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 with 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.
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