INFORMATION:
Riser was borne out of a desire to bring the sound of the human voice to the core of Fieldhead's music, and to rally against an idea of it as peripheral, as an afterthought to the music. The EP continues the love of tape hiss, grainy textures and dusty loops married with brevity and melody to be found in the album preceeding it ('They Shook Hands for Hours'), but this time the pallete has been stripped back to just the human voice and minimal, organic synthesisers.

Each track on this EP started life as a series of vocal recordings supplied by one of the five contributors: Anna-Lynne Williams (of Trespassers William), Chantal Acda (of Sleepingdog), Anneke Kampman (of Conquering Animal Sound), Elly May Irving (of Glissando) and Esker (of The Boats and The Sea).

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PRESS:

"Elam manages to hone his sound with singular intent – the thick electronic textures of his debut are reduced here into a streamlined, dusty lo-fi. There is still, amongst the grainy production and experimental techniques, a defiantly pop sensibility at play in this EP. The tracks are catchy and simple but, with Elam’s production shaping and distorting them, they become something other than pop – they sound like they could fall apart in your hands." - FLUID RADIO  

"Elam's very distinct, personal style proves to be something quite exceptional. For this new release Fieldhead has shifted gears slightly, stripping the focus of his sound to include just a few decaying synth drones and a central vocal, supplied by five contributors: Anna-Lynne Williams (of Trespassers William), Chantal Acda (of Sleepingdog), Anneke Kampman (of Conquering Animal Sound), Elly May Irving (of Glissando) and Esker (of The Boats and The Sea). The outcome is quite magical, perhaps suggesting what a Grouper/William Basinski collaboration might end up sounding like." - BOOMKAT 

"'An Arrow' manages to make the voice more like a Hammond organ than anything human, but that's where a lot of the charm of this record lies. In stripping his tools back to a voice and an accompanying synthesier, Fieldhead has found a balance in his brevity." - ROCK A ROLLA 

"... lovingly crafted and peppered with Fieldhead’s servings of sparse and chilling sounds to create an ambient dish of very high quality... this release is all that ambient was and should remain to be. A challenging but immensely rewarding listen. 8/10" - TASTY 

"Utilising the full range of editing tools [Fieldhead] has managed to manipulate what were seemingly simple vocal parts in to fragments of images and tiny worlds to get lost in. This is stuff best enjoyed in a darkened corner with massive headphones through which you can absorb every tiny detail and visualize the labyrinthine metamorphosis of the human voice in to something far more sinister." - SONIC REVERIE

RELEASE DATE:
July 2010

TRACKLISTING:
1. Planks of Wood
2. Riser
3. An Arrow
4. Of Sorts
5. Opened Window

CREDITS:
Paul Elam
with: Anna-Lynne Williams, Chantal Acda, Anneke Kampman, Elly May Irving, Elaine Reynolds

ARTWORK:
Paul Elam / Richard Knox

LINKS:
Fieldhead website

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