[Cover photo credit to Sebastian Kite]
Violinist, composer, and Grammy Award-winning sound engineer Simon Goff, and singer-songwriter Katie Melua have released a collaborative album, Aerial Objects. The album is available digitally and on CD now via BMG and will be available on vinyl on September 2nd, 2022. Previously released singles include “Hotel Stamba” and “Textures Of Memories”.
Simon Goff has worked with Academy Award-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir on the scores for Joker and Chernobyl, both of which earned him Grammy Awards. Katie Melua, meanwhile, has released 8 Top 10 UK albums across a 20 year career.
An exhibition that the pair attended at the König Gallery in Berlin was the catalyst for the album. What followed was that “A discussion on the emotional effects of different spaces and architecture sparked an exploration of landscapes, both man-made and natural, and turned into experimental compositions that move, moment by moment, between the song spaces of Katie and the immersive melodies of Simon”.
On the album, Simon Goff says:
The process of making this album has been one of discovery and giving space to each other. The sensitivity needed for this kind of process has allowed many things to surface, from us discovering the differences in how we listen to and hear music and lyrics, to our own deeply personal life experiences. The record for me is a representation of us exploring the space that exists between us and discovering a common voice from within it.
Katie Melua continues:
“I was fortunate enough to work with Simon when he appeared as a guest on an acoustic album I released late last year. During those sessions, and as a maker of immersive musical landscapes, Simon talked to me about creating records that make the listener feel like they are inside the orchestra. We agreed that we needed to create something new together – with a focus on how different environments affect the human condition.
On Aerial Objects, our two artists’ worlds have merged to create a new space: Simon on the violin, analogue processing and synths, coming together with my world of traditional records rooted around the pop song. Lyrically this work has allowed me the freedom of imagination to address how environments shape my thinking and state; how the use of language and story-telling influence me; as well as the opportunity to finally reflect on a time in my life when I was recovering from a very challenging psychiatric illness.”
