The new Hunter Complex album Airports and Ports arrives Friday 2 September 2022 on Burning Witches Records and features contributions from Aquiles Navarro (trumpet, Irreversible Entanglements), new age legend Kat Epple (flute, Emerald Web), Alexander Hawkins (piano, Louis Moholo-Moholo), Justin Sweatt (aka Xander Harris, guitar) and Coen Oscar Polack (field recordings). Airports and Ports is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed synth albums Dead Calm and Zero Degrees (Burning Witches, 2020) and Open Sea (Death Waltz, 2019) and takes a new direction with influences from new age, ethereal jazz and krautrock. The gorgeous artwork was created by Luke Insect.
Airports and Ports
For Airports and Ports, Lars Meijer of Hunter Complex invited musicians from all around the globe to contribute to the album. Meijer: ‘I wanted to know what they would come up with, what new sounds and styles they would bring to my music. My previous album Dead Calm and Zero Degrees came out at the beginning of the Covid crisis in March 2020. I didn’t create music for months, it felt like time stood still. I missed the energy I got from being around people, from seeing concerts, from traveling. Those musicians gave that back to me and inspired me to create and discover new grounds.’
Aquiles Navarro, Kat Epple & Alexander Hawkins
‘Aquiles Navarro is a fantastic trumpet player in the group Irreversible Entanglements, but the record that hit me was the album Heritage Of The Invisible II (2020, International Anthem Recording Company) that he did with drummer Tcheser Holmes. He takes the sound of the trumpet to another level, but never forgets its melancholical side. I got to know the music of Kat Epple of Emerald Web through The Stargate Tapes compilation on Finders Keepers Records. Together with her late husband Bob Stohl she made some really beautiful new age albums in the late seventies and early eighties. Her flute playing is magical, it takes you to another universe. I saw Alexander Hawkins perform piano in a group with Shabaka Hutchings and legendary drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and was blown away by his adaptive powers on the piano. He can change from a rhythmic, textural or lyrical style in the blink of an eye and still tell a story.’
Justin Sweatt & Coen Oscar Polack
‘Justin Sweatt also released music (as Xander Harris) on Burning Witches Records and other cool labels like Not Not Fun Records and Data Airlines, but his last two albums under his own name, Say Your Goodbyes and When The Light Goes, are truly beautiful. He added some beautiful atmospheric guitars to City Pulse, the closing track on Airports and Ports. That track also has some field recordings by Coen Oscar Polack. We used to make music together in the group Living Ornaments, but he’s also flying solo with a brilliant new record on Moving Furniture Records in the pipeline. Jantijn Prins, also a long time collaborator, plays a bit of acoustic guitar on some songs.’
Burning Witches Records
Burning Witches Records is a UK-based record label specializing in forward-thinking electronic and heavy synth music. Born from a love of horror films and electronic music, Burning Witches presents artists that are pushing the boundaries of electronic music and music as a whole package. From opening track to album art to vinyl and cassette colour variants, Burning Witches Records makes every release count.
Hunter Complex
Hunter Complex is the moniker of Dutch artist Lars Meijer. In the late eighties Meijer began releasing rudimentary synth music on handmade tapes, before turning to lo-fi pop as Larz in 1994, resulting in two albums on the Californian cult label Blackbean and Placenta. Around the turn of the century Meijer released several albums with the improvisational electro-acoustic band Psychon Troopers and electronic music duo Living Ornaments, including music on famous labels like Deathbomb Arc and Skam.
Meijer began working as Hunter Complex in 2008. The self-titled debut album came out in 2010 and was influenced by synthpop and new wave bands from the 1980s. Follow-up Heat, which was released on Narrominded in 2013, was the last album to feature vocals, but the first featuring the trademark layers of warm and bright digital synths. With Open Sea Meijer delivered an album full of ‘supreme synth goodness’, according to the Death Waltz label that released the album in 2019. Twin record Dead Calm and Zero Degrees was released in 2020 on Burning Witches Records.
