Cardiff-based experimental electronic duo Larch has shared their new EP, ‘The World Is Dangerous; Go Outside’ on 22 November via sinc(x) Records. Larch has seen support from CLASH Magazine, Music Week, and A Closer Listen as well as airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Phil Taggart’s Chillest Show.
Started as an attempt to stave off a descent into madness and to create some sense of purpose, Larch is the collaborative enterprise of Kai and Matt. Between long spells of hypnagogic indifference, the duo made their first EP, 2018’s Unknown Neural Pathways – a sprawling set of jarring nightmare-scapes, addressing the need for humanity in an automated world. They went on to compose a live set, Modulated in Savage Discord; a piece which tried to put Europe’s imperial past into stark focus and in late 2018, they were commissioned by up-and-coming artist and curator Ethan Dodd to make an exhibition sound piece, Stillness; Despair. Movement; Despair! for The Maiden, an exhibition in Cardiff’s Ruin Gallery.
Citing influences such as Aphex Twin, Lanark Artefax, FIS, Claude Speeed, and Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Larch compose commentaries through a tangled palette of sonic anarchy. Drawing parallels to the sound of Tim Hecker or Mount Kimbie, Larch do not shy away from discomfort, but rather embrace both the beautiful and disturbing.
The World is Dangerous; Go Outside explores the struggle for self-actualisation in a decaying world. The record seeks to explore the struggle of self-realisation in a decaying environment. To achieve this, the works couple elements of uncomfortable and disjointed sound design, with moments of peace and nostalgia. Fleeting moments of voice elements set the notion of identity against a backdrop of ecological disintegration and explore the dissonance of individual and collective identities in a dangerous world.
Larch give some insight into the EP: “Our approach to this record was distinct from our first. We incorporated various elements of new hardware into the process and combined these with the detailed sample manipulation that is central to our sound. We wanted to juxtapose chaos and order in a way which we feel resembles the environment in which we all exist.”
