For the last couple of years, Bournemouth-born producer Daniel Avery has been hopping from one experimental project to the next, with each evolving from the slick tech-house of his phenomenal debut Drone Logic. Last spring he unveiled the mesmerising Alessandro Cortini collaboration Illusion of Time, before dropping his exhilarating double album Love + Light. He soon followed these with a composition for the poignant short film Void and even a handful of EPs, remixes and singles.
You might think that after all of that Avery would be ready to put his feet up, but instead he’s topping off this streak with his fourth solo album, entitled Together in Static. Initially the project was simply a 12” single, but quickly snowballed into a fully-fledged LP, eventually taking on the aim to be performed in its entirety to celebrate the much-missed joy of live music.
Across 41 minutes, Together marries kaleidoscopic, synth-laden ambient with pulsing beats in a fashion that is recognisable as the producer’s signature, echoing early Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada on tracks like ‘Hazel and Gold’. Occasionally Avery leans fully into one of the two extremes, like a diver coming up for air and stillness (‘Nowhere Sound’) before plunging back down to the epic, intense depths of the ocean (‘Endless Hours’).
Together in Static feels like a culmination of Avery’s recent stylistic explorations and interests; there aren’t too many surprises, but it does present the artist operating at his most focussed, highlighting his strongest qualities as a spark of modern EDM.
