INVENTIONS (Explosions In The Sky/Eluvium) share creepy video for ‘Peregrine’, taken from Maze of Woods, out now on Bella Union

INVENTIONS

Matthew Cooper of Eluvium, and Mark T. Smith of Explosions In The Sky

Unveil the video for ‘Peregrine’

Maze of Woods out now via Bella Union

Inventions, the collaboration between Eluvium’s Matthew Cooper and Mark T. Smith of Explosions In The Sky, have shared the disturbing video for ‘Peregrine’, taken from their new album, Maze of Woods. The video’s director, Paul Logan, says, “When the guys first handed me the song I immediately saw these trapped and haunted memories stuck in a loop. I could see someone wanting to preserve them and reanimate them. Someone who wanted to live in them. I saw a caretaker and a little friend.” Watch it below…

Maze of Woods opens with a vocal sample declaring, “I wanted to do something that I don’t know how to do.” Using this as a mission statement, Inventions have crafted a complex and exuberant album from an array of instruments, samples, found sounds, beats, chants, and raw bursts of noise, with a much greater emphasis on strong vocal accompaniment in every song. Two albums released in the span of 10 months speaks to the drive that these two have felt since they started playing together. Much like on the first record, they again mixed the album in a house on the Oregon coastline, with final mixing and production all done by Smith and Cooper.

Inventions have stated that much of the inspiration for Maze of Woods comes from the closing paragraph of Denis Johnson’s novella Train Dreams. In that paragraph, Johnson describes the non-verbal howl of a feral wolf boy, a pre-language that is yearning and instinctual; a statement of wordless distress and love. Maze of Woods is the product of two masters of their craft getting lost in the wilderness, “doing something that they don’t know how to do,” and emerging with something wholly unexpected and beguilingly beautiful.

Praise for Maze of Woods…

“The choral drone swelling beneath sleepy ambiences, bleeps, an embryonic heartbeat, all create a womb-like comfort that regresses the listener right to where Inventions want them.” – DIY, 3/5

“Maze of Woods is a superb record and one that should give confidence in the continued potential of the band.” – Drowned in Sound, 8/10

“Maze of Woods is a piece of wonder… Sometimes challenging, other times comforting, Inventions encourage you to step inside the imagination portal and dream.” – The 405, 8/10

“Inventions have genuinely tried to sonically challenge themselves and in the process manage to create moments of genuine beauty.” – The Line of Best Fit

“These are two clearly talented musicians and, at their best, they feed off each other immensely well.” – Music OMH

“For all of its dreamy moods, Maze of Woods frequently edges toward electronic pop, and is more expansive and dynamic than the debut.” – Pitchfork