Sunset Graves - Dead City Hymnal (2017)

‘Dead City Hymnal’ is the dark and beautiful new album from acclaimed artist and recent #savefabric contributor Sunset Graves (Andy Fosberry). Composed between returning from his second UK tour of 2016 in mid August, and the night before Halloween, this hypnotic collection of music finds Andy at his absolute sharpest yet.
“Without being too cliche, I saw a lot of things on the road that stuck with me” says Fosberry of his new record. “Economic disparity, gentrification, extreme beauty, the full range of weather, loneliness, all of which became a collection of scenes and pictures in my memory. I wrote to these scenes and the emotions they evoked.”
From the punishing tide of bass that forms ‘Tin Snips’, to the desolate soundscapes of ‘Passion & Dissonance’, this is an album stacked with atmospheres, polyrhythms, sound design, harmony and layered beats. “As a whole piece”, Andy continues,” I feel good about the fact the record doesn’t sound like anybody else. At all”.
Whilst deep into the writing process, the call came in from the then recently closed Fabric to compose something new for their #savefabric compilation. “That whole closure was such a mess. Both weirdly, and unfortunately, it was really on topic with the music I was writing. So thematically, it wasn’t a big leap to write something for them”. The 8 minute epic ‘Dead City Hymn’ became the centerpiece for the album that would go on to (nearly) share its name.
“That track split the album in two - in the best possible way. So there is a thread that connects the first five, and the second five tracks on the record”.