Geography Of The Abyss

Lo Five is the ambient electronic project of Wirral-based producer Neil Grant.

Lo Five’s second full length studio album ‘Geography of the Abyss’ is thematically a continuation of Neil Grant’s explorations into advanced states of consciousness and shifts in perception – viewed through the lens of family, memory and time – and augmented by self-inquiry practices such as vipassana meditation and Zen Buddhism.

Structurally it can be experienced as a single piece of music that forms an audio-visual narrative, following a first person perspective journey through uncharted tempestuous/serene inner landscapes – from a point of delusion to ultimate resolution:
awakening, anatta, non-self… whichever term you prefer.

The album came about after various creative detours, conceptual sonic experimentation and period of frustration with live performances – which were beginning to feel too restrictive and repetitive in nature. Neil flipped his usual creative process on its head and set about building a flexible hardware-based live rig that allowed for improvisation and a sense of reconnecting with ‘playing’ rather than ‘composing’.

This choice to work backwards from a live set rather than composing on a computer resulted in longer form meditative rhythmic jams that utilise a stripped-back palette of sounds and melodies, whilst retaining Lo Five’s evocation of performer and space using field recordings, samples and melodies. This production methodology – recording live sessions down to a master recording – also raised questions, as well as offering relief, from ideas of production ‘perfection’. Are human flaws and a loss of production mastery in exchange for a more intuitive, subconscious connection with music a worthy payoff? Only you can answer that – so sit back, switch off your mind, immerse yourself, lose yourself, then realise the truth of your subjective experience.

Neil is also founder of the Emotion Wave collective of musicians and visual artists, who are involved in a range of activities – events, releases, radio and print – which serve to highlight Merseyside’s burgeoning pool of creative experimental electronic talent.