The press on previous albums
Dead Calm and Zero Degrees (2020) received high praise from music press around the world. Louder Than War called it a ‘brilliant’ album: ‘It takes those gloriously heavenward stabs of sound the German-British band were so adept at, and invokes contemporary mind-maps. All of this is testament to the power of the music itself.’ Dead Calm and Zero Degrees was born from the same creative burst as its predecessor Open Sea (2019). ‘It isn’t one of those abstract modular jamming records: it is full of melodic interests and rhythmic fun, although it does also have a great textural richness’, said Norman Records about Open Sea.
The press on Airports and Ports
‘Shuttles between ambient New Age, filmic nostalgia and improv exploration.’
**** (4) mojo magazine
‘Airports and Ports by Hunter Complex is peerless, full of tranquility and sonic comfort’
***** (5) de volkskrant
‘This collection takes fresh inspiration from kosmische and spiritual jazz.’
norman records
‘The fifth album convinces purely instrumentally with exciting arrangements.’
gonzo (circus)
‘On Airports and Ports Meijer made his grandest musical statement yet, incorporating jazz elements and even symphonic touches that brings to mind both what came before as well as early CTI releases from Freddie Hubbard and even the great Mark Isham.’
complex distractions
‘Just beautiful’ (…) ‘with such a smashing cover on it too, just great art’
dark train
‘The structure and song sequence are so sophisticated and compelling that I immediately reach for the play button again.’
io pages
‘Airports and Ports succeeds in adding a sense of the optimistic adventure of life on the outside whilst simultaneously transporting your imagination.’
dusted magazine
‘This fifth Hunter Complex album is still characteristic and familiar, but the shifts in emphasis and musical enrichments lend the music a refreshing beauty and benevolence.’
**** (4) written in music
‘The more abstract mood suits Airports and Ports well’
stasis
‘All of the musical guests on Airports and Ports help to create the addictive soundscapes that are on offer. Alexander Hawkins adds piano textures that grab hold of one’s ears, Aquiles Navarro sounds like no other trumpet player I’ve ever heard and creates scintillating sounds. Kat Epple’s flute performance is serene and ethereal, Justin Sweatt’s guitar work brings an otherworldly mood to the album and Jantijn Prins’ acoustic guitar weaves warm textures into the music. Coen Oscar Polack’s field recordings contribute more interesting sonic depth to the album.’
absynth
‘Fabulous stuff’
in the moog
‘Airports and Ports is more peaceful than expected given the monikers of the artist and label.’
a closer listen
‘For me, a new release by Hunter Complex is a big thing.’
vital weekly
‘May very well be his best album yet’ (…) Airports and Ports is a triumph in sonic joy.’
complex distractions
‘Absolutely fantastic (…) stunning artwork (…) what a great album’
dark train
‘Airports And Ports sounds very diverse within the dreamy ambient niche and continues to surprise both in diversity and with strong melodies.’
damusic
‘Extraordinarily varied album, navigating between krautrock, a bit of jazzy new age and beautiful ambient.’
x-rated
‘Good music for enraptured relaxation for tense crazies.’
manierenversagen
credits
released September 2, 2022
Written, recorded and mixed by Lars Meijer between September 2016 and January 2022 at the Grebberstraat, Haarlem, The Netherlands.
Alexander Hawkins, piano on 'Airports and Ports', recorded at home in Oxford, England.
Aquiles Navarro, trumpets on 'New Arrival on the Island', recorded by David Caparó, Panamá City, Panamá, and 'The Garden'.
Jantijn Prins, acoustic guitar on 'Dirty Snow', ‘The Garden' and 'Why the Water's Still at Night'.
Coen Oscar Polack, field recordings on 'Across the Atlantic into Africa', recorded in the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, The Netherlands, and 'City Pulse', recorded at the Prins Hendrikkade, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Kat Epple, flutes and AKAI Electronic Wind Instrument on 'The Windburn is Terrible’, recorded at KatTracks Studio, Fort Myers, Florida, USA.
Justin Sweatt, electric guitar on 'City Pulse', recorded at Libra House, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Mixed and sequenced with assistance from Stijn Dissen and Coen Polack.
Mastered by Darren Page.
Artwork by Luke Insect.
This album is dedicated to Sven Meijer (9 May 1981 - 12 November 2021).
The latest Hunter Complex album Airports and Ports was released in September 2022 on Burning Witches Records. Airports and
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