Nach den beiden Alben FI (2005) und HAND CRANKED (2006) komplettiert Bibio nun die Reissue-Serie seines frühen Katalogs beim US-Label Mush mit der Neuauflage des dritten Albums VIGNETTING THE COMPOST (2009) und der 10"-EP OVALS AND EMERALDS (2009) auf Warp Records. Knisternd mit der Frische taufrischer, sonnenverwöhnter Frühlingsmorgen bekommen wir glücklichen Zuhörer auf der LP ein Füllhorn gefundener Klänge, kreisender Gitarrenformen und staubiger LoFi-Resonanz, während verzerrte Melodien und eine Reihe analoger Geräte jedem Track der EP einen staubigen, tintenfischfarbenen Charakter verleihen. Tracklisting: A1. Flesh Rots, Pip Sown A2. Mr. & Mrs. Compost A3. Everglad Everglade A4. Dopplerton B1. Great Are The Piths B2. Odd Paws B3. Under The Pier B4. Weekend Wildfire C1. The Clothesline And The Silver Birch C2. Torn Under The Window Light C3. The Ephemeral Bluebell C4. Over The Far And Hills Away D1. Amongst The Bark And Fungus D2. Top Soil D3. Thatched D4. The Garden Shelter
[info sheet from distr.]

It’s a great pleasure for me to finally see these two releases issued on vinyl. Both records explore different themes that captured my imagination during the time of making them.

‘Vignetting The Compost’ partly draws on a theme of the endless cycle of life and death, of growth and decay and how the two are dependent on each other, often felt strongly by humans as polar opposites but the process of which are seamlessly connected. I was partly inspired by Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’, which I was reading around the time of writing this album. The images gained from books are created in the reader’s mind, but so can be said of listening to music, so the creation of the imagery is somewhat of a collaboration between the writer and the reader or listener. This album also explores the processes of pain, loss, suffering and healing, with an optimistic hopeful tone growing over the lamentation like ivy on a gravestone. I’ve always been fascinated with the quality of the imagination and dreams, how edges are unfinished and indefinite, unlike the boundaries of a cinema screen. In dreams, forms and details can seem vivid yet vague, impressionistic, powerful yet difficult to recall. These were the qualities and aesthetics that I focussed on with this album, including intertwining musical ‘vignettes’ amongst the more structured tracks.

Ovals & Emeralds explores particular themes that I found haunting as a child: outdated ornate Victorian design, dolls and clowns, automatons, wind up toys, fairgrounds and circuses. The goal was to evoke these themes through manipulation of my own instrumentation, rather than directly sampling fairground organs etc. Although there are some more playful moments on the EP, the dreamlike qualities often take the form of feverish nightmares, dizzying and disorientating with a dose of paranoia.

Bibio 2023[info sheet from distr.]