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Introducing lutra – the new smallhaus album

Lutra, the new smallhaus album, has been released by Linear Obsessional Recordings and is available as a CD and pay-what-you-want download.

The CD is packaged in a flexible translucent plastic case, with wrap-around cover and 4 page mini-booklet of notes.

Lutra was written and recorded between July 2017-March 2018 and uses different approaches and techniques from its predecessors, unweather and six. The result is 8 shorter tracks – reflecting my love of psychedelia, 1970s ambient, shoegaze, post-rock, drone and music concrete.

“An enveloping, immersive wash of precision moulded sound” (Richard Sanderson, Linear Obsessional Recordings)

Buy or download Lutra from the Linear Obsessional Bandcamp page.

 

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Lutra releasing into the wild

My new album, lutra, is due to be released imminently on the wonderful Linear Obsessional records.

lutra was written and recorded between July 2017 and February 2018. A departure from the sonic collage of unweather, lutra uses different techniques and features 8 shorter, more focused tracks.

Richard Sanderson, head honcho of Linear Obsessional has written these kind notes about the release:

Following on from his slow burning self-released cassette “Unweather”, “Lutra” is the first CD release by smallhaus (AKA South London based guitarist, electronicist, percussionist David Little). It expands his singular sound environment into a full-screen, full-colour and hugely enjoyable collection.

At times this almost feels like a tribute to the classic sounds of 70’s ambient – the choral textures, the infinite guitars, the synthesizers, but it’s done with a knowing wink and a contemporary layer of grit and dust. But mostly it’s an enveloping, immersive wash of precision moulded sound.

lutra is, of course, dedicated to otters everywhere.

Here’s a short video I made to mark the occasion:

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DIF ID

I’m excited to announce that the collaboration with Felix MacIntosh (Tigersonic) and Igor Olejar (Autorotation) is going to become a “proper” band – DIF ID. It’s early days yet but we’ll be looking at getting some gigs in the next couple of months.

Combining a range of influences, from dub to electronica to psychedelia, DIF ID is also exploring experimental means of performance – more on what that means shortly!

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A View from a Hill

It was a great experience and a pleasure to curate this year’s Linear Obsessional compilation, A View From a Hill.

This the intro to the accompanying “Descriptive Catalogue”:

When Richard Sanderson put out a call for volunteers to compile this year’s Linear Obsessional compilation I willingly put myself forward (after some reassurances that it wouldn’t be too much work, honest). I’d contributed to the previous year’s Utterances and really enjoyed it – not only was it great to work to a brief (two minutes exactly, must use the human voice), but hearing the results of the finished collection was ear-opening –to hear how artists had used the brief as a jumping off point to produce an astonishing variety of
work.

The theme for this year’s compilation was really the first thing that occurred to me – maybe the time of year puts me in mind of MR James – the title comes from one of his ghost stories, or maybe because when I volunteered, I’d just spent a day in Hebden Bridge, nestling amongst the Pennines. Anyway, the theme seemed to suggest two things close to my heart – landscape / countryside; and eeriness. I’m very pleased with the results and I hope you are too. Some artists have concentrated on the Jamesian aspects of the title, recorded or interpreted landscapes of importance to them, or combined both. I’ve loved hearing results from artists living down the road to me (almost literally in some cases) to ones from the other side of the world (Australia, Asia and the United States to name a few).

My own submission was a reading of one the amazing Molly Bloom‘s short ghost stories over a suitably spooky soundscape.

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ATTN Magazine reviews unweather

I’ve had another lovely review of unweather in ATTN Magazine, who organised the Brink compilation I was part of last year. Thank you!

To me, unweather sounds like one of these meditative meanderings through personal history. I twist unforgettable highs and lows into idle memory debris. Chronology folds in on itself, with the vivid experiences of last week seeping into the hazes of childhood. Tidal waves of shoegaze guitar drain to leave the hum and drip of degraded tapes, while field recordings from across the UK (Isle Of Mull, London, Hebden Bridge) become backdrops to flickers of melody or acoustic drones, which hang in the foreground like an inner calm or ripe, burdening upset.

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six

My new EP, six is now available on Bandcamp. It’s made entirely with noises I made with my guitar, most of which have been heavily processed in Ableton.

six, by smallhaus