ultramarine: this time last year

This is the sixth album by UK electronic duo Ultramarine (Ian Cooper & Paul Hammond), and their first full-length release in 15 years. Featuring all-new material and recorded in the band's isolated studio on the edge of the Essex marshes, the album ebbs and flows in mood like the nearby Blackwater estuary. Working with a palette of vintage drum machines, analog synths, textural samples, acoustic recordings, electric bass and heavily-treated guitar, the songs were born out of captured live studio performances. Cooper & Hammond then rewired their initial sketches through a series of hands-on, lo-fi effects chains, blurring the edges between acoustic and electronic elements. The result is an organic, playful feel; leaving the music room to breathe and carrying distinct echoes of the band's previous work.