Mathias Hammerstrøm is an electronic producer and songwriter from Denmark, performing under the moniker Amphior. Per Mathias, his creations often consist of “noises, distorted and distant sounds. It is allusive and has a main focus on atmospheres such as mysteriousness and melancholy and consists of pitched and edited vocal-snippets from the past. Genre-wise you could call the album a combination of 2-Step Garage, Post-Dubstep, IDM and Ambient.”
He continues: “I’ve always been very fascinated by the impact of field recordings in music. It’s important because it makes me feel more connected, bound and even hypnotized to a track. Field recordings have the most amazing ability to set a certain mood and they can have a deep soothing effect. Recordings of nature, rain and cities in the dead of the night are all familiar and earthbound sounds, which have been used to shape the atmosphere on the album.”
The album he refers to is Shadowland, which just released today. It was preceded by the track “Being Followed” late last year, a murky and brilliant listen whose nocturnal, deep rhythms remind of a cross between Burial and Flying Lotus. That provided good indication of what to anticipate. Today, we can hear from album opener “Quest” that Amphior is also capable of more shimmering, rhythmically intense beauty — here with haunting reverbed vocal effects and very active percussion crafting a soundscape that’s somehow both bright and haunting. Stream the full album on Spotify here.
