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Azure

by Polypores

supported by
Steve Hadfield
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Steve Hadfield Delicious tones wash over the listener. Another masterpiece from the ever-brilliant Polypores. Particularly enjoy the more ominous feel of Temple. Favorite track: Temple.
roderick
roderick thumbnail
roderick timeless and simply beautiful sound collages. Every single track takes you on a journey. The artwork is outstanding as well. Favorite track: Bathysphere.
Luke Sanger
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Luke Sanger Great record and one that I keep coming back to.
Richard Hare
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Richard Hare Hypnotic and genuinely transportive, a relentlessly fascinating journey. Favorite track: Cephalopod.
DJ SpaceTerrapin
DJ SpaceTerrapin thumbnail
DJ SpaceTerrapin Expressing elements in music (or hearing them expressed, as a listener) can sound pretentious. Not so here. This is what floating in water feels like. You are into it and out of it at the same time. At the point where you swim without realising that you do.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP

     

  • Azure 12" LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Beautiful 12" azure blue vinyl edition of the LP printed in a high gloss sleeve with outer foldback tabs.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Azure via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Bathysphere 04:37
2.
3.
4.
Temple 03:00
5.
Island 05:52
6.
Delphinium 04:09
7.
Fathoms Down 04:14
8.
Shoals 01:01
9.
Cephalopod 05:59
10.
11.
Source 03:03
12.

about

Castles in Space presents ”Azure” by Polypores in a deluxe azure blue vinyl pressing in a full gloss varnished sleeve and foldback tabs. The album creates a luxurious contemporary new age soundscape invoking the Californian New Age cassette boom of the late 70's and early 80's.

Initial copies of the LP included a beautiful art print designed by the sleeve designer, Nick Taylor. French comic book legend Moebius was an inspiration for Nick in parallel with his immersion in the irresistible cosmic ocean flow of the music.

The album's energy center is said to open access to parallel universes and lives; it gives access to the realm of modular synthesis in Preston, Lancashire and the sphere of potentialities in the making.

Stephen explains the genesis of Azure:

“As with a lot of my music, the original inspiration from Azure started out with the music itself, rather than an initial concept. That is, it came through playing. I noticed that a lot of what I was writing seemed to lend itself to aquatic imagery. It was flowing, fluid, bubbling. The album was written late 2019, when it seemed to be perpetually raining, so that might have been a factor. I was also listening to a lot of new-age music at the time. Whilst I didn’t purposely set out to do a "new-age" album as such, I think a lot of that crept in there - but with it's own Polypores-esque twist. Rather than working in a specific genre, I much prefer to take elements and signifiers from a genre, and warp them into my own vision.

"Once I'd decided to go down this route the writing became more focussed, and I was also able to immerse myself in various books, films, and documentaries related to the ocean, particularly the mythology and lore surrounding it. I imagined this to be the music that the sunken stone heads from Easter Island would have on their record players. A relaxation tape for dolphins.

"The album was created with a modular synthesizer, which was still fairly new to me at the time. It was a fairly quick process, as I tend to record live rather than overdubbing/multi-tracking. I find this way of writing more immediate, it gives me a more direct link to my creativity, without too much thought or analysis getting in the way. I used a lot of New-Age type sounds, and one of the tracks uses a Gamelan scale. I made heavy use of granular synthesis on the human voice, to create the choir sounds. I think I did subconsciously want to create something similar to (previous LP) Flora. Not sonically (as it's a very different sound palette) but more the idea of it being an exaggerated, almost fantastical response to an environment. So whilst Flora takes place in the forest, Azure takes place in the ocean, but both focus on the fantasy elements, as opposed to the mundane or harsh reality. I wasn't going to do an album about overfishing or something. It's a form of escapism I suppose.

"Some interesting facts about the album are:
- One of the tracks has a short sample from the soundtrack to a well known 1990s point-and-click adventure game, set deep in the Caribbean.
- I was listening to Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden a lot around the time of writing.”

credits

released June 26, 2020

Performed and produced by Stephen James Buckley on modular synthesizer, November 2019.
Artwork by Nick Taylor at spectral-studio.co.uk
CiS055

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about

Polypores Preston, UK

Polypores (aka Stephen James Buckley) paints music with a modular synthesizer, drawing influence from ambient, new age, and experimental electronics. It soars, bubbles, crackles, and soothes, in ever-shifting, immersive cosmic landscapes. Dream environments and sonic sculptures. ... more

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