Hawksmoor - Am I Conscious Now?

You will be aware of the work of James McKeown and his Hawksmoor project. A catalogue of 13 significant and substantial records made in less than a decade. James can be said to be operating in the realm of ambient music. There are song structures and often beautiful melodies deployed - and more often than you might expect. He can be psycho-geographical, and woozily hauntological at times. There are shades of Eno, Tangerine Dream, Cluster and Michael Rother - but nothing is ever copied.

It's detailed, textured deep and often emotionally affecting. He's made records inspired by Victorian religious architecture, geopolitical instability, JG Ballard, dreams and alternate states of consciousness; prescription drugs, new town neurosis and a secretly prehistoric Milton Keynes. Musically, it always somehow reflects the subject matter.

He's primarily about analog synthesis, old drum boxes, razor and tape, tangled wires and real instruments. Perhaps a post-digital Druid who emerged from the strange recesses of the natively insurrectionist Bristol scene. The subject matter at hand is specifically the psychedelic variant 5-MeO-DMT. James dutifully did his research - experimenting with the drug - with a view to exploring the impact it might make on his music.