Will Samson shares first glimpse of forthcoming ambient album Harp Swells

Photo: Vera Marmelo

A year on from the release of Active Imagination, Will Samson has announced the release of his seventh full-length album. Entitled Harp Swells, it marks his first full-length ambient album and is set for release on September 8th through Taylor Deupree’s experimental label 12k. Now based In Portugal, the British musician composed the upcoming album in Almada in the sea facing studio space he shares with Casper Clausen (Efterklang). Speaking about it, Samson comments:

“There was one main goal when making Harp Swells: make music that flows and feels just like the view outside the studio window.
If frustration or creative blocks arose, I’d take a short break to watch the waves, and then return to the music.”

Ahead of the album release, Samson is enticing us with the immersive, serene and stunning first single, ‘And Yet’, featuring vocals from Maia Nunes and longtime collaborator Michael Feuerstack. Of the track and collaboration, Samson says:

“Maia (Nunes) was a visiting artist resident where I recorded the album & so we would occasionally share a cup of tea during breaks. After having a conversation about our mixed ancestries and how they had often led to subtle feelings of displacement, I returned to my studio and the lyrics appeared. That one sentence was enough to capture how I was feeling (and still feel these days) and so there was nothing more that need to be said. In fact, the lyrics seemed to perfectly capture the mood of the whole album for me.

I was experimenting with sampling during this period, so the sound that begins the track is myself blowing into an empty glass bottle.”

‘And Yet’ comes with an accompanying video created by Daisy Moseley and you can watch it below.

In other related good news, and in support of Harp Swells, Will Samson has announced a string of live shows in the UK / Europe. The tour kicks off in Antwerp on September 6th wrapping in Paris on November 18th and includes a show in Porto on September 16th. Tickets are on sale now for most shows, head over to willsamson.co.uk/shows for more info.

Watch Will Samson’s new video for ‘Echo Spring’

Coinciding with the vinyl release of his sixth studio album, Active Imagination, electronic / folk artist Will Samson shared last week a new video to accompany the gentle and gorgeous ‘Echo Spring’. Directed and edited by Daisy Moseley, the video was filmed on 16mm and as Samson puts it, “it seeks to illustrate the album’s central themes of ancestral roots, belonging and identity.”

Grab Active Imagination now through Human Chorus and watch the video below.

In other related good news, and in support of the album, Will Samson has announced a string of European live dates kicking off in July and including a show in Porto at Maus Hábitos on July 15th. Head over here for all his stops and more info.

Will Samson announces new album, Active Imagination, and shares video for first single ‘Arpy’

Will Samson has announced details of a brand new album, Active Imagination, his sixth studio album and the follow up to 2019’s Paralanguage. A collection of 9 bewitching pieces, on the album Samson continues to explore and merge folk, experimental and electronic music. In the works for a whole year, Active Imagination is described “a richly layered meditation on the idea of belonging, identity and the search for home in the most unstable of worlds”. Samson comments:

“My family tree spreads so far across the globe that I’ve often wondered if it is in my blood to be constantly moving, perhaps in a search to find a solid sense of belonging. With no real ancestral homeland (or rather, a multitude of them) it is easy to feel a conflicted sense of identity – even if just on a very subtle level. These feelings would sometimes appear as dreams, which then became songs”

Inspired by lucid dreaming, the album takes its name from Carl Jung’s method of dream analysis. “In order to help learn the technique, I wrote down my dreams in a notebook each morning – and took them to the studio to translate into songs”, Samson explained.

Active Imagination will see the light of day on May 6th (CD/DL) and on June 24th (LP) through Samson’s own Human Chorus. Ahead of it, he has shared the first single, ‘Arpy’. The track comes with an accompanying video filmed and directed by Daisy Moseley. Speaking about the video, Samson says:

“The Arpy video was filmed on 16mm film in a secret location during Summer 2021. On the first day of filming, we found a dead shark and the camera ate up the entire roll of film. It took us almost 10 months of planning and there were many times that I thought we would never be able to do it – due to lockdowns, seemingly inaccessible locations and bad weather. But the result is something that we are all very proud of. In the end, it really feels as though it was worth all of the effort and time.”

Watch the video now.

Mixtape #109

We’re sliding into December with the perfect accompaniment for this season, with a warm and gentle mixtape put together by Brussels-based British musician Will Samson. With a penchant for old tape machines and analogue gear, and a falsetto voice of gold, Samson crafts profoundly beautiful and delicate compositions, exploring and navigating the seas of ambient, folk, experimental and electronic music. With a magical and heartfelt new album, Paralanguage, arriving in just a few days, we’re over the moon he compiled this wonderful mix of songs from artists that have inspired him. So dive in and enjoy!

  1. Brumes – I Unfold
  2. Benoit Pioulard – Incalesce [Thesis (2)]
  3. Paleo – 30th November
  4. Florist – What I Wanted To Hold [Double Double Whammy]
  5. Michael Feuerstack – Love Is All Around [Forward Music Group]
  6. S. Carey – More I See [Jagjaguwar]
  7. The Album Leaf – The Outer Banks [City Slang]
  8. Devendra Banhart – Middle Names [Nonesuch]
  9. Gareth Dickson – Two Halves [Discolexique]
  10. Julie Byrne – Natural Blue [Basin Rock | Ba Da Bing!]
  11. Do Make Say Think – Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! [Constellation]
  12. Brumes – Nature Face

Will Samson announces fifth album Paralanguage

British-born, Brussels-based musician Will Samson has announced the release of a new album called Paralanguage, which is inspired by his first and only psilocybin experiment. Years after the sudden death of his father in 2012, and after a difficult grieving process, Samson and his girlfriend retreated to the countryside to try psilocybin, and the upcoming record seeks to mirror that experience.

Mostly a solo work, Paralanguage saw Samson enlist the help of some stellar collaborators, including Beatrijs De Klerck, Christina Vantzou, Ben Lester, Jeremy Boettcher and Michael Feuerstack. Marking his fifth studio album, Paralanguage is also his first for Wichita Recordings and arrives on December 6th. Ahead of it, Samson has shared the first single, the utterly beautiful and serene ‘Ochre Alps’. The song has been paired with a gorgeous video, and Samson had this to say about it:

“The starting point for Ochre Alps was a dream. In it, I found myself stuck half way up a mountain, with my foot lodged deep in the snow. I looked up into the distance to see other climbers reaching the top and below me was a long descent back down. My short analysis is that some old patterns had to be shed in order to move forward. The lyrics that made their way onto the final song were written after a gentle psilocybin journey in the countryside, which naturally eased its way into the song, thematically blending with the mountain dream. That experience is best described in the opening two lines of the track ‘I woke up into my body – deep in the silence’. The characters in the video are waking up into the landscape of a lucid dream. Much like the psilocybin experience, the characters rediscover a silent mind – giving the space to totally inhabit and celebrate their bodies.”

The video for ‘Ochre Alps’ was directed by Lily Marks and Eren Kaplan and you can watch it below.