We humans tend to tie music to the milestones of our short lives. Whether it’s a birthday, wedding, or bar mitzvah, it doesn’t take a lot of looking to find a DJ or streaming radio station looking to complement your celebration. But what about death, or a funeral? Let’s just say that scoring the memorial of a passed-away loved one isn’t exactly a cottage industry in today’s world.
Knowing this, UK producer Half has the soundtrack to his death all planned out and packaged for the world to hear in his debut full-length, Here Lies Half.
“There’s a saying that goes ‘don’t die with the music still inside you,'” explains his promo material. “After being horrified at some of the dubious music choices at recent family funerals he’d attended, he has created the soundtrack to his own send off for when the inevitable happens.”
And his “send off” is going to have one gorgeous, cinematic score. Here Lies Half is an epic exploration of ambient sounds that, while eclectic and bold, is threaded together by a haunting ambiance of vivid colors and unique instrumentation that’s as much a celebration of life as it is the acceptance of death.
When Half released his first single, Mind Laps (featured here as track 2), I described it as “a sinister storm disguising itself in layers of tranquility. With instrumentation that seamlessly morphs from the organic to brain-gnawing synths that swell like a last rush of endorphins to a dying brain, it is not hard to understand why Half describes their ambient instrumentals as ‘uplifting funeral music.'”
Mind Laps was indeed a harbinger of this full-length effort.
Featuring guests like Kate Dilemma, who brings her astrological spoken word to Into View‘s brass-fueled vibrancy, and Barstool Astronaut whose military-style percussive effort in Last Kiss grounds the ethereal opening track, Here Lies Half is a dreamy and impassioned delivery into the unknown.
Find Half on Bandcamp, Border Series on Facebook, then give Here Lies Half a listen below the guest review, and buy it.
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