{"title":"Helios","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoston-based ambient indie electronic artist \u003ci\u003eHelios\u003c\/i\u003e, also known as Keith Kenniff, is a talented musician who studied at Berklee College of Music. With his unique sound and style, Helios has captivated audiences around the world. His music blends elements of ambient, electronic, and indie genres to create mesmerizing compositions that transport listeners to another realm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHelios draws inspiration from various sources, creating atmospheric and emotive tracks that resonate with listeners on a deep level. His ability to evoke emotions through his music is truly remarkable. As an accomplished musician, he has also released music under the moniker \u003ci\u003eGoldmund\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you enjoy artists such as Slow Meadow, Brian McBride, or Eluvium, then Helios' music will surely captivate your senses. With a discography filled with beautiful melodies and intricate arrangements, Helios has established himself as one of the leading figures in the ambient indie electronic scene.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"veriditas","title":"Veriditas","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor one of the country’s most understated composers. Kenniff has housed dozens of ambient releases under the name Helios since 2004, alongside post-classical output as Goldmund, shoegaze pop with his wife Hollie as Mint Julep, and commissions for film and television. It is a reliably transportive body of work that's earned Kenniff a cult following, and a genuine modesty that’s kept him on the fringes, right where he prefers, in the dark. \u003ci\u003eVeriditas\u003c\/i\u003e introduces unusual shapes and landscapes to the Helios catalog. Whereas past songs have followed traditional structures — discernable bell curves with beginnings, arcs, and ends — the focus here is texture and harmony. \"I wanted to explore emotionality within something more static.\" Synth-tones radiate and hum as vignettes, often crisp and cloudless, other times smeared to a queasy Boards of Canada-like unease. The latter burbles below the last moments of \u003ci\u003eEventually\u003c\/i\u003e and looms over the opener \u003ci\u003eSeeming\u003c\/i\u003e like darkness inching across a forest. Tracks cease at will. \u003ci\u003eSeeming\u003c\/i\u003e fades just after a sliver of light cuts through the mossy pillars. \u003ci\u003eLatest Lost\u003c\/i\u003e mists for just one minute. \u003ci\u003eRow The Tide\u003c\/i\u003e for two, hovering like a helium balloon lost to the horizon. \u003ci\u003eEven Today\u003c\/i\u003e hangs above the snowcaps, suspended in an upper arboreal sequence, as shimmering surges of static trace the treetops below. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoments on \u003ci\u003eVeriditas\u003c\/i\u003e pass quickly, but as a series of moments, they are fluid, almost regenerative. Disassembling the album by instruments is difficult. Unlike past Helios work, there is no percussion. The one straightforward use of guitar appears on the ambling \u003ci\u003eUpward Beside The Gale\u003c\/i\u003e, strummed solemnly as if over end credits, watching the greenery lapse to grey in the twilight. In the second half of \u003ci\u003eDreams\u003c\/i\u003e, crystalline piano chords converse with washes of orchestral notes and deep drone, advancing towards temporal clarity, a lookout point, that once presented evaporates. In a way, \u003ci\u003eVeriditas\u003c\/i\u003e parallels the path of the Helios project to date: patient, immense, and wondrous without ostentation. Kenniff continues to find a soothing and centering quality in his craft. Aligned with Hildegard von Bingen’s philosophy, Kenniff looks towards sound, like many do to nature, for momentary vigor, for elemental and nourishing prolificacy. Here, in pursuit of viriditas, with precise textures and harmonies, he humbly extends that verdant expression outward, wide and pliable.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ghostly International","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50450426954059,"sku":"1042230","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/97b20d0e-6a60-4c47-9db9-02d84ae9f623_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727111832"},{"product_id":"espera","title":"Espera","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe catalog of American composer Keith Kenniff spans over a dozen releases as Helios and nearly as many as Goldmund since 2004. Kenniff’s music deals with subtlety, and the variance between these projects loosely follows a few signifiers; Goldmund favours post-classical piano, Mint Julep, a project with his partner Hollie, is shoegaze pop, while the lines around his Helios project are intentionally hazier. Within the alias, Kenniff glides between minimal ambient electronics and more robust instrumentation, all run through his mini-cassette recorder for a distinct wobble. 2018’s \u003ci\u003eVeriditas\u003c\/i\u003e, his first Helios LP on Ghostly International, found Kenniff shaping verdant landscapes of harmonic sound, focusing on texture over structure. He followed it up in 2020 with \u003ci\u003eDomicile\u003c\/i\u003e, an even quieter synth-toned ode to the indoors. Now he returns to the electro-acoustic movement that marked much of his earlier output; the music of \u003ci\u003eEspera\u003c\/i\u003e is lush, livelier, and perhaps the most singular in his run. Titles are telling in Kenniff’s work, and Espera, a Spanish word meaning “wait,” speaks to the producer’s patient and cinematic craft. The record balances engagement and contemplation with a billowing accessible lightness, and reveals Helios at a compelling intersection, composing songs as vivid and three-dimensional as they are characteristically modernist and understated. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ghostly International","offers":[{"title":"Turquoise LP","offer_id":50483456442699,"sku":"2029545","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50483456115019,"sku":"2029543","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50483455525195,"sku":"2029541","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Espera_7b09ef8b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727567710"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_1a521bd1_thumbnail_4096_059ad56d-e1a8-4526-9564-e0230ad345f6.jpg?v=1727111811","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/helios.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}