Mist [Cassette]

AEAEA - Mist [Cassette]

In ancient times, when mist closed around a ship, the only way forward was to slow down and listen. Birds, breaking waves, fog bells, gongs, and horns became the new language of navigation, alongside depth soundings that sampled the seabed with a lead line and revealed its hidden shape. That shift, trading sight for sound and touch, is at the heart of AEAEA's debut album, Mist — the new duo of Patrick Higgins and Nicolás Jaar.

The duo's genesis goes back to the 2019 Le Guess Who? festival, for which Higgins served as artist curator. Named after the hazy mythical terrain of oak and beech woodlands, the island and its encircling stories became a source of inspiration for both musicians, who have long favoured mixtures of ancient harmony and electronic experimentation. Recorded over three years between Berlin and Higgins's studio in upstate New York, Mist folds the hazy, intuitive logic of processing chains and improvisation into the core of the composition, featuring cello improvisations from composer Judith Hamann.