The Sombre Warm is Brendon John Warner’s latest soundscape creation that will leave sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation, completely captivated until the final note.
Brendon John Warner is name you might know from Sydney’s rock scene, as he was a former member of post-rock outfit, We Lost The Sea.
However, there is a different side to Brendon that strays away from the grittiness of distorted guitars and crashing drums. He is also a composer and sound designer, who creates lush electronic, ambient and noise soundscapes under his name.
He draws his inspiration from diverse music genres, the visual arts, literature and the natural world. His music has been described as “a sprawling, kaleidoscopic electroacoustic exploration” by Stationary Travels and “highly evocative” by Planet Hugill.
Following the recent announcement of his sophomore album, Slow Friction, he has released his first single from the album titled The Sombre Warm, which possesses a brooding, dark-ambient soundscape, originating from a part of a live improvised performance during the initial lockdown in mid-2020. The track is meticulously layered, with various synth textures and a thudding drum beat that leaves you feeling like you are constantly on the verge of something. It will have you sitting on the edge of your seat with anticipation.
Brendon told Happy, “The Sombre Warm was the first piece I wrote for ‘Slow Friction’, and set the tone of the entire record”. It is a track that was created with electronic instruments such as a eurorack synthesiser as well as a few semi-modular MOOG synths. Brendon placed a big emphasis on making sure he captured and kept the rawness of his creations through long single takes, instead of the precision that comes with multi-tracking and organising parts. He carefully crafted layers of ambience with pedals such as the electro-harmonix POG2, ChaseBliss MOOD and Strymon BlueSky, whilst the music itself descends in a minor harmony, which is peppered with borrowed chords from parallel modes, creating an intensity build-up throughout the track.
Drawing inspiration from artists such as Lawrence English, Rafael Anton Irissari, Kali Malone and Tim Hecker, they influenced the broody composition that is prevalent in The Sombre Warm, concentrating on repetition and slowly evolving simple aspects of the composition.
If The Sombre Warm is what is setting the tone for Brendon’s forthcoming album, Slow Friction, then we can expect more broody ambient tracks that will leave you captivated until the very last note. The Slow Friction LP is set to be released on December 2. In the meantime, stream its first single, The Sombre Warm via Spotify below.
