Simon Green aka Bonobo returns with his sixth album, the
masterful, magisterial Migration - a record which cements his
place in the very highest echelons of electronic music and
beyond. By turns lush, manic, beautiful, melancholy, joyful, and
packed with both emotion and technical skill, this is perhaps his
most ambitious attempt yet to capture the very textures of human
existence in his work, as Green says of the broad dynamics on the
album, "Life has highs, lows, loud and quiet moments, beautiful
ones and ugly ones. Music is a reflection of life."
In particular, there is a theme here of migration, eruditely put
by Green as "The study of people and spaces," he expands, "It's
interesting how one person will take an influence from one part of
the world and move with that influence and effect another part of
the world. Over time, the identities of new places evolve." It is
a theme with a personal as well as a sociological aspect to it.
Opener and title track "Migration" sets the tone for the record -
a shifting, gradually building combination of complex electronic
programming (Green programmed a special algorithm to create the
drum sequencing) and live piano playing, the sense of movement in
the music is palpable. "Outlier" channels a swinging take on
two-step back into luscious romanticism, before changing
direction and finishing on the dance-floor (not for nothing has
Bonobo talked about the central importance to the overall feel of
the album of his all-night Output DJ residencies in NY where he
road-tested tracks, his 'Outlier' club curation series and visits
to the Kompakt Studios). "Second Sun" mixes guitar, feedback, and
strings in completely unfamiliar ways. "Kerala" takes an R&B
vocal sample from a classic Brandy track and uses it more as
texture than as voice. This innovation is expanded upon and
broadened on "Grains," this time with the voice of folk godher
Pete Seeger.
Beyond this, Green continues his theme of migration, through his
guests and also his choice of found sound, which both strengthen
and deepen "the transitory nature of the record." Michael Milosh,
from the LA group Rhye, for instance, is originally from Canada
and recorded his affecting vocal over a harp and beautiful horn
work in a hotel room in Berlin. Green, meanwhile, built the
structure of the track during a transatlantic flight (another
meaning of Migration rests in the fact of making large chunks of
the record while out on the road). Nick Murphy (formerly known as
Chet Faker), on the other hand, is from Australia, but a shared
love of disco brought the pair together for the hugely emotive
"No Reason." Nicole Miglis of Hundred Waters delivers a superbly
understated vocal for the glistening textures of "Surface," while
Moroccan band Innov Gnawa, based in New York, make up the last of
the vocals, offering real grit and beauty to the housey shuffle of
"Bambro Koyo Ganda." Additionally, Green has used a sampler ("but
not in a big boomer, wearing a cagoul kind of way") and woven
found sounds, such as an elevator in a Hong Kong airport, rain in
Seattle, a tumble dryer in Atlanta, and a fan boat engine in New
Orleans, into his intricate sonics.
His 2013 album The North Borders went Top 30 in the UK and was
Number 1 in the electronic charts in both the US and UK. In
support of that record, the 12 piece band Green runs played 175
shows worldwide, including two sell-outs at the Sydney Opera
House, an all-day festival at the Roundhouse, and a sold out show
at Alexandra Palace, plus a number of high profile festival slots.
Bonobo has built a large, loyal, and engaged global fan-base:
over half a million album sales and over one hundred and fifty
million streams on Spotify point to the levels of success
achieved by this self-effacing man.