Watch our full interview with Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs!
On their sophomore record, Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs continue their exploration into the gentle side of Australian electronic music. Their instrumental tracks create ambient and atmospheric dreamscapes where they hope to impart their own emotions within the songs. By removing lyrics, the duo hopes their tracks provide a great capacity for listeners to use their imagination and assign their own meanings and emotions to the songs on the record.
Recollection of Everything Beautiful is the second release from the Sydney duo under Melbourne based label, Analogue Attic Records. Written over the course of 18 months, the original iteration of the record was scrapped after the duo returned from their European tour in 2019. With a refined process, the record still utilises field recordings. However, the record is less tied to place compared to their debut.
The record begins and ends with part one and two of To An End. Gray said of the track that it "was actually one of the original ideas, I think it’s probably the idea that has stayed the most similar to as it was first written”. Working part two first, Ebbs utilised the piano parts in part two to create the central standpoint for part one. On Of Two, we hear Ebbs ethereal and dreamy vocals over guitar picked looping patterns linked with energetic dance music. Variation II began as a cinematic house song before evolving into a more ambient and atmospheric piece, taking out low frequencies and textures from the original recording to create a more spacious track. The lack of textual density creates a more vulnerable track on the record.
.nov is a deep house cut that is an outlier on the record. The pair began writing a house track when Ebbs wrote a bass line that completely shifted the song. The pair create patterns that range from two to seven bars long that are looped with each line consisting of different phrasing, creating perpetually evolving sounds due to the constant rhythmic shifts. Known for their experimentation with sounds, on That Was You the duo created a drum beat by recording the sound a lead makes when plugging it into an amplifier. The track also utilises recordings Gray took from Camperdown Park.
The duo are currently enjoying a break from touring, with Ebbs saying the pair want their listeners to receive this record in their own space and time instead of a live show.
Checkout our full interview with Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs above! Recollection of Everything Beautiful is out now.
Images: Vasili Papathanasopoulos ©
Filming: Vasili Papathanasopoulos and Marcella Ho
Featured Songs: To An End (part 1) and To An End (part 2) courtesy of Thomas Gray and Liam Ebbs.