The Metamorph: Return To Splendour – UK – 10″ [2021]

1. Opening Titles
2. The Visible World
3. Reverie
4. Slumber Submerged

The Metamorph has been releasing music on Bandcamp for three years but the artist has made the step up to actually being signed by a Scot synth label, Werra Foxma, and their new EP is getting the love on 10″ vinyl to be released on Friday, September 3rd. This session was originally recorded for the Magic Window radio show and the wise decision was made to put it out to the larger world. The Metamorph is of interest due to the artist’s penchant for analog synthesizers, which places music like this right into the PPM wheelhouse.

The Metamorph goes further than preferring analog synthesis. Additionally, the music is not sequenced or recorded with a Digital Audio Workstation on a computer. The music is recorded straight to 32 track digital recorder. In other words, it not been quantized! It lives and breathes off the restrictions of a grid! So what is it like, you may ask?

“Opening Titles” set the tone admirably. There was no rhythm track. Only analog synths and drone to carry us into the warm environment. When a glissando of piano appeared nearly halfway into the brief track, it had all of the impact of sunlight reflecting off of a calm lake’s waters. More than anything, I got Vangelis vibes from the track, but minus the level of bombast that some wrongly see as his alpha and omega.

We next went to a different place entirely with the rattlesnake lashings of rhythm that heralded “The Visible World.” Choral patches vied with delicate piano as the dreamlike state of the track brought me back to the Bill Nelson approach of his Orchestra Arcana period. The arrival of professorial soundbites as found vocals only strengthened this connection. But the ominous, rumbling bass synths were not part of the Nelson aesthetic as you may sample below.

A reverberant flute patch opened “Reverie” like watching a flower unfold from a bud in fast motion. This is exactly the kind of music you want to be your companion in times of solitude and solace. I will say that at 4:00 this track felt like it was almost a cheat. I’d like at least nine minutes of this contemplative, and well-named, music.

The concluding “Slumber Submerged” was a full chorale of Orpheus with delicate, Satie-esque piano dancing among the liquid jets of synthesizers coursing overhead. As with everything on this EP, it’s over with a little too soon [always keep them wanting more, eh?], but fans of Bill Nelson, Ryuichi Sakamoto or Harold Budd will enjoy the music on offer and we can hope that the next full album to follow this will be quickly forthcoming. This music is the perfect, reflective soundtrack to your late night creative jags.

In the meantime, the pressing of 200 10″ EPs is pre-selling briskly. The basic DL will be £3.99 and the 10″ will go for £13.99 [with your choice of DL formats]. Act quickly, as they are depleting fast. I’ve heard that US distribution should be happening for the 10″ so the shipping won’t be quite as brutal from Scotland, but that’s only to say if there’s any left to distribute in America. The button below is your friend.

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