towards healing.Upon completing work on the lo-fi dreaminess of Future Past Life, STRFKR's principal songwriter Josh Hodges found himself returning repeatedly to albums by his favorite ambient artists and minimal composers. This growing obsession with synthesis and the culture around it also concurred with the daily darkness of the pandemic and some personal disruptions. Without spending too much time thinking about what it meant, Hodges began recording ambient experiments almost daily as a way of processing these difficult emotions. Echoes of masters like Harold Budd and Brian Eno can be heard in the angelic floating of InchWork Smoothly Lifetime PeaceInch while tracks like InchNexusInch are stormy and frenetic.In some ways, Ambient 1 is unlike anything STRFKR has created before, but when completely absorbed, it makes sense why it's included under the STRFKR banner. Even at his most drony and experimental, Hodges can't escape his distinctive melodic approach. Ambient 1 strips away the familiar and the expected, exposing Hodges' signature sonic personality at a granular level. Album Tracks 1. Rainzow 2. Work Smoothly Lifetime Peace 3. Bunji 4. Kaleidoscope 5. Telescope 6. Anxiety 7. Zee Majoor 8. Concentrate 9. Vergeten 10. Nexus 11. Zij Aan Zij 12. Sleep

Limited orange colored vinyl LP pressing. Includes poster and digital download. 2020 . STRFKR has always been a constantly evolving entity, growing over the years from rambunctious beginnings into the manicured electro-pop perfection they exhibited on their last studio album, 2016's pristine Being No One, Going Nowhere. Future Past Life breaks new ground, dialing back some of the high-gloss production they're known for to craft songs that are stripped down, spaced out and somehow as visceral as they are dream-like. The immaculate but danceable pop that has long been STRFKR's calling card is pushed into exciting new places on Future Past Life. It's a strange and beautiful sonic environment, one that finds STRFKR growing as they embrace the chance and spontaneity that brought these songs about in the first place. Album Tracks 1. Dear Stranger 2. Never the Same 3. Deep Dream 4. Second Hand 5. Better Together 6. Budapest (Feat. Shy Boys) 7. Palm Reader 8. Sea Foam 9. Pink Noise 10. Cold Comfort