Simon Kirby - ’At Rahoy, The Early Light’ (Limited Edition White Vinyl LP)

Simon Kirby is a scientist, artist and musician whose work transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. He won a BAFTA in 2009 for the robotic sound installation, Cybraphon, and is fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the British Academy, and the Academy of Europe.

This album traces a journey taken in 2022 from Kanazawa, Japan to Edinburgh, Scotland. Due to the war in Ukraine, Russian airspace was closed and the flight left Japan eastwards and tracked around the North Pole. Lines plotted on the seat-back monitors told one story of a world being reshaped by conflict, while the view of retreating sea ice out of the window was testament to another narrative; one whose final chapter feels closer by the day.

The album was composed in just intonation, a tuning system based on perfect integer ratios rather than the compromises inherent in modern equal temperament. It makes extensive use of the Dream Machine mode on the Expert Sleepers disting EX synthesizer module. In addition, monome’s Teletype, and Mannequins’ Just Friends modules played a major part. Track 1 features field recordings made in Oyama-jinja, a Shinto shrine in Kanazawa, and on Tokyo’s public transport network.