Halls - ‘Ark’

We’re proud to announce Halls - the solo project of 21 year old South London musician Sam Howard - will release Ark through No Pain In Pop on 15th October 2012.

Ark - his brooding debut album - draws from a palette of crystalline melodies, intense production and panoramic instrumentation to create a deeply personal, constructivist work of art. Evocative in sound and yet isolationist in sentiment, the album is a dramatic and emotive study of loss and anxiety set to a strained electronic soundtrack; a statuesque introspection on an unfathomable modern world.

Howard’s centrepiece tenor voice and his glitchy, scattered rhythms present Thom Yorke’s The Eraser as an easy reference point, alongside other exponents of recent mutations in London’s unique urban sound narrative such as The XX, Burial or Mount Kimbie. 

Ark, however, also hints at another world beyond this. One of loop innovator Jan Jelinek’s cut-and-paste percussion; the abstracted, intricate instrumentation of Efterklang; the deep choral swells of Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver; haunting ambient composers Tim Hecker or Thomas Köner; and cerebral, minimal modern classicist Nils Frahm.

The release will be available on CD/LP/DL and is available for preorder (here). Listen to the album preview trailer below.