On his celebrated 2018 release,
Nothing Is Still, British producer Leon Vynehall invited the listener into a world gone by. Capturing the experience of his grandparents as they tried to build a new life for themselves in America, it was a singular masterwork. A grand concept in theory but one full of nuance and subtlety. Technically astounding, Vyenhall wove together a rich tapestry of complementary sounds from smooth jazz to echoing chamber music, from dub wubs to narcoleptic ambient synths – all while satisfying a very personal purpose.
New album
Rare, Forever finds Vynehall addressing the here and now. It’s Vynehall trying to orientate himself both artistically and personally and discovering a world of possibilities. That leads to a fragmented, complicated, unfixed place that takes the more conventional aspects of dance music and the wildly avant-garde and encourages them to lock lips in a euphoric embrace.
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.