Melodic alternative pop outfit The Academy of Sun present their new album ‘The Quiet Earth’, an expansive offering of breathtaking ambition with 15 tracks on offer.
This follows up their latest single ‘Rose Devoid of Form’ and rip-roaring rocker b-side ‘Everything At Once Forever’. A rich textured taster of the full album, the accompanying video for ‘Rose Devoid of Form’ was directed and edited by Nick Hudson. Starring Kieran DeadK, it was shot by Sam Horn with lighting by Adrian Goycoolea.
Prior to this, the band released thee highly dynamic power pop-infused lead track ‘The Parts That Need Replacing’ and lulling shanty-pop single ‘The House’.
Formed nine years ago in Brighton, UK, The Academy of Sun is a psychedelic post-punk outfit led by Nick Hudson (piano, synths, Hammond organ, harmonium, vocals, percussion, synths) and joined by Kianna Blue (bass, synths), Guy Brice (guitars) and Ash Babb (drums).
Together, TAOS presents dystopian fantastic creations that combine the deeply personal and the poetically arcane. Dark yet buoyant, this is a controlled explosion of psychedelic and dark power pop with atmospheres couched in vast and expansive landscapes and cinematic arrangements.
“The Quiet Earth is the summation of all of The Academy Of Sun’s ambitions and aspirations so far – created over many creatively-fired months in Church Road Studios, Hove, with Paul Pascoe (Barry Adamson, etc.) manning the desk – it’s an opulent but human super-bolide meteorite sandblasted out into the world with love and fire, humility and humour, addressing our heinous disruption of the natural world, irradiated landscapes, extremes of human emotion, inhospitable frozen terrains, ‘transgressive’ lifestyles, queer sexuality, organised religion’s unscrupulous and historic censoring of the rebel spirit. Like if Werner Herzog made a chamber-prog-punk record under DMT in The Chelsea Hotel,” says Nick Hudson.
“If there’s a literally kernel to its ignition, it would be Plutopia by Kate Brown – a horrifying, impassioned and revelatory study on the plight of the communities left behind in the wake of the cold war nuclear arms race – both in Hanford, Washington and Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals.”
Hudson’s fascination with the former Soviet Union ring through, with the latest single ‘Rose Devoid of Form’, But the links to Russia founded upon layered analogue synths and samples from the Russian number station The Buzzer – alongside field recordings of a train pulling into Pripyat, the abandoned town near Chernobyl. It also features a field recording of birdsong I made at the grave site of murdered Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko.
Following 2017’s ‘Codex Novena’ LP, which ranked in both Dangerous Minds and Sweeping The Nation end-of-year lists, ‘The Quiet Earth’ offers a colossal meditation on dystopia, irradiated landscapes and extreme states of human emotion. This 15-track collection of post-punk, chamber ballads and darkly prog studio epos was recorded at Church Road Studios with Paul Pascoe, whose work includes the last 2 albums by Barry Adamson (Magazine / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds).
Nick Hudson’s musical juggernaut has been active in various incarnations since 2012, always transcending expectations. The Academy of Sun has collaborated with Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson, Matthew Seligman (Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey), Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Canadian queercore icon GB Jones, members of NYC’s Kayo Dot and David Tibet (Current 93). TAOS has also performed or toured withMogwai, Toby Driver and Keith Abrams (Kayo Dot), and Timba Harris (Mr Bungle, Amanda Palmer).
On June 19, ‘The Quiet Earth’ LP will be released on CD and digitally.The singles ‘Rose Devoid of Form’ and ‘The Parts That Need Replacing’ are out now, available across online stores and streaming platforms such as Spotify.
