Tag Archives: album

album: airports and ports (lp / digital)

hunter-complex-airports-and-ports

release date:
2 september 2022 (bandcamp)
3 september 2022 (streaming platforms)
late september 2022 (vinyl)
format: lp (special edition orange and pink vinyl, 100 copies) / limited edition pink vinyl, 200 copies) / digital
label: burning witches records

buy vinyl on bandcamp
special edition orange and pink vinyl w/ printed inner sleeve and obi strip, 100 copies
limited edition pink vinyl w/ printed inner sleeve and obi strip, 200 copies

stream links

reviews

‘Shuttles between ambient New Age, filmic nostalgia and improv exploration.’
**** (4) mojo magazine

Airports and Ports by Hunter Complex is peerless, full of tranquility and sonic comfort’
***** (5) de volkskrant

‘This collection takes fresh inspiration from kosmische and spiritual jazz.’
norman records

‘The fifth album convinces purely instrumentally with exciting arrangements.’
gonzo (circus)

‘On Airports and Ports Meijer made his grandest musical statement yet, incorporating jazz elements and even symphonic touches that brings to mind both what came before as well as early CTI releases from Freddie Hubbard and even the great Mark Isham.’
complex distractions

‘Just beautiful’ (…) ‘with such a smashing cover on it too, just great art’
dark train

‘The structure and song sequence are so sophisticated and compelling that I immediately reach for the play button again.’
io pages

Airports and Ports succeeds in adding a sense of the optimistic adventure of life on the outside whilst simultaneously transporting your imagination.’
dusted magazine

‘This fifth Hunter Complex album is still characteristic and familiar, but the shifts in emphasis and musical enrichments lend the music a refreshing beauty and benevolence.’
**** (4) written in music

‘The more abstract mood suits Airports and Ports well’
stasis

‘All of the musical guests on Airports and Ports help to create the addictive soundscapes that are on offer. Alexander Hawkins adds piano textures that grab hold of one’s ears, Aquiles Navarro sounds like no other trumpet player I’ve ever heard and creates scintillating sounds. Kat Epple’s flute performance is serene and ethereal, Justin Sweatt’s guitar work brings an otherworldly mood to the album and Jantijn Prins’ acoustic guitar weaves warm textures into the music. Coen Oscar Polack’s field recordings contribute more interesting sonic depth to the album.’
absynth

‘The album is a living experience, embarking on a great expedition in a pastel-colored sea made of layers of rhythms and atmospheric synths, where each song plays like a chapter in a story book with unexpected twists, turns, adventure, and landscapes.’
the electroscope

‘Fabulous stuff’
in the moog

Airports and Ports is more peaceful than expected given the monikers of the artist and label.’
a closer listen

‘For me, a new release by Hunter Complex is a big thing.’
vital weekly

‘May very well be his best album yet’ (…) Airports and Ports is a triumph in sonic joy.’
complex distractions

‘Absolutely fantastic (…) stunning artwork (…) what a great album’
dark train

Airports And Ports sounds very diverse within the dreamy ambient niche and continues to surprise both in diversity and with strong melodies.’
damusic

‘Extraordinarily varied album, navigating between krautrock, a bit of jazzy new age and beautiful ambient.’
x-rated

‘Good music for enraptured relaxation for tense crazies.’
manierenversagen

info

The new Hunter Complex album Airports and Ports arrives Friday 2 September 2022 on Burning Witches Records and features contributions from Aquiles Navarro (trumpet, Irreversible Entanglements), new age legend Kat Epple (flute, Emerald Web), Alexander Hawkins (piano, Louis Moholo-Moholo), Justin Sweatt (aka Xander Harris, guitar) and Coen Oscar Polack (field recordings). Airports and Ports is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed synth albums Dead Calm and Zero Degrees (Burning Witches, 2020) and Open Sea (Death Waltz, 2019) and takes a new direction with influences from new age, ethereal jazz and krautrock. The gorgeous artwork was created by Luke Insect.

