Slow Bicycle / Fane

Lonely Shore

Label: Submersion Records

Genre: Electronica / Ambient / Experimental

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Slow Bicycle is the solo project of songwriter Christos Panagiotakis. Panagiotakis used to release minimal - ambient music under the name Figurant until he changed his project’s name to Slow Bicycle. As Figurant he has released two solo and one collaboration album with Esoteric Sob. As Slow Bicycle he has released one full length album in a slightly more electronic ambient style.

Fane is the solo project of James Bandenburg, a musician based in Brighton, UK. Fane creates gnostic ambient-drone songs influenced by the ancient lands and structures that he encounters. He released his debut album, “Follow The Map”, in 2018 on Brighton-based Ceremonial Laptop, followed by a second self-released album, “Geomancer”, in 2019 as well as several EPs.

The title of the album reflects both the music, in the sense that these two musicians create, record and mix their music mostly on their own, but also the album cover. Inspired by the loneliness we can feel when we encounter true nature, a hard to reach island shore or a hard to reach mountain top can also help us reflect on our own nature.

The work we present in this split album shares a deep connection to nature as both musicians like to take long walks and explore locations as part of their creative process. Forests and islands, mountains and old settlements all fuse together in this album’s music.

Slow Bicycle’s songs are based on ambient soundscapes and melodies produced by analog synth sounds and accompanied by charango and minimal rhythmic patterns. Influenced by Brian Eno and Múm, Slow Bicycle gently guides the listener through a music journey full of hope and inward reflection. The sound of the charango (small stringed instrument found in the Andean region of South America) adds a unique flavour to the songs with its bright and hopeful sound that cuts through the ambient tones and rhythms.

Fane presents two compositions, a shorter very rhythmic song that feels like a fusion of ambient with drum and bass and an 18 minute drone devoid of any sort of rhythm or pattern. This sonic juxtaposition is not brave for the sake of being brave but offers the listener a refreshing approach to what minimal instrumental music can be and how different aesthetics and approaches can co-exist. Influences from bands like Sunn O))) and Swans can be found in both of these seemingly different songs.