Wil Bolton - Swept

Released: July 1 

In the latest work from London-based artist Wil Bolton, we become engaged in a landscape that combines serene pads fortified by field recordings with all manner of synthetic sounds that range from smooth to scattered and crushed along with airy guitars and keys. Supporting all of this are smooth bass hits that bring a certain thickness to these otherwise wispy and faint sounds that characterize the album. All of this coming together gives a certain introspective feeling to the work as though we are fittingly swept along on a journey through a cloudy space of memory and reflection. 

The album opens us with the sound of wind sweeping a tarpaulin around as the spacious pads slowly creep in, setting the appropriate mood for the title of the album, Swept. As the last ringing pad fades away, we slowly move into "Frame of Reference" with the light synthetic keys twinkling softly among a deep bass note repeating it self to assure that it is heard as the heavily reverberated guitar notes creep in. A similar theme plays out in the next track "Bindweed" although this time the twinkling keys are replaced by a slightly crushed and distorted synth line that plucks along slightly awkwardly, providing a beautiful contrast to the pads that under-gird the track. These synthetic soundscapes keep us traveling on through the remainder of the album, even through the final track until the very end in which we hear the cheery song of the birds, hearkening better times for the future.