Whitewater - Dark Planet (2020)

Bad Elephant Music is delighted to announce the release of Dark Planet, the brand new album from British ambient prog duo Whitewater, on October 16th 2020.

Building on the success of their acclaimed 2017 album Universal Medium, this new release sees an expansion of their soundscapes, with Stuart Stephens and Paul Powell being once again joined by BEM mainstay Mike Kershaw, who writes and sings three tracks. Gareth Cole (Mike Kershaw Band, Fractal Mirror, The Rube Goldberg Machine, Under A Banner) contributes his signature guitar stylings to four songs.

“Dark Planet has been a long time in the making”, says Stuart. “We’d hoped to get it out earlier, but Covid-19 had other ideas! We think this is a real gear change in writing and production, and it’s been a blast working with Mike and Gareth, too!”

“We’re delighted to welcome Whitewater back for their new album”, says BEM’s David Elliott. “The guys have really upped their game for this album, and if you like atmospheric progressive music, you’re going to love this one.”

Dark Planet will be available on CD and download, with pre-orders commencing very shortly.

Whitewater was formed in 2013 by Stuart Stephens and Paul Powell. Both are tremendously multitalented – Stuart is an all-in-one vocalist, guitarist, keyboards player, while Paul handles a complex range of percussion as well as drum programming. Stuart has been an avid progressive rock fan for as long as he can remember, and formed Whitewater to combine the sounds of classic prog bands like Pink Floyd and Supertramp with a more contemporary ambient aesthetic more akin to Orbital or The Future Sound of London.

Whitewater’s first album, The Sound of a Galaxy Smashing, was a highly experimental venture, but it served to solidify the ideas and sounds Stuart and Paul had been working with into something more coherent, and laid the foundations for what would follow. They began working simultaneously on a second studio album and an EP, Slipstream – the latter was mastered by BEM’s very own David Elliott.

Obscured by the Sun, the second album, released in early 2015 alongside a second EP, Raison d’être. Between these two releases, the band realised that they had developed a sound that was very firmly theirs, and drove them to refine and adjust the formula even further. Universal Medium, their first album after joining Bad Elephant Music in 2017, built on this signature sound, bringing the band greater acclaim.

Dark Planet, to be released in Autumn 2020, further cements Whitewater’s alliance with BEM, as well as building on their collaboration with Mike Kershaw, and guitarist de jour Gareth Cole