Recorded almost entirely on an iPhone 6s, Monteith's debut solo album is designed to be listened to in a single sitting, it’s 23 tracks blending continuously to unfurl the story of a unique journey around the world.
Monteith performs as a percussionist with the band Foals and he composed and recorded this album during their 2019 world tour. In each of the cities the band performed he would make field recordings of the spaces and streets they visited, whilst on each flight composing musical pieces on his phone. When ordered together these two elements conspire to form an Audio-Cartographic record of an extraordinary journey. A world tour with one of the biggest modern bands, sonically reimagined to capture and explain its strange blur of sensations; the aches, pains, loneliness & exhilaration of endless travel along with the glimmers of truth & euphoria found hidden amongst it all.
'A globe-spanning musical travelogue, turned by circumstance into a hauntological love-song to a way of life indefinitely on hold.'
- Concrete Tapes.
Physical copies available through the Concrete Tapes bandcamp:
kitmonteithct.bandcamp.com/album/audio-cartographic-experiments-vol-1-rise-fall
The digital release comes with the full album as a single track, the cassette edit with the album split between two tracks as well as all the different 'Flight Songs' individually.
Track listing:
Flight Songs:
1 . Leaving Home
3. Beginnings
5. Frozen Time
7. In Parenthesis
9. Far From Home
11. Lost
13. The Moments Between
15. Hopeless, Hungover & Homesick
17. Tilt To The Light
19. I Love & Miss You All
21. Coming Home
23. Beyond
Field Recordings:
2. Mexico City mangos
4. US West Coast: Seattle fish market,
Oakland ice rink, LA hotel protest
6. South America: the streets of Bogota,
Buenos Aires & Sao Paulo.
8. US East Coast: New York Bouncer, Boston street
drummers, Detroit bookstore, Milwaukee basketball
stadium, Washington 2am street corner,
Atlanta bird & Kansas City train
10. Europe: Hamburg clock chime, Berlin
storm, Barcelona art gallery
12. New Zealand: Auckland street
crossing, Birds at dusk,
Hare Krishna street dancers
14. Australia: Sydney Botanical Gardens,
Byron Bay after show party
16. Oxford: Opening birthday presents
with my family
18. Bangkok archery range & street
market, Osaka Cicadas, Thai aeroplane
announcement
20. Ukrainian art installation,
The streets of Kiev, Moscow Train
Station, Train to St Petersburg
22. A final taxi ride
released January 15, 2021
All tracks composed and recorded by Kit Monteith
Produced by Kit Monteith
All tracks & field recording made on an iPhone 6s
Additional modular synths on tracks 3, 9, 13, 15 & 21 performed by Jeremy Moors
Tracks 11 & 23 reimagined for piano and performed by Nico Casal
Cover print by Joe Maclaren