Hawksmoor - Oneironautics LP

Hawksmoor’s new album ‘Oneironautics’ on Soul Jazz Records follows on from last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Telepathic Heights’, as well as a re-release of his album ‘Saturnalia’ on the Library of the Occult label earlier this year.

James McKeown, AKA Hawksmoor continues his fascination xx2024with the sounds and sensibilities of 70s/80s German electronic groups - think early CLUSTER, HARMONIA, CAN, NEU!, HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS and MICHAEL ROTHER.

On this new album ‘Oneironautic’, he successfully combines these pulsating ripples of Germanic electronica with a number of decidedly English references: the soaring, hypnotic and pastoral qualities of BRIAN ENO, circa ‘Another Green World’; the long, sustained lines of ROBERT FRIPP’S FRIPPERTONICS; and the poetic feel of early DURUTTI COLUMN.

McKeown combines all of these elements while also remaining with one foot firmly in the British melodic hauntological modular synth aesthetic of hauntology - Ghost Box, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Focus Group et al.

Once again using strictly modular synths, electronic drum rhythms, and guitars, Hawksmoor has created an electronic landscaped music world that is both new and old, immediately identifiable and yet utterly unique.

“Its first half is rhythmically propulsive, reminiscent of Steve Reich. The second half of the album recalls Robert Fripp's collaborations with Brian Eno” THE WIRE

'Hawksmoor’s second outing on Soul Jazz is a striking paean to the great early experimentalists of electronic music, fusing looping Kosmiche grooves — think CAN, Cluster and NEU! — with the pastorally-tinged soundscapes of Eno and Fripp. A worthy follow-up to last year’s Telepathic Heights, Hawksmoor’s layered analogue synthesisers and driving drum machines conjure a striking sonic world coloured by moments of true beauty.' Vinyl Factory

'Multi-instrumentalist James McKeown uses vintage analogue synths to draw from a specific era of 1970s electronica and krautrock' Guardian

REVIEWS

'Oneironautics - lucid dreaming - is a thematic choice that lends itself well to psychedelic, prog-tinged electronica, like Silver Apples, Tangerine Dream – and Hawksmoor.James McKeown has continued to keep it modular over half a dozen instrumental albums since his debut as Hawksmoor, and Oneironautics is as out of time as it’s out of mind.' Quietus

REVIEWS for Hawksmoor’s Telepathic Heights (Soul Jazz Records)

‘This incredible new release follows a path along the electronic skyways first created by the German / Krautrock electronic pioneers of the 1970s such as Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, Roedelius and Michael Rother.’ Rough Trade

‘Stepping up the profile ladder to join Soul Jazz as one of the label’s exclusive cluster of non-archival signings – alongside Trees Speak and Brown Spirits – is Bristol-based James McKeown’s Hawksmoor project.’ Concrete Islands

‘Telepathic Heights is his first album to be released by London's Soul Jazz Records, and both its packaging and content are reminiscent of the label’s essential Deutsche Elektronische Musik compilation series. McKeown evokes Krautrock and kosmische music from the 1970s, zoning in on the hypnotic qualities of his Moog Sub 37 and analog drum machines.’ All Music