The formerly Fudged Finga`d Gavin Sutherland releases a second long-player, as Other Lands, with long-term friends, Athens Of The North. Where the first album was a collaboration with another old spar, Linkwood / Nick Moore, this, Archipelagos, is a solo effort. As a concept it`s concerned with the quiet isolation of island life – and focused on conveying a blue-skied, secluded, serenity. It`s a cool, classy, super-chilled, score for cloud watching, or counting, full of warm synth swells, spare, sparse, 6-string licks, and Bob James-esque Fender Rhodes flashes. 

There are interludes, cascades, of oriental kankyo ongaku timbres, while acoustic picking and gently lapping percussion paint lush laidback landscapes. Zeniba pairs bent pedal-steel / bottleneck notes with repetitive post-rock riffing. In places, such as Open Sea, there`s a definite Vini Reilly / Durutti Column influence. Drum machines tick and boom, but the music really contains only the mere suggestion of a beat. Driven instead by rhythmic bottom-end pulses. Selkie Road counters kosmische Manuel Gottsching-esque guitar with groovy fretless bass. Taken as a whole, the set is a sort of new age jazz-funk. It`s throughly recommended for fans of atmospheric axe-wielding artisans, such as Mark McGuire, G.S. Schray, and Jonny Nash. 

Other Lands` Archipelagos is out now, on Athens Of The North. Interested folks should do themselves a favour, and also check out Gavin`s previous release on Yellow Jackets, Matter (Reshaped). Its a prime piece of post-rock meets ambient / dub techno. A big Thank You! to Aficionado`s Jason Boardman for the heads up.