SummerSelection2015 by THIS IS THE KIT / JO GILLOT / ALTARS ALTARS / GREY TAPES

We are now travelling in the season of Summer. Golden rays drowning out every surface exposed.

Travelling by train in the Summer can be a fantastic experience. It is usually the season that most encourages semi-conscious viewing out the window as the passenger battles to stay awake with the heat. The landscapes can flow past like the visions from within a dream. Here we present music composed specifically to aide this experience, The Summer Selection.

Our friend Angus shares his thoughts:

"Rail Cables is a seasonal compilation with each artist featured being invited to provide music to accompany train travel. To state the bleeding obvious, Winter and Spring editions preceded this latest release and whilst an avant garde spine has been a constant throughout, the mood has shifted from the dark and brooding electronics of Winter, the ethereal drone of Spring to our next destination, the blissful beauty and beats of Summer.

As an album it seems distinctly split in two halves. A more literal tale of train travel is told in the first half with This is the Kit’s ‘Louis Blanc to Place des Fetes on the Paris Metro’ opening proceedings. Field recordings from the Paris Metro are seamlessly weaved into the song, before taking centre stage and becoming possibly the only train solo I’ve ever heard in a piece of music, time to throw your plectrums in the bin lads.

The themes and mood created by This is the Kit are that of the busy hustle and bustle of the Paris underground (a service I would quite happily never use again for stress related reasons), Jo Gillot manages to perfectly bring calm to the proceedings, one can only imagine she lives in a peaceful utopia and her local train service doesn’t stop at any of the popular stag-do destinations. Her two contributions ‘The Carriage Clears’ and ‘Home Nears’ are so mesmerisingly serene that they would make Stevenage to Grantham seem as beautiful as Zermatt to St Moritz.

German composer Moritz Lepers, under his Altars Altars guise, sees his long distance journey inspired 22 minute wall of ambient minimalism separating the earlier folk musings of This is the Kit and Jo Gillot, and the forthcoming mellow beats of Grey Tapes. Lepers continues the theme of field recordings with subtly placed onboard train noise hidden amongst the tranquillity of ‘Passing Landscapes’ and manages to perfectly convey what cross-country train travel means to him without saying a word.

Contributing five songs to the album, the prolific Grey Tapes draw Rail Cables to a close perfectly. Uplifting and cinematic, their electronica is the perfect marriage to watching the sun soaked world speeding passed your window seat. Closing track ‘Get It’ brought back memories of Eskmo and earlier tracks wouldn’t sound out of place on the Grand Central Records roster. Whatever the influence or the similarities the music remains perfect headphone escapism and provides a well rounded conclusion to an intelligently curated and unique compilation album."

An illustration by Oat Montien is such a beautiful thing. Put his name into google image search and marvel at the copious amount of art work this wonderful Bangkok-born artist has produced. Earlier this year Oat released his first book, London Scene, inspired by his time spent living in the city he loves so much.

The piece Oat created for the Summer selection is his interpretation of the hustle and bustle of train travel in the hottest of heats. As he was working on the piece he was sending through photos of train journeys he was taking around Thailand in the Summer. The image of a group of people all lost in movement, so perfectly frozen in time, suggests solidarity even when lost in manic movement.

Train music