Published Apr 29, 2021
7Leon Vynehall, a consistent one-to-watch among UK producers, has long been able to channel memory into music. His debut album
Nothing Is Still chartered the story of his grandparents as they emigrated to New York in the 1960s, while
Music for the Uninvited drew inspiration from the mixtapes his mother would play on the way to school. But upon hitting his milestone 30th birthday, Vynehall found himself to be the ultimate muse.
Rare, Forever is a skin-shedding. Like the ouroboros pictured on its cover, the album is an act of reinvention and rebirth. Vynehall enters a new era of music; more abstract, less linear; more forward-looking, less rearview mirror. In trying to uncover himself more completely as an artist, Vynehall lets go of the cohesive core and linear progression that has largely underpinned the majority of his discography, though this isn t entirely a bad thing.
Few can build worlds with their music quite like
Leon Vynehall. Many possess the ability to transport a listener or dictate a mood, but only a small number can trigger true immersion like him. ‘Rare, Forever’ adds to his intoxicating discography, unlimited in scope and undoubtedly Vynehall’s most ambitious yet, resulting in one of the year’s most fascinating records.
It’s an album which couldn’t exist without what’s come before. After sending dancers into a frenzy with early releases, his debut album
‘Nothing Is Still’ reined in his dancefloor sensibilities and found Vynehall tracing his family lineage and crafting an unexpectedly tender body of work. Most recently, he stepped up for an entry in the DJ-Kicks series, which took his storytelling to new heights. Best of all, ‘Rare, Forever’ is a triumphant reclaiming of these many strands, stretched across snatches of ambient beauty and dancefloor chaos.
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‘Mothra’ is described by Vynehall as being “the euphoric unfurling of ‘something’.” He added: “Muted notes fluttering free before returning to the cascade we arrived from, only now with purpose.”
As for ‘Ecce! Ego!’ he explained: “The track’s title literally translates from Latin to ‘Behold! Me!’ A fitting introduction to an album about my own psyche, I thought.
“It starts off where ‘Nothing Is Still’ left off, but rapidly switches to something more fluid, perhaps even sinister. I kind of think of this song as ‘Envelopes (Chater VI)”s fucked up cousin.”
‘Rare, Forever’ official artwork. CREDIT: Eric Timothy Carlson
Rare, Forever is out April 30 via Ninja Tune. The announcement of the follow-up to 2018’s
Nothing Is Still arrives with two new songs. Listen to “Mothra” and “Ecce! Ego!” in the playlist below.
“Ecce! Ego!” is the album’s opening track. “The track’s title literally translates from Latin to ‘Behold! Me!’ A fitting introduction to an album about my own psyche, I thought,” Vynehall said in a statement. “It starts off where ‘Nothing Is Still’ left off, but rapidly switches to something more fluid, perhaps even sinister. I kind of think of this song as “Envelopes (Chapter VI)”’s fucked up cousin.”
Leon Vynehall will release new album Rare, Forever on April 30th.
The producer s outstanding 2018 debut album Nothing Is Still lingers long in the memory, an expansive work that displayed a unique sense of imagination.
Spending time on the road, Leon Vynehall passed a number of personal milestones - his 30th birthday, for example - before returning to London. Rare, Forever finds him building once more from the ground up, broadening his aesthetic spectrum still further.
Informed by his essential NTS shows and those superb DJ mixes, the new album lands on April 30th via Ninja Tune.
Two new tracks are online now, with Mothra embodying Leon s approach to this studio return.