And the winner is...
An at times stark but moving ambient album.
The votes from our community have been counted and the winner of the 2024 Neptune Music Prize is…
Chimet by Mining
This year’s alternative Mercury prize winner was released by the Leaf label, a brilliant independent record label who have released DiS-favourites like Efterklang, Julia Kent, Melt Yourself Down, Keeley Forsyth, volcano!, The Comet is Coming, and last year's Neptune Prize nominees, Craven Faults.
Chimet is an at times stark but moving ambient album, with distorted textures familiar to fans of Tim Hecker and Ben Frost at its most intense moments, whilst evolving into some glorious moments when the drones plume. I was really taken aback by it after it was suggested for our longlist and thrilled to see such a beautiful piece of work top a list that featured far better known names.
Similar to how Max Richter used NASA's Voyager probes in his score for Ad Astra (3min YouTube explainer), Chimet is a record powered by data. Here’s how Mining explain the process on their Bandcamp:
Chimet is a meteorological and sea state algorithmic sonification project.
Chichester West Pole Beacon, also known as Chimet, is a comprehensive weather information system recording conditions in Hayling Bay, West Sussex, both in real-time and historically. Located at 50° 45’.45 N, 00° 56’.59 W, approximately one mile from the entrance to Chichester Harbour, the instrumentation on Chimet records data including air and water temperature; barometric pressure; wind speed and direction; water depth; wave height, period and frequency; and time of day.
Over a period of seven days in October 2017, the devastating Atlantic Hurricane Ophelia fed straight into another weather event, known as Storm Brian in the UK. MINING mapped the data from this storm onto various musical values and parameters, including harmonic range, pitch, density and volume - resulting in a continuous piece of electronic sound design that directly traces the contours of the two storm systems.
After several iterations, improvised instrumental performances were added on piano, cello and synthesiser.The original 2,016 lines of source data streams (collected every five minutes between 0030 on October 16th 2017 and 0025 on the 23rd) have also been visualised in the album artwork, with each of the 504 LP sleeves possessing a unique vertical visualisation strip and individual timestamp, corresponding to a 20-minute period of the storm sequence.
In making Chimet, MINING approached both the data and its musical results as a locus of synergy, allowing their respective passions for sailing, weather, sea, sound design and improvisation to intersect and manifest in a singular musical statement.
Intrigued? Pick up a copy of the album over the album over on Bandcamp or at your local record store.
MINING
TRACKS
1. Ophelia (14:40)
2. Petrichor (5:48)
3. Latent (4:12)
4. Chimet 50º 45’.45 N, 00º 56'.59 W (7:40)
5. Arise (12:00)
6. Force 10 Pts. 1 & 2 (16:40)
7. Debris (6:29)
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