Snow Palms - Origin and Echo [Vinyl]

David Sheppard first conceived Snow Palms as a vehicle for music played
on mallet instruments (metallophones, glockenspiels, xylophones, marimbas,
etc), devices that have featured intermittently across almost two decades-worth
of the multi-instrumentalists miscellaneous collaborative projects that
include State River Widening, Ellis Island Sound, The Wisdom of Harry and
Phelan-Sheppard, among a host of others.

Snow Palms 2012 debut album Intervals won a sheaf of approving notices
for its ineffably cinematic blend of polyrhythmic percussion and richly melodic
orchestration, partly achieved in collaboration with arranger-composer
Christopher Leary (aka Ochre). Two years in the making, the follow-up builds on
the foundations of its predecessor, with a heavy quotient of metallophones,
glockenspiels and marimbas at its core, but largely eschews the latters
chamber arrangements in favour of soaring synth-scapes and a palette of
spectral ambient and electronic textures.

Despite that, Origin and Echo is a more performative record than was
Intervals, its eleven organic, kinetic pieces meticulously constructed by
Sheppard from initial percussive skeletons largely essayed instinctively, in
free time, without click-tracks and with almost no guitar. The album is loosely
predicated on themes of mirroring and rebounding, whether physical or
metaphorical, inspired by everything from the gravity-defying parabolas of
space flight to patterns of human migration and feelings of dÈj‡ vu summoned by
nostalgic journeys.  

The results are, by turns, hypnotic (the dreamy, tensile White
Shadows), symphonic (the ever-spiralling, near-anthemic Circling),
propulsive (the inexorably escalating Rite), immersive (the harp-caressed
tintabulations of You Are Here) and poignant (Vostoks aching cosmic synth
evocations, the mysterioso soundtrack undulations of Black Snow&). Along the
way, there are nods to the film scores of Thomas Newman, the minimal
electronics of Simon Fisher-Turner, John Luther Adams vibraphone-based chamber
piece In a Treeless Place, Only Snow, and several works by Japanese
composers, especially those of Shimizu Yasuaki, Midori Takada and Ryuichi
Sakamoto.  

While the album is mostly the work of David Sheppard working alone or in
tandem with producer Giles Barrett, it also features cameos from previous Snow
Palms collaborator Christopher Leary (synthesisers), alongside Emma Winston
(Omnichord), Lauri Wuolio (cupola drum) and Village Green label-mate AngËle
David-Guillou (keyboards). It arrives two years after Sheppards last major
release, his debut solo album, 2015s Vertical Land, which attracted some of
the best reviews of his career (An immersive journey into rhythmic motion and
vibrant, transportive texture, said MOJO; More entrancing than anything he's
recorded to date, opined Uncut).

• Format Detail: LP
• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Dance & Electronic