Leon Vynehall - Rare Forever (2021)

Leon Vynehall has announced the followup to 2018's critically
acclaimed debut Nothing Is Still (which garnered widespread
praise including appearing in ‘Album of the Year’ lists from
Rough Trade, Mixmag, Esquire, The Vinyl Factory, RA and more) in
the form of new album Rare, Forever which will be released on 30
April via Ninja Tune. Along with the announcement he has shared
two new tracks 'Mothra' and 'Ecce! Ego!'.

Speaking of 'Mothra' Vynehall says:

"Mothra is the euphoric unfurling of 'something'. Muted notes
fluttering free before returning to the cascade we arrived
from, only now with purpose"

Speaking of 'Ecce! Ego!' Vynehall says:

"The tracks' title literally translates from Latin to 'Behold!
Me!' A fitting introduction to an album about my own psyche, I
thought. It starts off where Nothing Is Still left off, but
rapidly switches to something more fluid, perhaps even sinister.
I kind of think of this song as 'Envelopes (Chapter VI)'s
fucked up cousin."

As anyone pursuing a creative outlet will do at some point in
their process; upon turning 30 in Los Angeles, far from his
London home, Leon Vynehall found himself wondering about what
he’s trying to say in life, where he’s trying to go and
thinking about his career to date. After bringing euphoria to
dancefloors all over the world with the humid house of Rojus
(Designed To Dance), he took a sharp left turn with debut album
Nothing Is Still — a masterclass in subverting expectations.
With the entry to the long-running DJ-Kicks series that
followed, Vynehall turned further away from convention, putting
together a mix that naturally and creatively blended everything
from industrial and techno to dancehall, soul and ambient in a
way that Resident Advisor described in their 4.4/5 review as
“brilliantly executed”.

Those who have spent time with Vynehall’s music over the past
decade will know how much it is rooted in family. Nothing Is
Still — which was part of a wider multimedia experience spanning
film (with video elements directed by Young Replicant) and
literature — was dedicated to Vynehall’s grandparents and traced
their emigration from London to New York in the 1960s, his own
journey to Los Angeles striking some distant, ghostly parallels
with theirs. Music For The Uninvited was inspired by the funk,
soul and hip-hop tapes his mum used to play on car journeys to
and from school. But on Rare, Forever, Vynehall is showcasing
all the strings to his bow - creating music that’s borderless
and unbound.

Rare, Forever sees Vynehall for the first time investigating who
he is as a person and artist in the very moment, rather than
looking to the past to discover what and who has shaped him.
The result then contains multiple sides to him, but variety in
his art is something Vynehall is used to - he described his 2018
Resident Advisor Podcast as taking the dancefloor “left and
right, up and down." On Rare, Forever, he’s taking a victory
lap. The album is a beautiful marriage of everything he's done
so far while remaining genuinely progressive; the end result
sounding like Nothing Is Still but with the narrative toned
down, and the dancefloor dialled up.

Rare, Forever will feel familiar for fans of Vynehall’s DJ-Kicks
mix or his eclectic excursions on NTS while simultaneously
sounding unlike anything he’s ever done before. As much as
dance record — instead, Rare, Forever is the clearest
representation of the broad spectrum of music he’s made to
date.

More recently, Vynehall has set up a new recording space
'Studio Ooze' to expand his collaborations and has been writing
and producing for the likes of Kam-Bu, Wesley Joseph, Kenzie TTH
and Jeshi - a number of which are slated for imminent release.