Empyrean

Empyrean: relating to the heavens or the sky, the highest part of the heaven, thought by the ancients to be the realm of pure fire.

Last Friday night while chatting to Andy Bell after Ride's gig at New Century Hall he mentioned that underneath New Century there is a recording studio and that he'd been in there that morning with Timothy Clerkin, an artist/ DJ who used to be based in Manchester. A few years ago Timothy put out a 12" as Heretic which included an Andrew Weatherall remix. It was via Andrew that Timothy and Andy Bell met and Tim remixed Andy's GLOK track Dissident. Yesterday the first fruits of the GLOK/ Clerkin collaboration were released, a single- Empyrean- ahead of a seven track album in November called Alliance. Much of the album was done in lockdown, ideas and files bouncing back and forth between the pair, and then finsihed since.

Empyrean is equal parts GLOK and Timothy, a massive synth bassline that'll shake any morning cobwebs away with electronic drums coming in and hissing away, washes of synth chords and a vocal sample that sounds like it's come from Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1. One of those tracks that you have to stick with and which then engulfs you a little, rewarding more with repeat plays. You can buy Empyrean in its full version and Radio Edit form at Bandcamp. The album is available for pre- order at Bandcamp too.