Shapes

Hush Hush is honored to welcome back Alex Smalley and Lucia Adam to help present 'Shapes,' the second collaborative effort from the Weimar, Germany-based musicians under their own names. Serving as a complimentary release to their 2022 full-length album 'Patterns,' 'Shapes' showcases a captivating, alluring, and ominous tone to their richly detailed creations.

For those unacquainted, British musician Alex Smalley has been a revered and quietly prolific figure on the underground ambient scene for well over a decade. Best known for his project Olan Mill, he’s released albums on a slew of premier ambient labels - Dauw, Barge Recordings, Serein, Past Inside the Present, Facture, Shimmering Moods, Dronarivm, and Preservation, just to name a few – and he’s also part of the beloved ambient/drone duo Pausal alongside his close friend Simon Bainton.

Lucia Adam is a classically trained pianist and improviser. Born and raised in the Republic of Moldova, Lucia first met Alex in April 2017 following Alex’s relocation from the UK to Weimar, Germany with his wife and children. A creative project between the two quickly started, with Alex sending free-flowing collage pieces over to Lucia to then add evocative piano melodies – the combination allowing the songs to find necessary form and structure.

The songs featured on 'Shapes' – as well as its predecessor 'Patterns' – were all originally written by Alex and Lucia in the late 2010s and those sessions ultimately yielded 'Gaya,' a limited-edition album released exclusively on CDr by Fluid Audio in April 2019 that was credited to the duo’s now-defunct moniker ilm. In similar fashion to 'Patterns,' those original tracks have since been revisited, reworked, remastered, and specifically sequenced for 'Shapes.' Alex’s immersive ambient textures and Lucia’s upfront piano melodies mesh beautifully once again, yet these tracks all carry a relatively haunting and sinister undercurrent that distinguishes it from the optimistic shades found on 'Patterns.' Available for the first time on a wider release, 'Shapes' will be released on cassette tape and digital formats on April 14th via Hush Hush Records.

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credits

releases April 14, 2023

Recorded and produced in Weimar, Germany between April 2017 and June 2019.

Reprocessed throughout 2020 and mastered in January 2021 by Porya Hatami.

Artwork by Joseph Berthelot and design by Joey Butler.

Artwork design uses the font Bluu Next by Jean-Baptiste Morizot, provided by Velvetyne Type Foundry.

license

all rights reserved

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