Bibio HHV Records 13 Items

Bibio is an artist who never likes to stay in one sound for too long. His humble beginnings producing lo-fi folk-tronica transformed dramatically into the hip hop inspired kaleidoscopes of his Warp debut Ambivalence Avenue, launching a series of constant shifts from intricate house beats to dazzling funk through to haunting ambient soundscapes, often all within the space of one album. While the quintessential Bibio sound may be hard to define, the guitar has stuck with him throughout all of his sonic experiments, and it’s what he pays homage to on his milestone tenth album.

“I like contrast between my albums,” says Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio “When I finish an album, I crave doing something different for the next one.” Bib10 is perhaps the most outwardly pop Bibio has ever leaned into, delving deeper into the funk and disco direction previously hinted at with releases like 2016’s The Serious EP while his natural pastoral folk inflections still shine through. Though the slick riffs of tracks like ‘Off Goes The Light’ are dressed in fuzzy CRT television colours, they never fall into the trap of sounding nostalgic, featuring refreshing songwriting that can only be placed in modern day.

A metropolitan energy flows through many tracks, such as ‘S.O.L.’ with Olivier St. Louis’s silky, infectious vocals, or the sweet rotations of saxophone and guitar on ‘Cinnamon Cinematic’, trading jubilantly extended solos with each other. Elsewhere, Bibio’s hearty folk origins appear on the intimately drifting ‘A Sanctimonious Song’ and the acoustic ode to analogue on ‘Phonograph’. Both of these worlds are glued together in ‘Rain And Shane’, where lilting violin lends simultaneously wistful and soaring melodic refrains to twirling electric guitars.

Bibio is an artist who never likes to stay in one sound for too long. His humble beginnings producing lo-fi folk-tronica transformed dramatically into the hip hop inspired kaleidoscopes of his Warp debut Ambivalence Avenue, launching a series of constant shifts from intricate house beats to dazzling funk through to haunting ambient soundscapes, often all within the space of one album. While the quintessential Bibio sound may be hard to define, the guitar has stuck with him throughout all of his sonic experiments, and it’s what he pays homage to on his milestone tenth album.

“I like contrast between my albums,” says Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio “When I finish an album, I crave doing something different for the next one.” Bib10 is perhaps the most outwardly pop Bibio has ever leaned into, delving deeper into the funk and disco direction previously hinted at with releases like 2016’s The Serious EP while his natural pastoral folk inflections still shine through. Though the slick riffs of tracks like ‘Off Goes The Light’ are dressed in fuzzy CRT television colours, they never fall into the trap of sounding nostalgic, featuring refreshing songwriting that can only be placed in modern day.

A metropolitan energy flows through many tracks, such as ‘S.O.L.’ with Olivier St. Louis’s silky, infectious vocals, or the sweet rotations of saxophone and guitar on ‘Cinnamon Cinematic’, trading jubilantly extended solos with each other. Elsewhere, Bibio’s hearty folk origins appear on the intimately drifting ‘A Sanctimonious Song’ and the acoustic ode to analogue on ‘Phonograph’. Both of these worlds are glued together in ‘Rain And Shane’, where lilting violin lends simultaneously wistful and soaring melodic refrains to twirling electric guitars.

Brand new EP from Bibio featuring four beautiful haunting ambient pieces, reminiscent of his acclaimed Phantom Brickworks album.

Brandneue EP von Bibio mit vier wundervoll bewegenden Ambient-Tracks ähnlich seines "Phantom Brickworks" Albums. Limitierte Auflage.

Bibio’s new mini-LP Sleep On The Wing sees Stephen Wilkinson continuing the sonic evolution that we heard on 2019’s Ribbons LP. Indeed, this album goes even further than Ribbons did in terms of leaning into the sounds of classic folk music - whereas Ribbons often balanced folkish timbres with the electronic and ambient tones Bibio had explored on prior releases, Sleep On The Wing is a largely acoustic affair. When synthesisers and effects take centre-stage, as they do on a track like ‘Crocus’, the treatment remains light and naturalistic.

There is a sprightliness to Sleep On The Wing that is inherited from the likes of the Incredible String Band. Tracks like ‘The Milkyway Over Ratlinghope’ sparkle and soar, the multitudes of stringed instruments thronging sonorously while harmonies hover languidly above them. At other points - ‘Lightspout’ and ‘Otter Shadows’, for instance - Bibio uses found sounds and relatively lo-fi production to imbue these tracks with the orange hue of a country sunset.

Bibio uses plucked strings to provide Sleep On The Wing with a gentle rhythmic thrust. However, there are points where these sounds are draped with electronic textures to create something more complex - on ‘A Couple Swim’, a track that Wilkinson initially submitted to be used in the Studio Ghibli film The Red Turtle, guitars are flecked with delay and echo to create something that sounds like an English folk version of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint.

Sleep On The Wing is a set of wistful and wonderful modern-day folk instrumentals from the evergreen Bibio.

“I don’t believe in ghosts but I do believe places can be haunted by meaning. Places change, not always for the better and not always by natural, benevolent or politically sound means. A place can be charged with atmosphere because of what it has been through or what it has been.
Phantom Brickworks is a collection of mostly improvised musical pieces, that for some years now, have provided me with a mental portal into places and times - some real, some imaginary, some a combination of both. Human beings are highly sensitive to the atmospheres of places, which can be enhanced or dramatically altered when you learn about the context of their history. Echoes and voices can sometimes be heard, in some way or another. Places sometimes have things to say.”
— Bibio

Vinyl has a few hairlines, close to NM!