Letters Of Utrecht - slow exit ep

Letters of Utrecht began in 2012 as the solo project of P A Buchanan, originally from Northern Ireland and now based in Brisbane. Buchanan previously played bass in more “traditional” rock band line-ups, and only really started writing and recording his own work a few years ago. With a growing interest in ambient, drone & soundscape music over the last five years, Letters of Utrecht is an attempt to do something outside his comfort zone. Slow Exit was largely composed & recorded on laptop between July 2013 & March 2014. As with most of his work, this EP has been constructed using a range of VSTs & manipulated found sounds (effects captured by mic & any public domain loops found on the ‘net). There are additional bursts of live bass & guitar throughout. With a grounding in rock, metal, ambient, drone, soundtracks & electronica, Buchanan’s musical influences are many – from eclectic acts such as Faith No More and Aphex Twin, to labels including Warp, Ghost Box and Ninja Tune. P A Buchanan is a huge film fan and this too informs much of his work, as evidenced in the Film Noir cover art for Slow Exit. The half-remembered, rose-tinted smear of nostalgia looms large with tracks evoking old TV themes, dusty vinyl and tape, ramshackle movie soundtracks and so on. He tends to work in a semi-improvised fashion, starting from a basic motif such as a short loop, beat or drone then building more layers gradually. Only a handful of takes are performed to refine each part just enough – fostering a sense of spontaneity & maintaining some vital human elements.

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