Featuring 16 pieces over its restless 40-minute duration, Tim Bowness’s eighth studio album Powder Dry represents a new beginning on a new label.
A collection of acute contrasts, the album is a vibrantly accessible and wildly experimental genre-blurring assault, embracing Industrial Rock, Electro Pop, singer-songwriter directness, haunted carnival soundscapes and more.
Entirely produced, performed and written by Bowness (a first), Powder Dry was mixed (in stereo and Surround Sound) by Bowness’s partner in no-man (and The Album Years podcast), Steven Wilson, who also acted as Bowness’s sounding board during the mixing process.
Chronicling descents into ideological extremism, eco-apocalypse, and the all-too human quest for love in a time of crisis, the album is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of sound; chasing feelings, searching for meanings and trying to capture the ever-elusive nowness of now.
From the short, sharp shocks of Always The Stranger and Only A Fool to the long-form ambition of the sensuous Dark Nevada Dream, the cinematic Electro-Ballroom of Glitter Fades and the dystopian paranoia of Say Your Goodbyes Parts 1 and 2, Butterfly Mind delivers a thrilling fusion of Art Rock invention, Post-Punk energy and epic soulful ballads.
Tim’s seventh solo album - his sixth for InsideOutMusic / Sony - features the stellar rhythm section of Richard Jupp (in his first major session since leaving Elbow) and Nick Beggs alongside a spectacular generation and genre spanning guest list including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Dave Formula (Magazine), Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator), Martha Goddard (The Hushtones), Gregory Spawton (Big Big Train), Mark Tranmer (The Montgolfier Brothers / GNAC), Saro Cosentino (Franco Battiato), Italian Jazz musician Nicola Alesini, US singer Devon Dunaway (Ganga), Stephen W Tayler (Kate Bush) and, marking his first studio work with Tim for nearly three decades, former No-Man violinist Ben Coleman.
Produced by Tim Bowness and Brian Hulse (Plenty), the album was mixed and mastered by Steven Wilson.
A collection of lush, atmospheric songs with a wide lyrical scope, Late Night Laments is the most intimate yet universal of Tim Bowness’s solo releases. Mixed by his long-term No-Man partner Steven Wilson and mastered by Calum Malcolm (The Blue Nile, Prefab Sprout), the album was co-produced by Bowness and Brian Hulse.
Exceptional performances come from an impressive cast of supporting musicians including Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin, Kavus Torabi, Melanie Woods, Tom Atherton and Evan Carson.
Combining electronic soundscapes, acoustic instrumentation and unexpected rhythms, Late Night Laments is a tightly focused and emotionally charged entry in Bowness’s increasingly impressive solo catalogue. Contrasting with the sensuous beauty of the music, the frequently dark lyrical themes include meditations on generational divides, ideologically motivated violence, and a much-loved children’s author’s mental breakdown.
The bonus disc features five unreleased pieces, four from the LNL sessions and one - featuring Peter Hammill and Adam Holzman - a Flowers At The Scene outtake.
The album’s detailed artwork is by Jarrod Gosling (I Monster).
“An album of quite outstanding brilliance. Sublime.” Echoes And Dust
“Loaded with longing and bursting with violin flourishes, it’s classically Bownessian.″ Prog Magazine
“So few of Tim Bowness’s peers show the same level of artistic integrity and fearlessness.″ PopMatters
“An album of quite outstanding brilliance. Sublime.” Echoes And Dust
“Loaded with longing and bursting with violin flourishes, it’s classically Bownessian.″ Prog Magazine
“So few of Tim Bowness’s peers show the same level of artistic integrity and fearlessness.″ PopMatters