Modern Studies announce new album ‘We Are There’ out on 18th February 2022 on Fire Records with new single ‘Wild Ocean’ out today. They’ll also be touring the UK this winter.
The looping ‘Wild Ocean’ guitar line has been pushed and pulled by the band over the last few years, from a chamber folk cello and double bass piece to the droning fuzzed-out shape it now takes.
“Improvising lyrics in the studio, we all sang harmonies, everything ebbs and flows to the crescendo.” Modern Studies
Through the hazy daze of a smoky folk opus, Modern Studies craft rich soundtracks, stuttering Super-8 sketches from a washed-out world of melancholy, hand-tinted and tantalising. Lullaby couplets blossom into gorgeous chamber pop melodies, the drama unfolding behind Emily Scott’s plaintive vocal; part Julie London, part Sandy Denny, a little bit Kate Bush, with a hushed sigh of Joni.
Sweeping strings carry them into unchartered terrain on this new release, flying high above their psych-folk roots, it’s an epic journey that’s exquisitely delivered, transcending categories, nodding to Brubeck, Low, Talk Talk, Jim O’Rourke and Pentangle, making music that is ready to cross over in these modern times with songs of substance.
“Sensitive, smart, inventive, cultured, brimming with complex ideas” Record Collector
On their new album ‘We Are There’, an ambient muse moves through the shadows, analogue instruments creak and Laurel Canyon harmonies tingle in tape-echoed air; melody and magic conspire to create something way beyond the sum of its many parts, elevating Modern Studies from self-made innovators to poetic protagonists.
