Lowered is a project by London based artists Chris Gowers and Katie English. Both artists have a number of previous releases with Hibernate under their solo guises Karina ESP and Isnaj Dui, and between them have amassed a discography that lists Morc, Home Normal, Trace and Second Language among others. This release however sees a departure from their previous output in both instrumentation and method.

Lowered began at the start of 2012 and ended the year with a live debut performance at Café OTO for a Hibernate show and now, a debut album called ‘Lost Seas’. Work on the album began in February during a wind-swept afternoon sourcing field recordings on Brighton beach. The majority of the album was then recorded using cello, piano, and cymbal during a single day in March at both a London studio and an empty church. In the months that followed gongs, clarinet and field recordings from the beach were added.

Lowered create pared-down arrangements using reductive playing processes and avoid using digital effects, instead relying on experiments with microphone placement and naturally reverberant spaces. The resulting sound focuses on the pure tonal qualities of the instruments, and the narrative of the album, which references Donald Crowhurst in the opening track title, is reflected through its slow, melancholic cello drones, dark swells of piano and sparse melodies.

Released March 2013, a limited edition LP release of 150.

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