Kuedo is set to release his new album ‘Infinite Window’ on 29th July 2022 on the award-winning Brainfeeder record label.
Blending synth-driven avant garde compositions and thunderous drum programming, the album sonics owe as much to modern R&B icons like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd as they do to legendary composers such as David Axelrod, Tangerine Dream and the sadly recently-departed Vangelis or contemporary breakbeat aficionados such as Sully and Jlin.
“I’m split between thinking about what makes spacey synth driven music production work, what makes rap and UK jungle work, and what makes pop and R&B work,” explains Kuedo. “I found myself turning more to what I just enjoy listening to, or to what’s really endured through history, even if it’s new to me. I realised that old music can speak to the current moment as well or better than new music. Particularly in terms of ecological, planetary anxieties, and hopes too”.
Notions of ‘time’ — of looking both forward and backward — run deep throughout the album and its recording process. The genesis for ‘Infinite Window’ began in early 2021 when Kuedo sat down to begin composing a full length album for Brainfeeder, but the finished record is a meticulously assembled collage of new composition and various demos and sound recordings, some of which stretch back almost 10 years.
“Almost a third of the album comes from rough sketches I had written for a previous Kuedo album that never was.” he explains. ”Turning these into finished tracks and assembling them into a unified album, into something that moved as one body… that was a complex experience. It felt like negotiating with previous versions of myself, down corridors of time. It was a little odd hearing a much younger me trying to get better at playing keys, and then having the me now playing alongside that. It felt like time-travelling. In that process, I probably made some peace with that earlier version of myself too, for not having the confidence to finish it at the time”
“I didn’t have a conceptual conceit when I made the tracks or sequenced the album,” he continues. “But whenever I needed an image to anchor or aim toward, the images that came were something about the world after all this, if we almost lost everything. Hot, dry landscapes, remnants of this time, the wonder of this current green world, our relation to future generations, the waves of time. When I was mixing it, I imagined it feeling weathered by time, or out of place in time, like something crash landed, or excavated, half buried in the sand.”
The limited edition yellow vinyl LP features artwork by fast rising visual artists Monja & Vincent and sleeve design by Raf Rennie (Acronym, Prada, Nike).
“Monja & Vincent and I met when they asked if I could contribute any music to their graduate animation short,” says Kuedo. They said their art style had been somewhat influenced by my music, which was incredible to me. I found the art they showed me so inspiring for my own music, it helped me write my own stuff. So I asked them if they would be interested in making an image for the album.”
“I’ve been a fan of Raf Rennie since the mid 2010s, I’m really buzzed to work with him,” he continues. “We have a good shared language & understanding of each other. Some similar inspirations too, like the original Alien film. He developed the Kuedo logo into his own full typeface, “Geiger”. To me his work has a minimalist, composed, slightly detached vibe, in a Kubrick-like way. I really like how it works around a more relaxed and expressive illustration, like Monja & Vincent’s.”
‘Infinite Window’ is out on 29th July on Brainfeeder.
