Flaer - Preludes

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: ODA01FT  
Barcode: 843190091423
Release Date: 08 May 2026
Genre: Ambient/Acoustic

Preludes is released on second edition black vinyl with alternative artwork (500 copies worldwide). It has previously been available on: limited edition black vinyl and cassette, both now sold out.

Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer looks to the landscape to explore pastoral melancholy on debut release, Preludes.

Ensconced in his family home in rural Leicestershire in the early months of 2020, painter and musician Realf Heygate (b. 1994) picked up his childhood cello for the first time in several years and began to play. Setting himself parameters to only record onto 4-track tape with acoustic instruments – cello, piano and acoustic guitar – he assembled a suite of instrumental compositions that form the basis of Preludes, his debut album as Flaer and the inaugural release on Odda Recordings.
Channelling the tension and unease between the pastoral idyll of the English countryside and the darkness which lurks beneath the surface, the mini-album draws inspiration from the analogue aesthetic of 1970s folk horror films, weaving field recordings of birdsong, church bells and the natural environment into chimerical melodies that reflect on Heygate’s childhood experiences of rural England.

Preludes received great acclaim from the likes of Mojo, the Quietus, Uncut, Record Collector and Electronic Sound.

Played across BBC 6 Music (Ambient Focus, Morning After Mix) and BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and Night Tracks.

Continuous plays on NTS Radio by the likes of Flo Dill,  Jack Rollo, The Trilogy Tapes, Maria Sommerville, Cara Del Forno, Dry Cleaning and many more.  

LP | Digital:

A1.  1.  Hew (2.47)
A2.  2.  The Hill (2.17)
A3.  3.  Pasture (2.18)
A4.  4.  Forever Never (3.53)
B1.  5. Landlock (2.18)
B2.  6.  Magnolia (3.08)
B3.  7. Follow (3.56)

On Preludes:
“A miniature masterpiece of the instrumental uncanny” the Quietus
“The sonic analogue of a blissful summer’s afternoon” 4/5 Mojo
“Pastoral tranquility cedes to darker forces” 4/5 Songlines
“Thoughts of The Wicker Man and A Field In England can easily be conjured by the black beauty there is here” 4/5 Record Collector
“Hedgerow greens and sky blue translucence register as vividly as a stroll through the tranquil countryside” Electronic Sound