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BEN CHATWIN: shares new track & video ‘Euclidean Plane’. Album ‘Heat & Entropy’ out July 29th on Ba Da Bing Records

July 10, 2016

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BEN CHATWIN

– SHARES NEW TRACK & ACCOMPANYING VIDEO
– “EUCLIDEAN PLANE” ONLINE NOW

– ALBUM HEAT & ENTROPY OUT JULY 29TH ON BA DA BING

“Dark, bare, beautiful soundscapes that mix analog electronics with classical sensibilities. His sound defies form, allowing it to float aimlessly in any direction he pleases.” – Stereogum
“Peaks with gale-force electronics as the Scottish musician plays scintillating lines on hammer dulcimer in the most dramatic usage of the instrument since Nico’s “Evenings of Light”” – The Wire
“The kind of labyrinthine expedition that drapes a sense of wonderment upon the listener that belies the short running time.” – 
Gold Flake Paint

Ben Chatwin presents the new track & video from his forthcoming album Heat & Entropy, which will be released on July 29th via Ba Da Bing Records.

Chatwin comments on this second track to be shared from the record, “Euclidean Plane” saying: Heat & Entropy deals with contradictions and opposing forces in a kind of symbiosis.  The challenge was seeing how far I could push both the acoustic and electronic elements resulting in simultaenous beauty and chaos.  Euclidean Plane is one of the more harmonious tracks on the album.

The Octopus became a visual representation for this as it represents organic life and nature yet hints at something alien and desolate.”

“Euclidean Plane” has been brought to life with a video directed by Nat Urazmetova, who explains her vision as: “An unexplainable, visceral fascination with the mysterious otherworldliness of octopuses, the ethereal grace and the complexity of their behavior and temperament that magnetises me the most. This is something I tried to capture in the video for Ben’s ravishing track, “Euclidean Plane”: delicacy and unpredictability, the strong physicality but also a shimmering illusion, the pulsation which might have the extraterrestrial source.”

This is the first Ben Chatwin record to be domestically released and marks the start of a new chapter for the Queensferry, Scotland based musician. Having previously released under the name Talvihorros, Chatwin is already known for his innovative combination of electronic experimentation and modern classical composition. However, last year’s The Sleeper Awakes – the first work to appear under his own name – saw him take a distinct left turn, exchanging vanguard minimalism for enhanced melodics. Heat & Entropy delves further into this world, adding flesh to programming and cybernetics to Chatwin’s large collection of pianos and piano-like creations. The result is an ornate exploration into the future possibilities for composition.

In addition to computerized technical exploration, Chatwin has experimented with the capabilities of the tactile, physical creation of music. Initially, Heat & Entropy was intended to be an album using only strings of any possible type, forcing him to explore using lesser-known instruments, and, perhaps more importantly, the way in which he uses them. For “Standing Waves,” Chatwin attaches pieces of metal, rubber and tape to the piano strings in order to add a greater percussive sound. “The Kraken” uses Terry Riley’s repetition as a starting point, but leads to distorted vocals and an intense hammered dulcimer climax. “Euclidean Plane” incorporates a bowed mandolin and a three-stringed didley-bow, whilst achieving what sound like whale noises by rubbing a £1 coin on electric guitar strings. “Euclidean Plane” also features acoustic guitar and metallophone by Ben’s brother, Jordan, who has had no formal training and learned guitar by ear, playing with unconventional tunings and chords.

Despite the unique sounds and textures Ben found amongst the strings, eventually the lure of electronics proved too great. “The album then became about the tensions between the acoustic, or natural world, and the electronic world” he explains.

Chatwin refers to Heat & Entropy as “an album of contrast, conflict and chaos, but also of complex relationships.” His achievement is in how he’s able to allow melody to rise above the maelstrom as the main focus of his compositions. It’s an album of experimentation, of delicately contrasting the organic with the artificial, and ultimately of great beauty and sophistication. It marks the start of a new chapter performing as Ben Chatwin, and the emergence of an incredibly exciting and visionary Scottish composer.

‘Heat & Entropy’ will be available on July 29th via Ba Da Bing Records.

‘Heat & Entropy’ tracklist:
1. Inflexion
2. Gravitational Bodies
3. Standing Waves
4. Phantom Lights
5. Oscillations
6. The Kraken
7. Surface Tension
8. Euclidean Plane
9. Corpseways

‘Heat & Entropy’ artwork:

Links:
Ben Chatwin press shot
Ben Chatwin on Facebook
Ben Chatwin on Twitter
Ben Chatwin official web site
Badabing Record

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