Chris Russell’s otherworldly creations often call to mind abstract sci-fi visuals, and the surreal soundscapes on Destiny — his third solo album for Portland-based Spotted Peccary Music — continues to deliver his signature celestial stardust. Time falls away as the album’s gleaming tones move with purpose toward vast horizons, rising and falling on the broad swells of a sonic sea.
Press release by Beth Ann Hilton
Russell’s mastery of expansive ambient electronic soundworlds is on full display within the music of Destiny, and the album’s subtle but all-encompassing spaces give rise to an immersive and thought-provoking listening experience that breathes and evolves with nuance and depth. Through the use of delays, granular filters, and long reverbs, Russell explores slow-flowing spaces with an artistic and cinematic flair, painting a world where delicate veils of sound are frozen in slow-motion breezes, where seething pools of shimmering electrons glisten in sonic starlight, and where distant drones and faraway textures approach and recede into mysterious swirling mists.
Recording since 2000, Chris Russell finds inspiration from both the simplicity of nature and the vast infinity of the universe. Using the studio as his instrument, he plays software and hardware synthesizers, bass guitar, and various indigenous instruments to produce textures and abstract paintings of sound. In addition to his solo and collaborative work, Chris has also contributed multiple tracks to compilation albums of electronic music.
In an interview with music journalist Robin James, Russell reveals that with Destiny he celebrates ten years of exploring the path less traveled, creating and producing his own unique forms of ambient electronic music. “My music is a vehicle to peer into the unknown, it is all about exploring the vast expanse, with sounds of an other-worldly celestial nature. I paint a picture in the mind’s eye with sounds. Destiny took a lot of creative restraint from me, I kept it on a path of free flowing ambient music, not too dark, not too strange, no hard left turns. I am glad I challenged myself that way on this album. I feel it has paid off well for the listener.”
In describing the music, James writes, “At the heart of each track you’ll find trillions of tiny bits of sound, or grains, and the craft involves manipulating each grain’s duration, pitch and so on, for awesome visualizations in your mind’s eye. It’s not often that you can come across such sonic particles of dust or sand that are being energetically lifted to great heights by a strong and turbulent wind, and when it all calms you find yourself on a sunrise-gold beach.”
Russell’s previous offerings through Spotted Peccary include Echo (2018), Labyrinth (2017), and the 2014 collaboration with ambient electronic composer Phillip Wilkerson titled Vague Traces. Visit his artist page at https://spottedpeccary.com/artists/chris-russell/
Destiny was mastered by Ben Cox at Syndrome Studio. The CD version of Destiny, designed by Daniel Pipitone, is in a factory sealed 6-panel gatefold package that includes all artwork, liner notes, and a 4-page booklet. The album is available worldwide for physical purchase in CD format and in 24-BIT AUDIOPHILE, CD QUALITY LOSSLESS, MP3 and streaming formats.
For more information and music samples, see spottedpeccary.com