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album: dead sea (digital)

hunter-complex-dead-sea

release date: 18 june 2021
format: digital
label: burning witches records

info

Dead Sea is an 80-minute compilation of live tracks recorded at various locations in The Netherlands between 29 August 2013 and 14 September 2017. These tracks were later released on the albums Open Sea (Death Waltz Originals, 2019) and Dead Calm and Zero Degrees (Burning Witches Records, 2020) and the EP Rain in Europe (Burning Witches Records, 2020). Artwork by kid-ethic.

tracklisting

1.dead sea part i: dead calm and zero degrees / hot streets / june gloom / riptide / night city / the heart of high places / chase manhattan
2.dead sea part ii: we fought for america / white water / account of the moon / street value / coral way / sleep wave / televison sky

press downloads

artwork

album: dead calm and zero degrees (lp / digital)

hunter-complex-dead-calm-and-zero-degrees

release date:
20 march 2020 (bandcamp)
30 march 2020 (streaming platforms)
mid-april 2020 (vinyl)
29 may 2020 (retail)
format: lp (special edition, 100 copies / clear vinyl, 200 copies) / digital
label: burning witches records

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album: heat (lp / digital)

hunter complex - heat frontrelease date: september 6 2013
format: lp / digital
label: narrominded

info

Heat is the new LP from Holland’s Hunter Complex, a record that looks to balance a functional (and very Dutch) ‘utility pop’ with a whole host of disturbing hints and suggestions. It’s a slightly unnerving listen, despite its attractive and powerful sweeps of melody. Recorded between 2010 and 2012, Heat manages – often very successfully – to persuade the listener that they’re tuning into a strange mix of Moroder’s film scores and ‘81-‘82 era Simple Minds. Digital synths, like the Roland D-50 and Yamaha DX7, give everything a suitably ‘period feel’. And the keys on Space are straight off Sons and Fascination, for example. Severed Heads covering China Crisis? Chris and Cosey making symphonic advert music in downtown LA? We can but dream.

But enough comparisons. Despite the LP wearing its sources of inspiration on its sleeve, and despite the fact that our descriptive narratives have (inevitably) to follow suit, it’s a seductive listen. Queasy, paranoid synth washes, rich, gloopy bass tones and weighty electronic stabs of rhythm drive the music on. The record’s got a feel of Stalker about it; cinematic, a taste of future-past served up on a plastic plate. Joep van Lieshout’s vision for communal living maybe, or a future that’s just out of reach, probably because it never escaped being imaginary.

Continue reading album: heat (lp / digital)

album: hunter complex (cd / digital)

hunter complex - hunter complex outside frontrelease date: february 2 2010
format: cd / digital
label: narrominded

info

Hunter Complex is the moniker of Lars Meijer. On his self titled debut album he moves from synthpop to electro and from italo to new wave. Just like the European electronic acts The Tough Alliance, Neon Neon, JJ, M83 and Delorean, there’s an imperative reference to the eighties in the music of Hunter Complex. Not only in the sound, but especially because of that intangible feeling. Meijer: ‘It’s a feeling that switches between whimsicality and melancholy. You can see that for example in Miami Vice – true television of the eighties: subtropical beaches, flamingos, but also nocturnal streets full of muggy evil.’

Around the turn of the century, under the name Larz, he created two lo-fi pop albums that reached a cult-status internationally. ‘Call Larz another bedroom genius – which he is, but he’s got that extra bit of special something about him’, Allmusic.com said at the time. In the years after his Larz albums Meijer broadened himself in experimental electronic music with the groups Psychon and Living Ornaments. With the last act his also released music on the legendary Skam label. Meijer: ‘After these experiments I thought it was time for pop music again. I’ve been walking around with the idea of this record full of synthpop songs for a long time, but in the last ten years I’ve finally learned how to actually produce it.’

Continue reading album: hunter complex (cd / digital)