RIVAL CONSOLES - LANDSCAPE FROM MEMORY

1. In Reverse
2. Catherine
3. Drum Song
4. Soft Gradient Beckons
5. Gaivotas
6. Coda
7. Known Shape
8. Nocturne
9. Jupiter
10. In a Trance
11. If Not Now
12. 2 Forms
13. Tape Loop
14. Landscape from Memory

Rival Consoles has been concurrently in the foreground and background of electronic music since the late-‘00s; conjuring tense melancholia for Black Mirror soundtracks, playing in front of 10,000 dance fans at Drumsheds, selling out London’s Barbican Hall, and logging an expansive, wandering collection of synth-sculpted albums that explore a myriad of different styles and aesthetics—but always with human emotion as their lodestar.

Landscape from Memory, released on Erased Tapes Records, the ninth studio LP from the UK producer and musician born Ryan Lee West, finally blossomed following a frustrating fallow year away from the production desk. For West, having spent the past decade producing and writing in a habitual way, falling out of love with creativity meant a slowing of the clock that makes him tick, a sense of being swallowed whole by some elementary force.

Partly stitched together from a scrapbook of discarded audio snippets, Landscape from Memory demanded a degree of openness and vulnerability in its assembly. “There is a kind of strange beauty to it because it involves the past, present and future in a very strong way.”

If you like this, why not check out other releases from Erased Tapes, as well diving into our new releases within our ambient music category.