Television Days

LP version. 180 gram vinyl; Includes download code. Canadian DJ/Producer Clarian presents his highly anticipated debut album, Television Days via Australia's Balance Music. Ever enigmatic and distinctive, Clarian, a songwriter and sound engineer from Montreal, first gained notable recognition by the music scene via his former work in synth pop duo Footprintz, releasing several highly-acclaimed singles as well as Escape Yourself (2013), an album project that was co-produced with Ewan Pearson. Since the release of the aforementioned long-player, Clarian has continued his sonic development, maintaining his imaginative semblance channeling this into his own signature recording techniques and collaborations. Clarian has also collaborated and engineered on several warmly received releases with Guy Gerber, Tiga, and recently Felix Da Housecat. Television Days, influenced by a Casio found under the bed of an Airbnb, was created in Berlin during a tumultuous period and follows the tragic adventures of Kevin Jones, a down-and-out television scriptwriter living in west Hollywood who's obsessed with Carl Sagan's Cosmos and believes he's being contacted by ancient astronauts. This characteristically ineffable theme is matched by the album's equally passionate and otherworldly style, with the long, drawn-out synths on opener "Dedication to Sagan" and the retro-inducing soundscape on "Lost Again" offering a fitting example of what's to come over the album's ten tracks. Other highlights include the album's first single "Under the Gun", a track bursting with lush lo-fi synths and percussion, fused with the almost breathless, reverbed vocal performance from Clarian that nods in the direction of '80s synth-pop works of Mute Records. There's also the atmospheric and colorful "Tulum", the hazy synth-driven "Down and Out", the dystopian sounding "Mote of Dust", and the album's closer, "Television Days", a track where Clarian's dreamy vocals blend particularly well with the melancholic percolating beats. Television Days may be quirky, but it's also a rare glimpse into the state of mind and emotions of Clarian, who himself describes it as "a surreal self-examination of fears and mentalities after several nocturnal years of touring and producing music free to experiment and explore strange and fantastic worlds." Taking notes from the school of the tragic celebration, Television Days is a standout and unique record that both showcases an array of ambient sound techniques as it pays tribute to it's love affair for new wave. In the words of Kevin Jones, "let's get deep, let's get rocked."