Paul Thomas Saunders - Beautiful Desolation (2014)

Following two self-released EPs, the Hove based musician makes his major label debut. Written, recorded, and produced alongside bandmate Max Prior, Saunders’ music is one of hazy atmospherics, and a mountainous, soaring vocal delivery.

Recorded in the band’s then home, a hotel gatehouse on the outskirts of Leeds, Beautiful Desolation is as far removed from London’s music scene as he could keep it. His music’s glacial synth pulses sit awkwardly in shoehorning them into scenes and genre pockets, finding their influence primarily in the celestial electronic composer Vangelis.

Saunders speaks of astral themes, and ‘scientists in the Atacama desert’ in Chile listening to the music when mapping a vision of what the album should sound like. It’s a vision he’s carefully sculpted and adhered to on the LP, a glacial, beguiling space-rock creation.