Description:	CD on Home Normal
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Ambient
	Label:	Home Normal
	Price:	£6.19  (sale price!)
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

5
...according to our Phil on 18 June 2009.

This week I starts with a superfly CD by Christopher Hipgrave (no relation to Dan I hope) on the rather smashing Home Normal label. I like the packaging on this label. Nice shiny cardboard little things with tasty imagery and a nicely designed slot to shove your musical 5 incher into (err... CD). Day is the daybut (gerrit....) release by Mr Hipgrave. He has forthcoming wares on Under The Spire but Home Normal appear to have to got to him first and can lay their claim to finding this up and coming talent! It's a 7 track album which is a mix of clicks, drones, ambience and some micro electronics all tastefully crafted together into one delicious thing. It's very enjoyable indeed. In fact you may as well remove your ears and place them on a velvet cushion for the evening. It's that nice. It comes into it's own through headphones as it's doesn't do much over the system in the office here. Through headphones you can pick up all the intricacies and little nuances which are missed due to the mass of space between said ears and headphones. Fans of 12K, Make Mine Music etc. will like this. Well nice!

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Sound clips for Day by Christopher Hipgrave: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Home Normal, HOME_N004, £6.19.

What their label says...

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. once spoke of nature as needing to be held close to humanity, to be a friend, instead of an enemy. ‘Day’, by Christopher Hipgrave, who is a composer, sound designer, and software programmer from England, presents the harmony of the humanity and closeness to nature, while still allowing the time of the day to pass hardly without notice, but with change and closeness.
Spanning 7 tracks, and 44 minutes, the simply descriptive titles of ‘Day’ transcend a controlled majesty over the evolving everyday. The times of the day are present, relative to structures of the surrounding world. All found in place: Flowers’ petals opening through an extended time-lapse, the trickle of water drops from rubber plants to the ground, the bending of grass blades shifting like razors, with only the temporal echo of the evening warming the last remaining seconds are present.
Near the end of the record, the music withdraws into a secluded world that could easily be the crackling of raindrops on a windowsill, heard through the window of a house, in any city, on any rainy day. The world is muted, strong, and pensive. The last minutes breathe with a somber intensity, pumping but gushing through missive pathways, always on target, and withering all the while.
Simply relating sounds to nature is a little compliment, but isn’t everything, when it is first beginning? If everyday could be as descriptive, and have as many tender moments as this cherished debut contains, each day would be memorable, waiting for the next.