British electronic duo Broads have announced their new 6-track ‘Ollust‘ LP, a spacious and upflifting ambient offering set for release on March 6 via Humm Recordings. For ‘Ollust’, Broads teamed up with long-time collaborator Milly Hirst to take another leap into the unknown . An almost entirely analogue album built around pianos, drones, field recordings and wordless vocals. ‘Ollust’ (which means ‘Always’ in the local dialect) is something of a departure for the Norwichbased 2-piece outfit.
The lush, layered electronics of ‘Field Theory’ LP (2018) and its follow-up ‘A Small Box Over a Global Goal’ LP (2019) have been stripped away, and replaced with minimal, cyclical piano pieces and treated field recordings. These central elements are offset by a variety of droning synths, various acoustic instruments and the hypnotic voice of folk starlet Milly Hirst (who previously collaborated with Broads on the tracks ‘Young Grizzlies’, ‘Sometimes I Feel Like I’m a Terrible Dad’ and most notably ‘Climbs‘).
The opportunity to work on a full album with Milly was one that the band jumped at her skill at weaving a story through music is incredible, and Milly embraced the challenge of adapting that skill to Broads’ minimalist approach.
The lead single is ‘Happisburgh’ (pronounced ‘haze-bruh’) is built around ideas of a town disappearing into the sea – history being rendered in front of us, and future folk tales falling into place. The accompanying video, most fitting considering the thematic, was filmed and edited by Mark Jennings.
Broads is Mark Jennings and James Ferguson. Since joining together in 2017, they have released 2 albums of mostly electronic song experiments both on their own imprint, Humm Recordings. A slow transition through genres and approaches has resulted in a broad back catalogue – from the lo-fi guitar/RS-09 scratchings of 2013’s self-titled debut LP, through the tense atmospherics of ‘Hellas’ (2015) and ‘Everything Is Spinning…’ (2016) and the glittering electronics (with occasional guitars) of ‘Field Theory’ and ‘A Small Box…’
Thanks to support from Arts Council England, in April 2020, Broads and Milly Hirst will also embark on a 6-date tour of the locations referenced in the track titles, together with visual artist Liam Roberts, who will manipulate local archive film footage live at each performance.
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