Swindon-based Grasslands describes his new LP as a power ambient/down-tempo collection of songs written during the various covid lockdowns, reflecting the journey to find inner peace in those incredibly chaotic times.
Grasslands describes his sound as a fusion of alternative rock, electronica, found sounds, and folk, pollinated with information about meadows, grasses and the environment.
He is said to have been a regular and weirder part of the Swindon gig circuit since 2016, partaking in gentle folktronica gigs, ambient evenings, experimental improv and wildlife-themed sound lectures and raves featuring toy animals and fluffy wolf hats.
A spokesperson for the performer says unpredictability is a key part of the Grasslands performance.
Tom Haynes is the musician behind Grasslands who is a professional wildlife consultant and works internationally on wildlife protection projects, specialising in grassland systems and wildflowers.
He also features in both seasons of Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘Clarkson’s Farm’ TV show on Amazon Prime. Tom says he tries to bring his experience with working in the wildlife sciences into his musical performances and compositions wherever he can.
The artist’s spokesperson added: “Tom had just finished work on the ambitious collaboration and location-based project of his previous LP ‘Gorilla Tactics’ when the covid pandemic took hold, leaving him (and his toy badger) alone and homebound.
“To cope with the ongoing horrors reflected in the news, Tom took to experimenting with various music equipment setups including vocoders, auto-tune devices and micro-loopers and started performing ambient jam sessions at sunrise and sunset each day, all while recording the near silence of the outside world.
“The resultant songs make up ‘The Safe Places We Make’ which leans into drone, noise, plunderphonics, power ambience and what a regular Grasslands’ collaborator refers to as ‘8-bit Enya’.”
The LP’s opener ‘The Retreating Waves of Susanoo’ (named after a Japanese storm deity) is described as sounding like a slowly decaying analogue synthesizer, near its final electronic breath, while ‘Crossing The River Stones’ is said to feature a random and chirpy synth line scattered through a backdrop of soft ambient guitar drone, gentle rain and the chitter of Starlings feeding on worms in Tom’s garden meadow.
The LP also includes samples and recordings of people deeply rooted in the protection and management of grassland systems across the world.
The performer’s spokesperson explains: “‘A Small Meadow Act’, a slow tempo power ambience track with a booming bass line, features people reminiscing about how meadows were farmed in the wildlife-rich areas of the Cotswolds (not far away from Clarkson’s Farm), while ‘Grass Dance’, a lo-fi downtempo dance track with swirling reverbs, features traditional grass dancers from Nova Scotia talking about their roles in a grass dance ceremony.”
To combat the isolation of lockdown, Tom turned to regular collaborators Zero Gravity Tea Ceremony and Sotoyoto (who last worked together on the popular video game soundtrack for ‘Chasing Static’) to virtually produce a seven-minute-long emotional ambient drone track in ‘Mantranome’ which is based around the slow ticking of what sounds like a grandfather clock with roaring guitars, deep synths and waves of repeated and layered vocals.
‘The Circuit Breaker’ comes in near the halfway mark of the LP and is said to suit its namesake by changing the mood with what is described as a Joy Division-style shoegaze riff with accordion drone and wonky drumbeats.
Abstract lyrics are said to focus on the UK Government’s approach to the pandemic in all of its unsettling technicolour (last-minute press conferences, afternoon clap-a-thons and all) bringing the LP to its least ambient moments as the fuzzy guitars get louder to the repeating phrase ‘Turn It Off!’.
The last track on the LP is ‘Amaterasu (Everyone Is The Rising Sun)’ - a nearly 15-minute-long ambient guitar and vocal loop jam recorded live on a summer morning in 2020. It is described as ‘pushing the loud abrasive sounds from the previous tracks aside to return to the calmer ambient vibes from the opening tracks, concluding with the final mantra of these isolated times: ‘Everyone is Everything’.’
‘The Safe Places We Make’ is a collaboration with the abstract artist & illustrator Bexrah June of Rahford does art – Soul Doodles, who created vibrant illustrations of Grasslands’ extended animal familiars for the front covers of the three previous singles and the LP.
Grasslands’ spokesperson said: “The artwork for the LP features the sleeping bodies of two behemoths from Grasslands’ set of characters after they have fought a fierce battle through a city and the city folk have managed to move them into a sleepy calm state.
“The tone of the skyline from the LP cover was influenced by William Basinski’s ground-breaking ambient work ‘The Disintegration Loops’ and the art tells a perfect abstract metaphorical story about the challenge to find some form of peace through so much change and overwhelming odds.”
More information about the LP’s release:
- Pre-Orders – 3 March 2023 (Bandcamp)
- Digital/Physical Release – 24 March 2023 (Bandcamp)
- Other Digital Services Release – 7 April 2023 (Spotify/Apple Music Etc.)
Grasslands can be found online on social media via:
Twitter - @grasslandsmusic
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Grasslandsmusic/
Instagram - @grasslandsmusic
Bandcamp - https://grasslands.bandcamp.com
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@GrasslandsSoundtrack
