Releases:
Fortresses - (title TBA), published by Flaming Pines, 2024 (Forthcoming)
Fortresses - (title TBA), published by Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2024 (Forthcoming)
Fortresses
Hear
de2718
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Label:
Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2023
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Listen | Info
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Label press release:
London-based musician Fortresses returns to Dragon’s Eye Recordings with his fourth release on the label. Made during the fall of 2022, Hear emerged from an intense period of processing; for the artist, it stands as a milestone at the end of a difficult year.
Much like Near, his most recent release with DER, Hear expands upon Fortresses’ creative exercises in patience. It is a gorgeous and grounded demonstration of restraint, allowing the negative spaces tucked among the notes and chords to stand out all the greater. Just as the naked tree branches shiver stark and leafless against silver autumn skies, Hear embodies a cyclic where excess falls away and the skeleton is laid bare. And when there is little else to strip away, what’s gone becomes just as apparent as what remains.
Fortresses remains connected to the origins of his first two releases, Eve and Spring— Hear also crackles with airy hints of field recordings made in his native East London during periods of seasonal change. But now, tones gently dip lower than before. It instead possesses a more solemn, grounded nature than its ethereal counterparts, echoing the earthy denouement of his world as it prepares for winter.
When autumnal weather dampens the bright colors and dulls the sounds of vitality, we settle in. Hear prepares us for just that; and through its meditative nature, it captures the gradual shifts towards stillness as all things come to rest.
Fortresses
Near
de2715
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Label:
Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2022
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Listen | Info
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Label press release:
Fortresses creates a soundscape of deep consideration and subtlety in Near, his latest release for Dragon’s Eye Recordings.
To enter in a new environment is to dial in to a different frequency, to hone the senses and tap into the energy that surrounds. When Fortresses spent time in Portland, Oregon and the surrounding regions, the Londoner found himself tuning into the Pacific Northwest, inspired by the climate and the natural landscape.
Similar to his previous DER releases, Spring and Eve, each sonic element is crafted and captured deliberately, immersing the listener in an intuitive means of tracking time as it passes; its units of measurements are organic markers of the present moment as it naturally progresses.
As he worked on this piece in the months that followed his formative trip to Portland, the memory of that ecosystem began to inhabit the track through the airy, rhythmic drone that slowly pulses with life. Gradually, like a living organism, the breathing expands, a consciousness awakens; new sounds, reminiscent of distant horns or a soft rush of wind gently integrate themselves into the flow.
Fortresses reflects on his excursion into unfamiliar terrain, recalling his walks deep into the misty forests of Oregon as a time of profound personal change. And there too is a sense of gradual evolution and nearly imperceptible growth in the slow build of the piece. The undulating rhythm imagines the depths under the cold waves of the Pacific, the swaying tops of ancient pine trees far in the woods, or clouds heavy with rain as they pass along overhead.
In its quietude, Near encourages the listener to lean into the lull, to find stillness, and further immerse oneself into the sound. It captures the heartbeat of nature. In its steady gathering of the rhythms it recapitulates, Near becomes its very own lifesource, humming into being in a new world.
Fortresses
Spring
de2713
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Label:
Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2021
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Label press release:
After the acclaim for his debut EP Eve, Dragon’s Eye Recordings is pleased to announce the re-release of Fortresses’ Spring. The single, which the artist self-released in 2020, is an exquisite companion to Eve.
As the Northern Hemisphere closes in on the shortest days while the Southern soon slides into summer, Spring also slowly rotates through gentle transitions. Lush and airy sounds bring an embodied awareness reminiscent of the early morning: Drones, like the sun, slowly ascend with growing radiance. The subtle melody, like a dawning, heartens the darkness behind our eyes to become a soft glowing amber, crimson, gold. Calmly, from the hints of static and quite knocks, we awaken.
In these gestures of revival and renewal, Spring serves as an antidote to the dreary slough of winter; it reminds of that warmth that gathers before summer. It manifests the pleasant, ethereal moments at the end of a night’s sleep, just before opening our eyes, lingering in the amber; it shares the hope of a new season twinkling upon the horizon.
Fortresses
Eve
de6042
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Label:
Dragon’s Eye Recordings, 2021
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Listen | Info
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Label press release:
Fortresses guides a pensive, ethereal meditation on the passage of time with his debut release, Eve, on Dragon’s Eye Recordings.
A day may be observed by exact moments, counted down by the hands on a clock; or, its progress might be witnessed through less immediate means—a shift in shadows, the sky’s hue, the air as it warms and cools.
In this sense, Fortresses both measures the day with exactitude, and honors its slower unfoldings. Each of Eve’s three carefully crafted compositions allow the listener to hone in on a singular element, or lean back into a wider gentle drone. One can pinpoint a hint of static, or drift with a melodic looping hum as it phases in and out again.
In his own words Fortresses offered us some insight into the making of Eve:
Eve formed slowly during a self-reflective and transformative period in my life. The songs stand as a personal document of the time they were made and the rituals that gave shape to them—watching the seasons change from my studio window, letting the colours and qualities of light inspire the compositions; and long walks in East London’s natural and urban areas where I would listen to rough edits of the tracks and record open-air sounds that blended well with the music.