digiv026: lawrence english "a colour for autumn" LP $16 / $19 / $27
co-released with sweat lodge guru

When it comes to contemporary experimental and drone music, one of the first names on the team sheet should always be Australia's own Lawrence English. When he's not busy running one of the best and most innovative labels around, Room40, or playing in the modular synth duo Holy Family, he's cranking out incredible solo works for the likes of Touch Music and 12k. This, his first full-length available on vinyl, was originally released on the latter and finds new life inside these black analog grooves.

"A Colour for Autumn" is the second in a series of albums from English that explore the changing seasons and his innate ability to transform such esoteric imagery into sound is immediately on display. "Droplet" opens the record and immediately grabs you and cradles you beneath undercast skies. Dean Roberts' lends voice to the track, giving it an otherworldly feeling but also a degree of warmth against the underlying sea of tones. But it's on "Watching it Unfold" where the album really takes flight. English's simple guitar patterns reek of nostalgic debris. As the piece coalesces and the leaves change from green to gold, everything gets washed over by brassy drones. The horns return, but more muddled, on "Galaxies of Dust" and add another element of cacaphony to an already dizzying track. It's in passages like there were English's incredible compositional talent shines.

Fennesz lends his electronic expertise to "The Surface of Everything." Whenever I hear this, I always think of crisp October nights, the smell of chimney smoke perfuming the air while you wax nostalgic about summers past. English provides the spine with his methodical crystal-toned guitar exercises but it's the added crackle and texture from Fennesz that makes this the stand-out song on the album.

There's so much depth and subtlty to "A Colour for Autumn" that it would be easy to gloss over on first listen. On repeated trips, however, the whole picture reveals itself. This is an approachable album full of all the emotion and understated beauty that I associate with the fall. English covers the spectrum expertly. And then, as the glassy remnants of "...And Clouds for Company" begin to shift and fade away, you can smell the snow coming and winter is almost here.

Vinyl only edition of 300 copies. Silkscreened sleeves.

SIDE A: 1.droplet 2. watching it unfold 3. the prelude to 4. the surface of everything
SIDE B: 1. galaxies of dust 2. stillness in motion 3. ...and clouds for company