Marionette by Kirk Barley
Pursuing the darker corners of experimental music
In a previous life English artist Kirk Bailey produced music as Bambooman with a hybrid form of experimental music incorporating Jazz, Minimalism, Techno, Hip-Hop and plenty of clever editing. Following that, his various collaborations with Matt Davies (under his alternative holy-building-related moniker Church Andrews) were more beat-driven but no less experimental. With Marionette, Bailey continues to pursue the darker edges of electronic music through a fourth world lens with a fine companion piece to his 2019 debut album Landscapes.
Falling somewhere between Eno’s Music for Films, the fourth world fusion of Jon Hassell and the synthetic, tropical soundscapes of Andrew Pekler, Bailey works loops into hypnotic mantras (Nectar, Kites), using organic field recordings and found sound for atmosphere (Seafarer, Gate) and plucked strings and sampled synths (Lake of Gold, The Night) like incidental music accompanying an unfolding scene in nature. It's all rather beautiful.