ALBUM NOTES
A journey through the lost worlds of childhood imagination.
“For a long time I had been trying in vain to capture the emotional experience of my childhood imagination. As a child the real world was as mysterious, magical, and unknown as the worlds I dreamed of and those I imagined could be real.
As a child I relied on these imagined worlds to better understand the reality of the world I was living in. Yet as an adult the feeling of being immersed in them had drifted into darkness. The lessons from them had been learned, replaced by the starker realities of adulthood. The poetry of the fantastical was ever harder to connect with, and the reality of the real world was becoming ever more prosaic.
And yet I began to find that there was music, fragments at first, which could offer a glimmer in the dark. They were like sparkling glints of the magic, fear and mystery which pervaded my childhood imagination. They offered an opportunity to recapture that feeling of escape. To re-inhabit those worlds that had fallen quiet for so long.
And the more I drew from the well, the deeper and richer the water became. Building layers and detail in the music, I realised that each piece was forming to represent a distinct memory. Like a series of suspended vivariums, each containing a world now forgotten. From within each bell jar, the feeling of the world was real, as in a dream. Even if from outside, the limits of the glass were clear. The music was becoming a way to step back through the glass and re-enter those forgotten worlds. Like a dream, the memories were fleeting, but the feeling of being inside was palpable and lasting.
Written over the course of a year, Vivarium is a series of memories - bell jars - to be travelled between. To connect them, the album is structured as though a dream itself - an escapist dream. Journeying between these memory worlds, we see our own world anew on the other side. It is in itself a world to be stepped into, to escape to - to explore.
Written against the backdrop of a changing world, this need to escape inside the vivarium, to recapture the magic and mystery within, and to ultimately learn the limits of the glass - seemed to me more important than ever. No longer do these worlds of childhood imagination teach of the prosaic reality they once did. Quite the opposite - they illuminate the magic and mystery that still exists in the world around us. They reveal the deep unknowns still to be found, marvelled at, and ultimately celebrated.
Step inside...”
Written, Produced & Recorded by Angus MacRae
Mixed by Adam Miller
Mastered by Cicely Balston
Artwork by Gareth Hughes
Recorded at BSMNT 3