Ex-Friendly
More pastoral psychedelia from the always excellent Wax Machine. Dreamy, spacious and packed with esoteric energy, a much needed balm.
Favorite track: Wild.
She grows wild
Kissed by the sun
She grows wild
She flows freely through the stones
She grows wild
Takes me by the hand
With a smile
We live freely here as one
She grows wild
Hides away from no one
From the ground
Stretching out to touch the sky
Sacred child
See what she has done
She grows wild
She gives birth to everyone
I know I'm not so kind to you
Some days I forget you
You are in here
Shining through the mist
My sister
It’s easier to look outside
Than face you in the mirror
You are in here
Looking back at me
My sister
Sees and moves me on
"Wax Machine seems to have found its own voice; an idiosyncratic, deeply personal work full of beauty and grace.”
💙 UK Vibe 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"The Sky Unfurls, The Dance Goes On’ seems to plunge further into their whirlpool of influences without a particular destination in sight. It’s a record that sees Wax Machine trusting more to instinct, making room for the improv while channelling an open-minded, Don Cherry spirit.”
💙 Backseat Mafia (album review)
"The Sky Unfurls: The Dance Goes On is a gauzy tapestry, created with much love, care and freedom; a wistful, rewarding experience of familiarity matched with Brazilian influences to produce a lush backdrop for questioning feelings and for making emotional connections of belonging.”
💙 Monolith Cocktail
“River, is awash with influences, and, over five minutes, takes the listener on an ethereal journey that begins on a river bank.”
💙 Folk Radio
"It’s a perfect summer single that follows the sun down to the horizon.”
💙 Raven Sings the Blues on Glimmers
“A much more subtle touch of Tropicália sneaks in this time, but among the patter of rhythms and call and response vocals, there’s also a jazz stain on the piano, giving the track a welcome bit of fusion.”
💙 Raven Sings the Blues on River
"A sprightly vocal pairing of Ro with band buddy Isobel Jones, a folky double bass twang and an unflustered Seu Jorge momentum sees the song jangle gleefully along. There are chuckles and light-touch slide-guitaring but an uneasy sense of something beyond quirky simmering in the lo-fi. Keep in touch and dig deeper when ‘The Sky Unfurls’…”
💙 Backseat Mafia
“It's a brilliant and beautiful track.”
💙 Ashley Beadle on River
“Their compositions contain a lot of inspiration from psychedelic traditions in different corners of the world map.”
💙 Bant Mag (TR)
The cosmic force that is Brighton’s Wax Machine return with The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On, a new album of lush, ambient and psych-toned folk that expands and unfurls across 9 blissed out tracks, with Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro continuing their personal journey with psychedelics and recently found obsession with water that has been heightened by a long overdue trip to Brazil
Teaming up once more with the London based, globally-looking imprint Batov Records, Wax Machine journey beyond the psych-folk universe, tapping into more ambient, classical, and world-folk sounds. Led by songwriter and singer Lau Ro, the recording sessions for The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On gave space to the musicians involved to express themselves, in part searching for the sense of freedom and organic looseness found on the records of Alabaster Deplume and Don Cherry.
“I had a vision for it to be more mellow and clean.” explains Lau Ro. “The more songy parts of it were written and crafted with a fair bit of deliberation but overall I’d say it’s our most improvised album yet.”
Born in São Vicente, Brazil, their parents moved to Italy when they were a child before moving again to Brighton where they’ve stayed ever since. Their earliest memories in Brazil are of laying out all their mum's pots and pans on the floor and making a racket. Influenced by their dad’s DIY approach to recording, they began around the age of 11 making their own recordings. Being a “loner kid”, their influences have always been eclectic, being drawn to Nick Drake, and anything that seemed obscure.
“I came up with the name Wax Machine when I was around 17 years old or so, around the same time my journey with the psychedelics began, which marked the start of an ongoing deep exploration into music from all corners of the world, from West African highlife to krautrock, tropicalia to Japanese ambient music, Anadolu rock to Cuban rhythms, Spiritual Jazz and everything in between.”
In 2018 Wax Machine announced themselves to the world with the release of two EPs , following those with their debut LP Earthsong of Silence in 2020, an album that flitted between sun drenched West Coast sounds, English psych-folk and tropicália. Album two, last year’s Hermit’s Grove lent into Lau Ro’s Brazilian heritage and included a version of Vinicius De Moraes and Baden Powell's Canto de Iemanja as a dedication to the sea, which felt all the more poignant when they thought about the fact that water was all that separated them from their home back in Brazil.
“I crossed that ocean earlier this year and spent 5 weeks travelling around Brazil, visiting as many waterfalls as I could along the way, reconnecting with my family after 20 years apart and taking part in a couple of Ayahuasca rituals. And since then I spent another 5 weeks around the Pyrenees and the Alps looking for waterfalls. The graceful surrender of the water as it falls is such a healing thing to experience. The cathartic sound, the power. The spirit and mood of each cascade. They're my new favourite place to be."
On The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On they explore the process of returning to a state of intimate re-connection with one’s own nature and nature at large. The breakdown of individual identity and the return to flow.
“Life is flow, like the way of Tao, and water is a great teacher in this respect.”
The sun-kissed lead single Glimmers is an expression of the exuberant ecstasy at being by the sea, while the ethereal River comes from a place of awe and melancholy at the delicate ephemerality and complexity of life. Recorded in their own studio, Lau Ro was joined by Ozzy Moysey, Adam Campbell, Isobel Jones and Toma Sapir, with Marwyn Grace and Ella Russell involved for the choir parts.
However Wax Machine very much remains a personal journey for Lau Ro, a vehicle for them, as their music always has been, to explore and connect with themselves and the outside world, as they continue to do so on The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On.
credits
released November 3, 2023
Lau Ro - Production, voice, guitars, bass (tracks 5 and 9)
Adam Campbell - Piano, keys
Ozzy Moysey - Double bass, percussion
Isobel Jones - Flute, voice
Toma Sapir - Drums, percussion, synthesisers
Additional voices (tracks 2, 3 and 8) - Ella, Grace, Adam and Ozzy
Recorded in Flat 3, 13 Alexandra Villas
Mastered by Soushi Mizuno at Studio Mass
Artwork by Hugo Winder-Lind
Special thanks to Harry Hayes, Luara Locateli, and the other residents of Alexandra Villas for your tolerance and cooperation.”
supported by 22 fans who also own “The Sky Unfurls, The Dance Goes On”
Every track is Anatolian fire. If you’ve arrived here by chance, it’s not by chance. You were destined to discover the ecstatic psychedelic joy of this record and to snap it up before the last 11 are sold Gareth Fitzpatrick
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supported by 22 fans who also own “The Sky Unfurls, The Dance Goes On”
Oh how I long for this album in vinyl format! Such smoothness. Such warmth. Such execution. This music begs to be taken along and woven into memories. Everyone I’ve shared this album with has loved it. The music speaks far and wide. Shouting out to a fellow follower, Brian Lehmann, for his excellent taste in music. If not for him, I likely would have never stumbled upon this absolute gem! Plinchmo Larduktin