Lo Five presents his new album, Persistence of Love – an ambient, electronic opus informed by spiritual enlightenment.
Lo Five is the handle of Neil Grant, a Wirral-based producer who specialises in heavily textured tape-worn beat-heavy soundscapes, which refer to an ongoing interest in human consciousness and spiritual enlightenment.
In many ways, Persistence of Love is the brainchild of these concepts. As he was making the record, Neil was reading a lot about ‘advaita’ – the idea that there is no separation between anything, no individual self, no subject and object, just an infinite eternal consciousness.
Through ambient soundscapes and more upbeat, lo-fi instalments, you can really hear these spiritual ideas in Persistence of Love. ‘Bow To Your Mind’ adopts cosmic synths and a mantra-like recital of its title. ‘Awareness of Awareness’ tells its tale through plucking strings, soft percussion and siren-like vocal sweeps. The aptly-named ‘Neo Advaita’ feels like the sonic equivalent of gazing into the ether…
The album came about as Neil was exploring a more intuitive and free-flowing approach to music making. All but one of the tracks are a “live jam down” using sequencing, hardware and an old four-track cassette recorder – a process which Neil found rather profound. “That way of capturing a performance really excites me, it’s like a crystallised moment in time when the planets have aligned… you’re really absorbed into the flow of it and there’s something extra guiding you.”
Listen to Persistence of Love on streaming services now, and support the release on Bandcamp here:
And if you’re Liverpool-based, you’re in luck – Lo Five will be playing a live set for his event at our very own Melodic Bar & Coffee on Friday 18th August!
|| LO FIVE ||