Anti Atlas - New Video

Check out the new video 'Sefrou' click here - currently featured on Classic FM.

 

Anti Atlas - It's A Shame - Out Now

The first single from their double album is finally available to buy from the iTunes Store and the album is out next week, and is available on pre-order now.

COMMENTS

As I listen to the album I often wonder if Anti Atlas know something we don't...it seems they're mapping out the music of the stars.

Ben Eshmade, Chiller Cabinet, Chill FM

In amongst listening to unsuitable cds that are sent to me for the Late Lounge, I sometimes find a true Gem. Anti Atlas are one of those gems. They deserve to be massive

Rosie Kendrick, The Late Lounge Smooth FM

Anti Atlas’ music sucks you into a unique universe of atmosphere and reward. It reminds me a lot of Eno’s best work

Jonh Ingham, writer

BETWEEEN VOICES

Anti Atlas have released Between Voices, the second of two complementary album releases on the independent label One Little Indian. The first, Between Two, was released in March.

Unique unions of electronica, subtle beats and epic orchestral soundscapes, both albums were formed from the collaboration between two exceptional talents- classically trained composer Ned Bigham and producer/artist manager Chris Hufford.

..Between Voices.., however, moves the focus away from instrumentation and instead turns its attention to the dynamic power of the voice, adding a third key aural element to the mix.

Featuring vocalists from 8 countries, the album is all the more remarkable because it was put together in a gloriously freeform manner. Inspired partly by the diversity of the two classic This Mortal Coil albums, Ned and Chris got a list of singers they liked from all over the world and simply sent them the instrumental music over which they hoped the vocalists would extemporise. The results were magical, all the more so because each singer independently chose a different track as inspiration. Given a totally free hand, the singers surpassed expectations, coming up with vocals that totally surprised the two creators. In one case, the Norwegian vocalist Kristin Fjellseth did her vocals in her native language meaning Ned and Chris ended up editing a track on which they had no idea of the meaning of the lyrics!

Nevertheless, the finished album sounds as cohesive a record as it is possible to make, perhaps due to the collaborative nature at the essence of all the group..s work. For this is not the first Anti Atlas music to be released. In the mid 1990..s the duo released first an EP and then an album and were at first unaware of any ripples they had caused. However soon a wonderful show called The Chiller Cabinet, broadcast by Classic FM in the wee small hours of the morning, picked up on this idiosyncratic music which seemed to sit so well with everything else they played .. Steve Reich, film soundtracks etc. Soon the programme communicated to Anti Atlas that they would play any new music that they provided and that is exactly what happened. Now constricted by time, as Chris was abroad a lot with Radiohead, the duo would finish tracks at weekends and send them directly into the show, which would broadcast them straight away.


The first single from the new album, It's A Shame, featuring vocals by Gemma Hayes, and you can buy this on iTunes here

Anti Atlas is the collaboration of two exceptional talents: classically trained composer Ned Bigham and producer Chris Hufford. Their rather eclectic combined credits include composing brass fanfares for Southwark Cathedral; staging electroacoustic and acoustic performances at the ICA and Barbican; drumming for Neneh Cherry; producing early Radiohead tracks and cowriting no.1 dance hits in the US.

Classical fans may recognise the influences of Mahler, Debussy, Bruckner, Dvorak, Suk, Holst and Puccini in their music, whilst others will be more familiar with hints of Groove Armada and Brian Eno. Between Two reveals an ambitious mix of textures and sensitive production distinguishing Anti Atlas from some of their less inspired ambient contemporaries.

Classical meets Electronica
Between Two is the second album from Anti Atlas and the first of two releases on the independent label One Little Indian. In a unique collaboration of electronica, subtle beats and some epic orchestral soundscapes, Anti Atlas have created a luxurious and evolutionary form of music.

The tracks include both original writing and cleverly incorporated samples and orchestral extracts from late nineteenth and early twentieth century classical masterpieces. Mapudah opens with intense orchestral colouring accompanied by fast jazz grooves out of which samples of Debussy’s ballet Jeux subtly emerge. His signature parallel and augmented intervals are perfectly integrated adding eerie overtones; the rich textures of electronic and orchestral sounds work magnificently together. Similarly Nablus, a calmer string based track, pays homage to Mahler’s celebrated 9th Symphony.

Anti Atlas use a vast range of sounds and expert instrumentation and programming throughout the album, from the almost sinister reed and brass opening of Coro to the beautiful simplicity of the piano writing in Melilla (the only track without beats), and the fresh and subtle orchestration of harp, autoharp and piano in Sefrou.