locust: you'll be safe forever

You'll Be Safe Forever marks the first release from Locust in 12 years. Mark Van Hoen, who made a string of influential releases as Locust on R&S records in the 1990s, all but retired the alias at the end of that decade. In May 2012, Van Hoen was invited to perform a live set on WFMU radio. In order to make the set more spontaneous and add a further dimension, he asked friend and fellow musician Louis Sherman to collaborate. While improvising new material in Sherman's Brooklyn rehearsal studio, it swiftly became obvious that the material sounded like Locust. Inspired by joint explorations with found sound sources and ambient textures, and sharing a pan-dimensional immersion in the length and breadth of analog and digital recording, the duo performed a series of tracks live. This material, combined with previously-recorded tape tracks dating back to 2006 form the bulk of the album. The melancholic depths of electronic music explored in those improvisations, expanded further through subsequent sessions at Van Hoen's Woodstock, NY studio, have resulted in this latest entry in Locust's impressive discography. The record showcases prime examples of Van Hoen's compulsively hypnotic beats and abstracted pop vocals -- already hallmarks of his collected work since 1993 -- manipulating a global variety of samples in Celemony's Melodyne software to weave a unique sonic tapestry, as inviting as it is intricate. Paired with Sherman's evocative synth improvisations -- an immediately visceral element new to Locust -- these collaborators have crafted a shattered landscape that bridges two perspectives of progressive movement in electronic music under a single name. Sherman, an American from Baltimore, comes to the band armed with a vast knowledge of the history of electronic music. This, combined with Londoner Mark Van Hoen's known musical pedigree, maps the complete topography of a landscape -- its shadow and light, depth and height, mesmerizing complexity and ethereal simplicity -- with a break-beating heart and alchemical ear.

Locust 'Strobes' (eMEGO 162)