"Selvascapes"
The new album by Perry Frank and Lauge
Perry Frank recorded his new album "Selvascapes" in collaboration with the Danish ambient producer Lauge. They relased the CD on July 24th. It is a great insider tip for fans of dreamlike soundscapes, drone sound and beautiful ambient music.
The self-taught composer Henrik Laugesen aka Lauge, already released eleven albums (among others with Collapsed Texctures) and is part of various collaborations such as Lauge & Baba Gnohm and Sullen Sky.
You may also know him from his sound design project Luftrum, which I'm sure I've mentioned here before. You can also find him on platforms like Spotify under the name Ambient Soundscapes. He is still exploring his bandwidth. It ranges from beat-less textures and drone sounds to neoclassical ambient and psychedelic downtempo pieces.
Lauge is not a stranger
Francesco Perra's new partner in music is by no means a blank slate. The interplay between the two sound lovers works out pretty well. You could also say: two exceptional talents swinging to the same beat have found each other.
Together, the Sardinian and the Dane have created imaginative soundscapes that invite you to dream. Perry Frank, who likes to film his live performances in the open air, is happy about his new project. He describes his passion for this way of making music like this:
"An ambient session is a moment between time and space. Everything you can hear is exclusive and live and belongs exactly to that moment and time. That's how I create my music."
He started doing this in 2005 in his home in Sardinia. He still records his music there, also filming the beautiful landscapes, museums, gardens and verandas. When consuming his recordings, you can see the island through his eyes and get a very personal impression of his world.
Two soundscapes collide
In 2020, Henrik and Francesco started recording music together remotely. They sent sounds, files and ideas back until it turned into a project: "Selvascapes" was born.
"We had the vision to combine our sound components into a coherent whole",
they say on Francesco's website. All the pieces on the record connect to the forest; this reflects in the titles and, of course, the music. The songs are about vastness, enormity, enclosure, open space and nature. While listening to it, I wander through the landscapes that Francesco and Henrik looked at when composing it.
"Selvacapes" tells of nature
Nature has always been part of Perry Frank's music. In this beautiful new work, you can feel the landscapes of the south and the north colliding, resulting in an energetic sound that can stimulate the imagination.
The two musicians recorded the nine songs in their studios (HomeLand Studios Iglesias, Sardinia and Zealand, Denmark). They enriched the ambient/drone sounds with authentic forest sounds.
During the lockdowns, the music helped them to connect with nature. And you can hear that! It brings you the relaxation of a cosy walk in the forest – through your headphones.
The forest and its meaning
The title is a combination of the Latin word "Selva" (forest) and "Soundscape". For Henrik and Francesco, the songs are a homage to the word "forest" They describe it like this:
"We mean it in an ecological sense, of course. A forest is a place of life responsible for the survival of most living creatures on earth, including Homo Sapiens. But it has also played a role for us in an abstract way. It is a kind of mental state for us. It stands for the confusion of modern humans – that is, after all, partly the Dantean meaning of the term."
Music and nature
Perry Frank has already proven that it is a good idea to tell stories about nature with his music – with his previous albums Reverie (2020) and Soundscape Box 1 (2014), as well as his numerous singles. Landforms from 2020 was a great little teaser of the new cooperation with Lauge.
Overall, the new record is again incredibly versatile and exciting. However, it delivers one thing above all: an excursion into a world beyond space and time. A world in which Denmark and Sardinia are only the blink of an eye away from each other – thanks to modern technology – resulting in something completely new and wonderful.
James Edward Armstrong did the mastering for "Selvascapes". Harry Towell shot the photos, and Andrew Heath created the design.
Perry Frank and Lauge released "Selvascapes" on 24 July in a limited CD version. So if you hurry, you can still get your copy! But no worries: From 13 July, the record will also be available in all digital stores.