Infinite Echo＜限定盤/Transparent Vinyl＞

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler, the British duo known as Seahawks, have released over a dozen albums that explore nautical and science fiction themes while swirling together elements of yacht rock, space rock, dub, and cosmic disco. Infinite Echo is one of their more conceptual releases, or at least one of their most technologically advanced. Taking influence from the writings of the late peace activist Thich Nhất Hạnh, the self-described "anti-dystopian" album incorporates vocal software programs designed by Lyra Pramuk and Holly Herndon, as well as the voice of Mindar, a Buddhist robot priest. Additionally, the albums visuals were generated using an AI program, based on pictures taken from the beach near the studio where the release was mixed. For a record that seems like a heady brew of philosophical concepts and sci-fi, however, the music itself is some of the lightest, easiest, most relaxing Seahawks material yet. Opener "Beams of Love" is a delicate tidal pool of 80s adult contemporary drum machines, guitar ripples, smooth jazz sax, and hazy nonhuman vocals. "Sometimes We Fly" blurs the lines between dub, space funk, and vaporous new age, and it has the albums most sensuous groove by far. "The Other Shore" has techno undercurrents lapping against ocean waves and nocturnal insects (or their digital approximations). "Spirits Guide Us" has some impressive interplay between harp-like arpeggios, flutes, and mellow keyboards and guitars, with some strange digital interference near the end. "Falling Into Space" has heavier, Balearic-style hand percussion, but its caught in a sort of suspension rather than planted on the dancefloor, and its also slightly more melancholy than soothing. As a whole, Infinite Echo has the outward appearance of being serene and hopeful, yet it still seems like its obscuring something dark or unsettling, and its as uncanny as the AI technology it embraces. ~ Paul Simpson