– GUERRILLA WARFARE –

Manu Delago has it pretty good.

An accomplished musician in his own right, he’s also toured the world with the likes of Björk, Olafur Arnalds, Cinematic Orchestra and Anoushka Shankar in recent years.

And yet, all that travelling can take its toll. Months of jet-lag and irregular sleep patterns ‘inspired’ (if that’s the right word) the Austrian Hang player / percussionist to build his latest album around the theme of sleep.

‘Circadian’ takes the listener through the cycle of sleep stages, emulating REM, light sleep, deep sleep and an abrupt awakening.

 Album closer, ‘Zeitgeber’ is the album’s most energetic track; designed to depict an awakening from sleep and start of a new day.

“It represents the morning hours – a sort of ‘musical alarm clock’ – and the meaning of the track title is something that puts you back into a 24-hour rhythm” says Delago.

A driving drum pattern delivered by Delago himself is supplemented by an ever-increasing cast of instruments precision-executing a series of increasingly complex stabs.

It’s all captured beautifully in the above video which, for the epileptics amongst you, should probably come with a flashing lights warning (and, for the drummers amongst you should come with a flashy-skills caution).

‘Circadian’ is out now on One Little Indian records.

MORE FROM THIS WEEK’S MIX

G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE: GO CRAZY
HEMLOCK ERNST & KENNY SEGAL: DOWN
MATTHEW HALSALL: DISTANT LAND
ELSA HEWITT: TINY DANCER

P.S. You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –