Flatland / Spaceland by Joe Harvey-Whyte

Flatland/Spaceland is the debut solo release from renowned pedal steel player, visual artist and composer Joe Harvey-Whyte. Flatland/Spaceland is 20 minutes of music that blurs the borderlines between ambient and neoclassical to create an engaging and meditative listening experience.

The first side of the 2 track EP, titled Flatland is a glacial ambient creation made using pedal steel guitar processed through multiple effects together with field recordings and occasional revelatory sounds from Himalayan singing bowls. Spaceland, on side B, takes the composition and refracts it through an orchestral lens. A 26-piece ensemble delicately creep in to the calming world echoed by side A. As the piece develops the result is something more akin to a film soundtrack. Occupying the space between ambient and neoclassical, Flatland / Spaceland by Joe Harvey-Whyte invites us to take a step back from the busyness of our lives for 20 minutes and reflect. Inspired by Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 novel Flatland, in which a two-dimensional protagonist encounters a three-dimensional world for the first time, and struggles to explain it to his fellow natives of the 2D Flatland, Joe Harvey-Whyte attempts conceptually to give depth to what that which appears flat.

A departure from the instruments usual confines, Flatland on side A of the EP see’s the pedal steel cast out from the Honky Tonks and into the stratosphere. Joe Harvey-Whyte uses the pedal steel’s expressive power processed through effects to create an unrecognisable ethereal sonic landscapes reminiscent of Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid and Taylor Deupree, who mastered Flatland/Spaceland. Inspired by the novel, Flatland seeks to explore and evoke that which lies just beyond our perceptual field. Its glacial unfolding is peppered with strange sounds that somehow feel familiar, the pedal steel is at times almost choral. The granular imperceptibility surrounding the source of the sounds used in the piece are designed to make the listener lean in to discern what is happening. The deeper listening approach may bring a greater sense of experience to the music, but it’s also possible to listen to the piece in a passive way, allowing it to wash over the listener, which generates a sense of a calming icy landscape.

Occupying side B is Spaceland, an orchestral refraction of Flatland, with Joe Harvey-Whyte working closely with Ell Kendal, a sound artist and orchestrator from London. Kendal is known for his use of experimental scoring techniques to create notated works for classical ensemble. His influences range from avant-garde composers and performance artists, to early religious musics, and ritual, and you can hear that in his interpretation of the original piece here. The process of orchestrating and recording all the instruments for Spaceland took around a year, with additional challenges to the process caused by working through COVID. Everything was recorded at Joe’s studio in North London, with the exception of a few remote recordings. Joe says of the process of orchestrating the piece “Ell’s scores are quite idiosyncratic and were more of a gentle guide than a definitive representation of the piece as it should be played. Flatland was an improv creation and I wanted this orchestral refraction to embody that level of randomness and chance. Many of the beautiful blossoming moments in Spaceland came about by ‘accident’”.

On his the process behind making this EP, Joe says “with my music I often like to create a sonic landscape and just sit there. Breathing slowly and contemplating. When composing, my pieces allow me to take some time out from the fast paced nature of much of life here in London. The pedal steel is manipulated through effects beyond recognition. I didn’t really set out to make a “pedal steel” ambient EP. More that the pedal steel is my expressive tool and the means by which I can access a whole range of different tonalities which perhaps others might get with synths, voice or classical instruments like strings.”


(C) None More Records 2021
NMR008
Initial Run of 300 10” vinyl and full digital EP.
www.nonemorerecords.com
nonemorerecords@gmail.com

Joe Harvey-Whyte is a multidisciplinary artist working at the cross section between ambient/experimental music, visual art and field recording.

His solo work combines the sound of the pedal steel guitar with electronics and field recordings to make works that create a space for deep listening and reflection whilst attempting to translate and subtly amplify the quieter moments of everyday life.

joeharveywhyte.com