An Ascent

Limited to 555 copies. Scanner (British musician Robin Rimbaud) has been inventively active in Electronic Music since 1991 and been involved in a bewildering range of musical activities covering sonic art, concerts, installations, recordings and dance scores. His impeccable sonic credentials have seen him work with such luminaries as Bryan Ferry, Michael Nyman and Laurie Anderson. His debut DiN solo album comes at a rather strange time for many people. The onset of a global virus has shut down much of the world around us and for many creatives, such as Rimbaud, the immediate cancellation of all live performances. Rather than sit back and worry he felt it was important to immediately embrace the tools at hand, and use the power of technology to respond positively. Thus followed a very successful live show broadcast on YouTube which garnered an audience from across the globe with Rimbaud playing an improvised live modular synth set.

Watching and listening was DiN label boss Ian Boddy who immediately contacted Rimbaud to invite him to produce an album for the highly respected DiN label. Rimbaud thus spent the next few days recording 90 minutes of new music using the very same set up he had used for this YouTube concert. Boddy and Rimbaud then curated these recordings to form this solo DiN debut Scanner album An Ascent. The nine tracks form a musical journey ranging from gentle ambient interludes through to pulsing machine like rhythms. There's always a sense of detail in the sonic backdrop which is just out of reach. A sense of yearning that opens the album with the track The Ascent and flows through to the beautiful calm ending of the final track Counterpointe. This is an inspiring album from this totally unique British artist and one that may have never come in to existence if it wasn't for the strange times we live in.