Plan For A Miracle Mark Van Hoen SKU: EDDA64LP Barcode: 5051142010230 22.00 £22.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Dell’Orso Released Date: 9th February 2024 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info “I like to work with a variety of instruments and set ups,” says Mark Van Hoen, sometimes known as Locust or Autocreation but here working under his own name on the excellent Plan For A Miracle, his first physical release of solo music since 2018’s Invisible Threads. ”Sometimes it’s literally in my studio, with all the hardware electronics available. Sometimes the laptop, using software instruments. Some of the tracks on this record were recorded in the desert (Joshua Tree) using a 4-track tape machine and small modular synthesiser set up. Each track was recorded in different location using different instruments, which accounts for the distinction between each piece. It’s also about my own reaction to my environment, and what’s going on in my life at the time.” The Croydon-born Van Hoen started musical life in the early 1990s, signing for R&S records in 1993 but developing his own, myriad and distinctive style across a range of releases on Touch, Editions Mego and other labels, using a battery of instruments, including analogue synthesizers and taking a number of different approaches to recording, rather than ploughing a single sonic furrow. He has worked on a number of collaborations, including with Nick Holton and Neil Halstead of Slowdive, under the moniker of Black Hearted Brother – their Stars Are Our Home was released in 2013. “I have known Neil Halstead since 1992,” says Van Hoen. “He shared a house with me for a couple of years, and the music I was making and listening to along with clubs I was attending had an influence particularly on Pygmalion, the final Slowdive album on Creation.” Each track on Plan For A Miracle does indeed sound like a world unto itself, a mini-environment, a weather condition, an ecosystem created for the moment. It’s a collection of tracks recorded over the past few years, released on Bandcamp – despite his apparent absence, Van Hoen works constantly. Opener “Climates”, in its exquisite limpidity, feels like a homage to Brian Eno, one of his most formative influences in his teen years, commencing with Music For Films, which he bought in 1979. “This Is For Them”, feels like a ghostlike throwback to early drum & bass or electronica, reminiscent of his own, earliest outings. “There have been a number of requests from labels to make some more music like my very early releases on R&S,” says Van Hoen. “This is part of ‘letting go’ and realising that there’s nothing less creative about going back to those styles again.” “Pencil Of Spheres” is something else again, a magnificent, imaginary glass structure, shimmering, refracting, without visible means of suspension, a thing of impossible beauty. “Electric Lights” evokes an abandoned fairground, its lights still pulsating, its music lingering. “The Underpass”, meanwhile, insofar as it reminds of anything at all, is faintly reminiscent of Cluster or Neu’s! West German ambience, the urban mundane rendered magical, the sodium lights, the whitewashed walls. The reverberant, faintly oriental chimes of “Insight” transport us yet again, burgeoning and intensifying. The landscapes, the skyscapes rendered on Plan For A Miracle feel unpopulated as a rule – but when he does introduce vocal elements, Van Hoen has a history of doing so to spectacular effect – think of “Real Love” from 1998’s Playing With Time, the seductive intonation of its title recurring throughout like a series of massive holograms, echoing, stuttering, breaking up, surging. Here, there are just the faintest of vocals, barely distinct, disquieting. “There’s been a bit of a game changer in recent times,” explains Van Hoen. “AI software that enables you to extract vocals and instrument parts from virtually any recording. That means sampling individual parts from existing sources is no longer limited to the original mix exposing certain parts soloed. The vocal parts I use are from multiple sources and often pitch shifted altered rhythmically and melodically.“ There’s further vocal chatter on “I Really Do”, proceeding at a faster pace as if giving chase, or being pursued – distant, enigmatic. “The Music”, meanwhile, its beat tolling, lost in its own fog of static, features a curious intonation, like the ghost of a lost Walker Brother. Sadly, the album’s title is in reference to a personal tragedy on Van Hoen’s part – the loss of his wife. Titles such as “I Won’t Give Up”, which faintly reminds of another Eno masterpiece, Another Green World, in its nautical hurly-bury, or the pastoral strains of “Mrs Who”, heavily clouded with sadness, seem to allude to this. “In fact the record was recorded entirely before she passed away,” says Van Hoen, “most of it before she even became very ill. The title was given to the album when it started to look like she wasn’t going to make it beyond a few months. It was something Osho said – “plan for a miracle” – so it was a statement of hope. Unfortunately it was not to be.” Although the album is non-thematic, non-specific in its atmospheres, sound paintings, elegant structures it most certainly stands as a magnificent monument to Osho’s memory. -David Stubbs. Artist Mark Van Hoen Genre Electronica Label Dell’Orso Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings Climates This Is For Them Pencil Of Spheres Mrs Who I Won’t Give Up Electric Lights The Underpass Insight Redwood I Really Do The Music Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Electronica View Product Quick View Maribou State Kingdoms In Colour Electronica | Counter Records | 180g, 1LP, Includes Download Code Released 7th September 2018 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Maribou State Kingdoms In Colour £17.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Counter Records SKU: COUNT156 Formats: 180g, 1LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 7th September 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition) Electronica | Hotflush | 3LP Released 25th June 2021 £34.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Mount Kimbie Crooks & Lovers (10th Anniversary Expanded Edition) £34.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Hotflush SKU: HFLP4X Formats: 3LP Released Date: 25th June 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Boom Bip Sun Choke (Original Soundtrack) Electronica | Lex | 1LP Released 3rd October 2016 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Boom Bip Sun Choke (Original Soundtrack) £17.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Lex SKU: 0878390003518 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 3rd October 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Aphex Twin Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP Electronica | Warp | 1LP, Includes Download Code Released 16th January 2015 £12.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Aphex Twin Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 EP £12.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Warp SKU: WAP375 Formats: 1LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 16th January 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Seahawks Island Visions (KPM) Electronica | Be With Records | 1LP Released 17th April 2020 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Seahawks Island Visions (KPM) £22.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Be With Records SKU: BEWITH077LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 17th April 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Apparat Soundtracks Electronica | Mute | 4LP, Box Set Released 16th April 2021 £65.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Apparat Soundtracks £65.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Mute SKU: APPARATBX1 Formats: 4LP, Box Set Released Date: 16th April 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Jon Foxx and the Belbury Circle Empty Avenues EP Electronica | Ghost Box | 10", EP/Mini Album Released 21st June 2016 £12.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Jon Foxx and the Belbury Circle Empty Avenues EP £12.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Ghost Box SKU: GBX019 Formats: 10", EP/Mini Album Released Date: 21st June 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Danny Tenaglia Global Underground #45: Danny Tenaglia – Brooklyn Electronica | Global Underground | 3LP Released 10th November 2023 £36.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Danny Tenaglia Global Underground #45: Danny Tenaglia – Brooklyn £36.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Global Underground SKU: 5054197633096 Formats: 3LP Released Date: 10th November 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Nearly New View Product Quick View Surgeon Balance Electronica | Tresor | 2LP Released 8th January 2021 £20.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Surgeon Balance £20.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Tresor SKU: nn216773 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 8th January 2021 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, Ana Roxanne Natural Wonder Beauty Concept Electronica | Mexican Summer | 1LP Released 14th July 2023 £20.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Natural Wonder Beauty Concept, Ana Roxanne Natural Wonder Beauty Concept £20.00 Genre: Electronica Label: Mexican Summer SKU: MEX3261 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 14th July 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Electronica Start again
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