of Birds by Kit Monteith & Jeremy Moors

There’s an idea today of what it is to be human. A higher animal moving through a world composed for them. A being uniquely able to shape its environment; to pull apart the materials of the universe and reform them in fresh visions of life and death. It’s easy to miss, then, that in our most human moments—those of upheaval, uncertainty, heartbreak, love—what consoles and re-enchants is not a world that belongs to us, but the world to which we belong.

It was in such a period of precarious living that Kit Monteith found new wonder in birds, their beauty and variety; their movements dotting the sky like vanishing sheet music; how in flight they were, somehow, skittish and drifting yet totally rooted to the world around them.

From this sense emerged Of Birds, 12 emotive instrumentals that lift, weave, and turnwith the same energy and array as the album’s title suggests. Taking flight with the dawn glisten of ‘Internal’ to the woozy murmurations of ‘Dead Spectrum Area’, to the language beyond words that chirrups through Sun Lake, and coming to roost in the joyful piano pulse of Unreal Worlds, the album floats between minimal piano pieces, complex orchestral soundscapes, concrete modular experiments, and haunting folk.

Composed between late 2021 and 2022 while on the road as a touring member of Foals, and around his work as a videographer ‘Of Birds’ (Monteith’s third album) distinctly builds on his previous works (as well as his experience directing video projects for Yann Tierson, and Max Richter) through its prominent use of strings and piano. ‘Stunning’ sees Monteith’s experience as percussionist for Foals and drummer for the bands Jonquil and Trophy Wife. Having no fixed abode at the time of recording meant what tools were at hand.

The result is an album infused with traditional and modern approaches, seeing everyday tools like an iPad, being utilised alongside, reel-to-reel tape machines and boutique synthesisers – most prominently Black Corporation’s Deckard’s Dream. Album composed,Monteith entrusted it to close friend and long-term collaborator Jérémy Moors to inflect with modular synth.

Jeremy Prichard (Everything Everything) adds bass guitar; Will May, violin; and Samuel Hudson Scott, Trumpet and additional production.

The album is mastered by modern ambient legend Stephen James Buckley. Cover art: a swirl art painting, coincidently birdlike, was made by Monteith’s 5 year old niece, Floria.


Maltese Cross Case
Recycled Clear Frosted Tape

Publishing books, recordings and poetry broadsides Live Object is an imprint of Ambient Receiver.

Ambient Receiver is journal of creative ecologies - focussed on creative practice as a means to attune to the environment.

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