A record not only released on vinyl but designed and created to be released on vinyl. This is how Avian Heart was born. It is the second reference of the Sevillian duo BeatLove on the Beautiful Accident label. Benjamín Jiménez and Myriam Fernández surprised us at the end of May with this video clip. In it, they both travel to the countryside, to the heart of nature in Huelva (in the South of Spain), where they meet the urban artist Wild Welva. He draws on a wall the cover of the album, previously conceived in his studio.
It is a record for both quiet listeners and someone who wants to party. It has many contrasts, although it has been mainly conceived to listen live.
Despite Myriam’s words, we at Xceed were captivated when we first heard Avian Heart in the office. The opening track, which gives the album its title, introduces us to a bucolic and natural environment, where the sound of the same birds that illustrate the cover takes us in a flight and brings us closer to the soft but intense percussions that set the pace for the rest of the tale.
We stopped at “Hourglass”, the A3 on the record and the third of the six tracks that make up the album. It is, of all of them, the most paused and contemplative. We dare to say, even the most elegant. It repeats us “Wake up, it’s your time” several times, while the synth embraces us, the drums sway us and the hi-hats shake our necks up and down, eyes always closed.
Myriam tells us that they recorded the vocals with a hypercardioid mic, which they bought for the live shows and which has given them great results, then applying the effect of TCHelicon VoiceLivePlay. Benjamín details the tools used for sound creation: Nord Rack, Nord Drum, Octatrack, Toraiz and pedals like Strymon and Bossy, recording everything on Ableton Live.
We also edited our previous work with Beautiful Accident. They always welcomed us with open arms. It is a pleasure to work with them, so we presented the demos of this work again and let them know our desire to work together again. We were clear from the beginning that we were going to edit it on vinyl, so we took great care of the details to tell the story in this format. It all started last summer… until today.
To these words from Benjamín, Myriam adds that the relationship with Fernando Lagreca, director of Beautiful Accident, is excellent.
Since we met him, a great friendship has been forged. We love his advice and criticism. We were clear that we wanted our first vinyl to be released on his label. We are very happy that it is finally done.
Tracklist:
A1. Avian Heart
A2. Ahead
A3. Hourglass
B1. Human Concept
B2. Shield
B3. Turn The Knob
(Cover Image: © Beautiful Accident)
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