1. Radiohead – Codex
Radiohead were the first band I properly got into as a teenager and are the reason I started making music in the first place.
![Radiohead - Codex - Live from The Basement [HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BzJV8mLMf3w/0.jpg)
2. DJ Shadow – Midnight In A Perfect World
I love the atmosphere of this album. ‘Endtroducing…..’ gave me a greater appreciation of different genres as I started to look back into the tracks that were sampled for the album.
3. Jeff Buckley – Lilac Tree
Jeff Buckley was an hugely talented songwriter in his own right but also had a great ability to make any cover version his own.
It was from learning to play his songs that I began to experiment with alternate guitar tunings.
4. Sigur Ros – Fljótavík
The kings of post-rock.
5. Helios – Bless This Morning Year
It was through listening to Keith Kenniff’s work that I was inspired to explore writing to accompany visuals.
6. The Album Leaf – Twenty Two Fourteen
I took on the “less is more” approach to composition from listening to The Album Leaf.
7. Bibio – Lovers’ Carvings
I love Bibio’s production style. There’s so much warmth in his recordings.
8. Ólafur Arnalds – Lag Fyrir Ömmu
I remember being completely blown away the first time I watched this.
I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t already seen it.
9. Tycho – A Walk
I’m a huge fan of Scott Hansen’s work, not only his music as Tycho, but also his distinctive style as a graphic designer.
10. Jon Hopkins – Immunity
I love the contrast in Jon Hopkin’s work; from delicate solo piano to beautifully layered electronica.
Steve Gibbs – Adrift
Steve Gibbs ‘Adrift’ (Injazero Records)
Adrift is the beautiful debut album from UK composer-pianist Steve Gibbs. Acting loosely as a reissue of Gibbs’ hugely popular Bandcamp release of a similar collection of pieces, this expanded, re-mastered, heavyweight vinyl edition paints a clear picture of a composer mastering his form. It is a record of astonishing warmth, eloquence and sophistication, bedding deep in the ear, whether punctuating subtle moments of silence or rising to sublime heights.
Gibbs ostensibly occupies a similar territory to his peers in the broad and unstructured “modern classical” world. His instrumentation – piano, strings, gentle electronics, occasional guitars – is used with a similar sense of vision as Goldmund, Ólafur Arnalds, Dustin O’Halloran, Stars of the Lid, the piano solos of Arvo Pärt. Yet Adrift retains a singularity, a distinct and forward-facing identity. Its canvas, though rich and vivid like theirs, is left purposefully spacious and open. Passages of soft microsound comparable to Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto’s duet albums or Mika Vainio merge with lusher cinemascapes akin to Clint Mansell and Max Richter. Album opener ‘Passion’ combines breathtakingly pretty musicbox and piano sounds and lamenting chords to underpin its seaswells of white noise. By ‘Bokeh’ – the final piece – varying themes of elevation, melancholy, catharsis, love and loss have been sparingly, economically dotted about the pindrop elegance. “One of the most important lessons I’ve learnt and follow as a rule is that simplicity is often much more effective,” Gibbs writes. “The space left in between the notes are almost as important as the notes themselves.”
Adrift on 180g vinyl and digital formats are released on Injazero Records now.
