Xqui - Twenties (2021)

"Often when I have an idea for a new track with a new approach or sound, it snowballs into something bigger. Whether that be a longer track, an EP or even an album, each time I try to have a theme that carries through the project. Lleisiau was based around voices, Microchasm was my industrial ambient album and Ambients found me in a more reflective and serene state of mind.

With Twenties it was simply the thought of using archive recordings and footage to expand into something more tangible. I found dozens of recordings from the 1920s which I thought worked well with some of my more trademark sounds.

I was looking at images for the search term ‘1920s’ when I came across an image of a man from one hundred years ago who was wearing a facemask which was presumably from the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic. It was not until I saw it that I realised, with irony, that the same thing was happening here and now.

The finding of the photo added another angle to the album, a little bit of horror, interference and mechanical sounds. I recorded and collated more field recordings and manipulated them to give the noise on the album.

I feel it is probably my most complete work to date and I’m incredibly proud of it.

I present to you, the Twenties."