SALMON UNIVERSE

Almost a decade in the making, How To Breathe is the new solo album by Richard Pike, the singer, guitarist, composer and electronic innovator best known for his work with Australian pioneering trio PVT.

 

From Falling out of Buildings, a powerful song about making sense of change, to MH370, an ambient meditation on unlikely source material, this is a stripped-back and deeply personal statement about displacement, transition and the idea of acceptance.

 

Pike, based in London, is a screen composer whose credits include Romper Stomper (nominated for Best Original Television Score at the AACTA awards), Les Norton and the forthcoming series Australian Gangster. He also founded Salmon Universe records, a highly acclaimed London-based label that specialises in ambient and electronic music, for which he creates experimental soundscapes under the pseudonym Deep Learning.

 

This new recording is the culmination of a sustained period of evolution and change. Admirers of Pike’s other projects will encounter here a more stripped-back analogue sound. With How to Breathe, Pike is embracing simplicity and impulse, candour and vulnerability.

 

The album came together slowly. Recordings began in 2012 with a series of chance encounters between Pike and Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa. The two musicians started collaborating in London, Sydney and Los Angeles, taking advantage of downtime during their respective touring schedules. These initial sessions were recorded with Jon Hopkins collaborator Cherif Hashizume and the songs were mixed by producer Ben Hillier, renowned for his work with Depeche Mode and Nadine Shah.

 

Some of the material is about finding connection to place in a city landscape, adapting to surroundings and moving to a new phase in life. Recurring themes include dealing with trauma, making peace with death and connecting with city environments, the the psychogeographic effects on one's inner life.

 

“The songs are about transitions. About an adjustment to my surroundings that happened at the time,” Richard says. “The unremarkable places you pass on the street. The big city looking down at you. It’s about the spirit of a place, the way it talks to you.” He goes on:“Looking back I was going through a lot of mental stuff - spending a lot of time alone which is part and parcel of being a media composer too. A big part of it was understanding my own sense of self, how to move forward and settle into myself. I can be either extra sensitive or quite detached. And in hindsight - without me noticing back then - that’s kind of what these songs are about. A mental health album. I mean, I didn’t mean them to be about that but I can see now they are”

 

Each song took shape during a period of great personal change. Richard wrote Case Is Closed after a serious accident left his partner hospitalised. Falling Out Of Buildings attempts to make sense of new beginnings, the music coupled with an absurdist video featuring planking and fruit. Songs like Flicker of Light, Don’t Hide in Your Heart Tonight are shrouded in an icy melodrama, patient and understated, reminiscent of purveyors of pop noir The Blue Nile and coupled with the synth-and-drums simplicity of early Gary Numan. Golden Hours is a song exploring rejection and political power play, mixed by Norwich producer Luke Abbott. The fastest track, the fever-dream Memory Circa, is a collaboration with Brighton dance producer Ital Tek.

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BANDCAMP  /  SPOTIFY