London-based musician/composer Ian Williams has released a new single and video (caution - it contains flashing images) entitled ‘After We’re Gone’ today. It is an edited version of a track from his current album, ‘Slow-Motion Apocalypse’.
Anyone who has been paying attention will know that the human race is in a perilous position. We inhabit a planet that is overheating and being drained of the resources needed to sustain a healthy balance for the life which exists upon it, while our politicians indulge in pointless regional wars, or blinkered domestic bickering; anything to avoid having to make the unpopular decisions which may help mitigate the effects of humanity’s selfish excesses. We can’t last forever, so what happens after we’re gone?
Williams’ new single is a journey (literally, in the case of its dazzling video) - hard, hyperactive synthetics melt into Duane Eddy guitar licks, before the choirs and orchestras (several of each) join the stampede to a coruscating climax.
The earth will heal just fine without us. That’s what will happen after we’re gone.
Ian Williams began his music career in Edinburgh in the mid 1980s as a founder of Beautiful Pea Green Boat, whose ethereal, atmospheric sound pre-dated the vogue for dream pop by at least twenty years. Several collaborations with Lebanese choreographer Joumana Mourad and her contemporary dance company Ijad saw him fuse Arabic/classical/techno/ambient styles, following which he changed tack to work with singer Claudia Barton as Gamine, releasing two albums of dark, piano-led torch songs and lullabies.
Williams' own releases include THE DREAM EXTORTIONISTS (2019), a debut solo album of dark piano and electronics; LES BLESSURES INVISIBLES (2019), an eclectic electronic soundtrack to a documentary film by French director Eric Michel, and ALL BECOMES DESERT (2021), an album of minimalist ambiences and warm analogue soundscapes. Following the release of SLOW-MOTION APOCALYPSE in 2023, he composed the soundtrack to Michel’s new WW2 spy documentary, LE MYSTÈRE LUCIE (Code Name Lucy) and issued two soundtracks for it in July 2024.
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