Compassion, by Forest Swords

Compassion

by Forest Swords

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Miles Egan There's been a lot of buzz around FS for a few years now but for some reason his sound didn't click for me until this record. This really sets a mood though and sent me scurrying back to his earlier work to hear what I missed. Favorite track: Arms Out.

notquitefaust Just downloaded the 24bit version...WHOA!!

~~Grab a nice pair of headphones and get ready to climb the walls but don't worry...there is hope in despair.~~

**Completely entranced**

KATOUN Engravings was such a unique experience back in 2014, can't wait to see in which direction you are going with this record, the 3 tracks available are already fantastic Favorite track: Panic.

Solar Lion Such a richly moving and cinematic experience. Each song evokes its own unique sense of place and time. Architectural music at its finest. Timeless at birth.

Josh Woods As someone who doesn't normally enjoy electronic music, I'm enthralled with everything released by Forest Swords. Damnit, he's done it again. Favorite track: The Highest Flood.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
1 x 12” clear vinyl w/ Gatefold outer sleeve + printed card inners + 12 x 12” insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of Compassion via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
180g heavyweight 1 x 12” black vinyl with spined sleeve + printed card inners + 12 x 12” insert.

Includes unlimited streaming of Compassion via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

4pp digi pack

Includes unlimited streaming of Compassion via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

£8 GBP or more

1.	War It 05:54	buy track
2.	The Highest Flood 05:07	buy track
3.	Panic 04:48	buy track
4.	Exalter 05:36	buy track
5.	Border Margin Barrier 03:08	buy track
6.	Arms Out 05:47	buy track
7.	Vandalism 04:37	buy track
8.	Sjurvival 02:26	buy track
9.	Raw Language 04:28	buy track
10.	Knife Edge 06:16	buy track

about

Forest Swords, aka acclaimed Merseyside-based producer Matthew Barnes, returns with his eagerly anticipated new full-length record.

“Compassion" is the follow-up to 2013's critically lauded debut “Engravings” and released via Ninja Tune. The album will be followed by a set of projects across multiple mediums by Forest Swords’ own Dense Truth, a new experimental studio and record label, including a series of music videos.

“Compassion" engages with an uncertain world we’re experiencing, distilling it into a unique sound territory: Barnes' exploration of the mid-point between ecstasy and frustration, artificial and human feels timely and affecting. The result is an assured, compelling body of work, tying together the ancient and future: weaving swathes of buzzing digital textures, field recordings, clattering beats and distorted jazz sax with fizzing orchestral arrangements.

"Like many, with all that's been going on since I started making the record, I've struggled to see any kind of light at the end of the tunnel," says Barnes, "so I realised there's some sort of power in trying to create our own instead. I'm inspired by the ways we're communicating now, for better or worse, and thinking about new channels we can distribute ideas. The idea of looking for flexible future ways of expression and language, that bends to our needs quicker, really excites me”. Barnes launched the record with a unique experiment in new ways to disseminate music, personally sending album tracks through messaging app WhatsApp to anyone who asked.

The album shifts from 'The Highest Flood's skeletal bounce to 'Panic's claustrophobic paranoia; the rapturous hyperballad 'Arms Out' to the windswept and cinematic ‘Knife Edge’, navigating through the orchestral glitch of 'War It' to decaying jazz thump of ‘Raw Language’. The album is equal parts disorienting and immersive, balancing bold sweeping gestures and crumbling textures; tracks seemingly disintegrating and reassembling at points across the album. Blending both digital and specially recorded brass, strings and vocals, Barnes's processing never truly makes it clear what's new or old, sampled or unique, constantly blurring and toying with the line between digital and acoustic.

There will also be a variety of multidisciplinary projects set to run through his Dense Truth umbrella over the coming year: collaborations across dance, performance, film and music. Previous Forest Swords projects include devising and scoring contemporary dance piece ‘Shrine’, composing for the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ video game, collaborating with Massive Attack on their new music, and scoring the first movie made entirely with drones – 'In The Robot Skies’ – which debuted at the BFI London Film Festival.

Central to this enthralling world is “Compassion", an album that's as weighty as it is vulnerable, sculpting the most striking parts of his previous work into something that feels urgent and necessary, and cementing Barnes as one of the UK's most significant electronic artists and composers.