There is music that is a soundtrack to our every day ‘normal’ lives, the music heard on radios in the park, or coming out from earphones, in that weird stilted static way, or on our Spotify lists of our favourite albums.

Then there is music from our dreams, the places we escape to, inspirational, uplifting even when seemingly harsh, and the music of acceptance, as we drift off, feeling time slow down, the clockwork roar of the hectic hours of too busy society, muffled beneath the melody.

And then

There is music that combines aspects of the latter two, but which shape shifts (shimmers) into the realm of what The Buzzcocks called ‘A Different Kind Of Tension’, the stuff of pleasant nightmares, distorted reflections squeezing and sighing off the polished surface, the unsteady sand not quite holding fast, the balance disrupted with a sigh.

Scott Gray, in the guise of Lunar Lemur , creates such music, music from the outside sneaking into our reality, delicious drones, traveling music for the agoraphobic, ambience for the hostile, peace for the fearful.

So to the latest album.

This is a set of serene miniatures, 11 pieces of the exact same length 1 minute 11 seconds. And (unlike my writing, in fact unlike in this very paragraph) there are no fragments; they feel to me as whole journeys.

It’s almost as if, perversely and mischievously, Gray decided to remake Eno’s Music For Airports as a set of slow motion movements towards a freeze frame. (And yes I am mixing mediums here, but damn it the work feels like it belongs within a complicated installation set up before and after a thunderstorm.)

Put this album on a loop, in fact play it on shuffle even (full disclosure I have no idea if that would piss Mr Gray off, I hope not, but apologies if it does) then marvel how this gently and beautifully attacks the very concept of ‘time’ and allow yourself to think, why should I need any more than this, to listen to, for every train journey I will take in the future.

You can listen to it here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0KUMQfu6GNeLnihxkVU6T8?si=fJMAwovVT4mO85OMwlmzKw