Audiopile Review: Australia’s Lawrence English is a real mover and shaker in the international experimental-electronic music community. Aside from running the Room40 label, he has collaborated with Loscil, William Basinski, Alessandro Cortini, David Toop, Tujiko Noriko, Francisco López, and many others. English came onto the scene around 2005, when Fennesz’s ‘Venice’ was ushering in a shift from glitchy chaos to meditative, melancholy soundscapes. He caught this wave beautifully in 2008, with ‘Kiri No Oto’ on Touch, the same label that released ‘Venice’. But it was the following year’s ‘A Colour for Autumn’ on 12K which marked the highpoint of his work in this era. That one legit featured Fennesz on one track. But, more than anything, it recalled the gleaming, drone-based sound that Stephan Mathieu was perfecting around the same time (see 2008’s ‘Radioland’). It was also notable for having an opening track featuring Dean Roberts, who tragically died this autumn, on vocals. ‘A Colour for Autumn’ received a very limited vinyl release in 2010, and you’d be lucky to find one floating around. Therefore, Room40’s 15th-anniversay edition is most welcome. It’s newly remastered by (wouldn’t you know it) Stephan Mathieu and is an essential purchase for anyone who likes to get their head deep into the glitch-drone zone.

From Lawrence English: “This recording was, in many ways, a critical one for me. In some respects, it rounded out a period of work that was focused on a particular marriage of thematics and harmony. Like For Varying Degrees Of Winter, it dwelled on old world impressions of the seasons, something that, in the southern hemisphere, isn’t intrinsically part of our way of approaching place. I think it was this incongruity with my own lived experience that kick-started the interest in making these recordings. The intention had originally been to take Vivaldi head-on, as the holder of the Four Seasons terrain (I jest of course), but shortly after completing this album, it became resoundingly clear that even in the old world, seasonality was a thing that was known ‘then’, and unknowable ‘now’. Climate change, as a lived experience and not merely as a ‘possibility’, suddenly came into focus with reports flooding in about the climatic dynamics since the turn of the century and events like the Black Saturday fires here in Australia. It felt like, and continues to feel like, seasonality as some predictable measure of our world is relegated to the ‘before’ times. This record is not about these climatic shifts however, more a recognition of how we have used patterns and predictability to guide us over the centuries and perhaps a realization that the way forward is not the path we have known historically. Listening back to the record with fresh ears, a process made completely delightful by Stephan Mathieu who has carefully remastered it, I am struck by how minimal some of the structures were. There are moments that strike me as uncharacteristically patient and even generous, allowing one element to hold without interference. I’m grateful to still feel a deep connection to this edition and to the people and places that helped shape it. I hope you find some sense of your place here. It’s offered with that intention and invitation.”