-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Robin Guthrie ALBUM...: Springtime GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Ethereal, Ambient, Dream Pop, Cocteau Twins, Instrumental, Post Rock YEAR....: 2022 LABEL...: Soleil AprΦs Minuit COUNTRY.: France PLACE...: Rennes, Brittany ORIGIN..: Grangemouth, Scotlan ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 256 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CDEP TRACKS..: 4 SIZE....: 27.81 MB URL..: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Guthrie - TRACKLIST 1 Kino's Chance 3:07 2 The Faraway 2:58 3 Another Part Of Nowhere 4:16 4 All For Nothing 4:46 Total Playtime: 15:07 Guthrie releases a new EP on his 60th birthday. Following the late 2021 releases of the 'Mockingbird Love' EP, the full-length album 'Pearldiving' and the 'Riviera' EP, the new year brings yet another new release by legendary Scottish music sculptor Robin Guthrie. On January 4th, exactly sixty years after his birth, Guthrie is released his 'Springtime' EP via his Soleil AprΦs Minuit imprint with distribution in North America via Darla and in Europe by Cargo. These four new titles were recorded in the summer of 2021, soon after completing 'Pearldiving', his first album in nine years. 'Springtime' is a standalone collection featuring Guthrie's ever present signature sound and atmosphere. His approach to music is perhaps more akin to that of a painter or a photographer. The adept use of light and shade, melody and counter melody, the carefully and precisely arranged instrumentation, musical textures and colorings gives his music a depth and level of detail which marks a master craftsman. Guthrie comments, "After 'Pearldiving', I thought about taking a break as my release schedule has been a bit excessive of late, but I took some time in the studio and got very quickly focused on this as my first release for the new year. Spring is an important time for me. Often it's time to prepare for what's to come. It can represent new growth. It can also be a good excuse to use a great photo of some springs that I had taken". 40 years on from founding Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie has certainly been its most prolific member, offering a steady and stellar stream of material over the years. His film scores include Gregg Araki's 'Mysterious Skin' and 'White Bird in a Blizzard', co-written with long-time collaborator Harold Budd. His many other collaborators include John Foxx, Mark Gardener, Telefon Tel-Aviv, Eraldo Bernocchi and Jay Jay Johanson. Last year, Guthrie released 'Another Flower' with Harold Budd just a few days before Budd's untimely passing. His recent credits as a producer and remixer include Heligoland, Jack Colwell, Resplandor, Ummagma, Fawns of Love, Hatchie and Tamaryn. * Former Cocteau Twins leader Robin Guthrie has dropped a brand new EP of instrumental tracks, Springtime. The release comes just as Guthrie is celebrating his 60th birthday. The new EP also comes on the back of Pearldiving, Guthrie's most recent studio album which dropped back in November of 2021. Pearldiving was also all instrumental, and Springtime feels much like an extension of that work. As should be expected from Guthrie, the sounds of Springtime are lush and ethereal. Mainly driven by keyboards, the EP's arrangements are quite ambient and dreamy, like if Brian Eno's Apollo had more drums. Springtime arrives as the third instrumental EP from Guthrie in four months: October saw the release of Mockingbird Love, another beautifully dense bit of ambient sounds. Just two months later, Riviera was released, featuring a greater mix of rock and electronica. By the way, just in case anyone was unnecessarily getting their hopes up, now seems like a fine time to bring up the fact that former band member Simon Raymonde told SPIN last year that Cocteau Twins will "never reform". They almost did a decade ago, but it seems that the relationship between Guthrie and Liz Fraser is still frosty enough to keep that from ever happening. It seems as though Guthrie can crank out these four track instrumental EPs without much stress or strain, but when the EPs are so lovingly crafted with impeccable attention to detail, I would gladly welcome a new four-song set every two or three months for the foreseeable future. * If it seems like there's been a rush of new music from former Cocteaus guitarist Robin Guthrie... well it's because there has been. Yesterday, to coincide with his 60th birthday, Guthrie released the Springtime EP - a set of four gossamer guitar instrumentals. This follows last year's relative deluge of material, starting with the Mockingbird Love EP in October, the Pearldiving full-length in November, and another EP - Riviera - in December. This, in addition to releasing a handful of one-offs that he called "orphans" via his Bandcamp. As for the why of it, in a recent interview with The Yorkshire Post, he explained the passing last year of frequent collaborator Harold Budd was something of an eye-opener: The loss last December of the American ambient pianist Harold Budd, his longtime friend and collaborator, initially left him "on the floor", he says - "I was like, 'I don't want to do this any more'" - however at the turn of the new year, his feelings changed. "Just learning from Harold being there one minute and not the next, I thought, 'I should just do this, what could go wrong?' So I decided to clear out my studio and got rid of loads of things and just started afresh, writing and creating music. Robin Guthrie: 'I'm not resting on my laurels' @ The Yorkshire Post And he also said as much in a recent interview with Guitar World, which also contains some great insights into the gear he used to craft the early Cocteau Twins material and his current philosophy on equipment: "When Harold died. It got me to thinking, 'Fucking hell, I'm going to be 60 soon and I've got all this music I haven't put out. I should probably get on with it.' So earlier this year I completely rebuilt my studio. I got rid of my mixing desk, changed a lot of outboard, changed the guitars I was working with, some software. I pretty much changed every single thing in my signal path but it still sounds like me!" Robin Guthrie: "I'm not playing a guitar - I'm playing the sound, I'm playing the pedals, I'm playing the reverb" @ Guitar World I can't remember the last time I read such an in-depth profile of Guthrie in a guitar magazine; probably not this century. A very enjoyable read.... perhaps while listening to his birthday EP? * Guthrie was born 60 years ago, on 4 January 1962. Happy B. to the heart and soul touching musician. To celebrate his birthday, he just released another EP titled SPRINGTIME, containing 4 instrumental, synths painted pieces with an instant soothing effect. Imagine this: an eagle flying, with its wide wings spread, over a high mountain, with a bright blue sky on top of it. All nature, all beauteousness, all cinematic magnificence. Get the picture? I'm sure you do. Dim the lights, sit down, relax, open your mind and your ears and let yourself float on these moony waves... -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---