Modern Nature

Moden Nature new project from Jack Cooper (Ultimate Painting/Mazes), Will Young (BEAK>) plus Woods' Aaron Neveu and Sunwatchers' Jeff Tobias release debut album How To Live via Bella Union on 23rd August.

How To Live is an audacious album full of layers and intrigue with tracks blending into each other for a continuous journey that guides us through a palatial landscape of looping guitars, cello, saxophone and beats all tied into expansive melodies which shine throughout. Reflecting on the inception of How To Live Cooper recalls sending songs over to Will Young before meeting up and coming up with the basis for How To Live “Approaching the album as a film or play made complete sense, and from that came the idea to have a very defined narrative, reoccurring themes and chord progressions, field recordings and a set palette of instruments and sounds”.

Opening track Bloom sets us off with a melancholic cello before previous single Footsteps leads us into a soundscape of jazz improvisations and loops. Standout track Criminals floats along a wonderfully gentle synthesizer line and guitar leading into Seance picking up with the guitar line generating the forward motion that endears the album as a complete progression. An undercurrent of experimental folk resonates underneath How To Live along the lines of Jim O'Rourke’s albums Eureka & Insignificance. Aptly titled closing track Devotee takes us full circle with cello leading the melody towards a clarity that ends with the sound of the sea.

Preorder from Bella Union store here

Mark