Ian Elms - Good Night

Dark Entries

£25.18

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: DE-299 / DE299LP
Barcode: 0794811515470
Release Date: 04 Aug 2023
Genre: Coldwave/Synth

01 The Street Enters The House
02 Overthere Comes Overhere
03 A Tunnel With Curves
04 Surrounded By Trees
05 A Light Moves Across Curtains
06 Weightless
07 No Longer
08 Running In The Dark
09 Moving In The Rain
10 On A Beach Lost At Sea
11 The End Of The Road
12 And Fall Asleep
13 An Empty Corridor
14 Outwards And Across
15 Goodnight

Ian Elms’s cult isolationist synth masterpiece Good Night returns via Dark Entries. Originally released in 1982, Good Night blends Berlin school minimalism and BBC Radiophonic weirdness with the aesthetics of then-nascent DIY punk electronics throughout its fifteen short tracks. According to Elms, these pieces were composed in two broad but interrelated modes: pieces with voice and synthesizer, which are obliquely narrative, and instrumental synthesizer pieces that aspire to capture fleeting emotions. Ian met with producer David Hoser at Octopus Studios and they began constructing pieces using a Polymoog Keyboard 280a, sampled drum tracks, and Elms’s synthesizer. On “The Street Enters the House”, live drums lurch along with skeletal motifs while Elms’s elliptical lyrics evoke domestic discontent. “A Light Moves Across Curtains” features metronomic pummeling and icy strings buttressing the scant cryptic lines from Elms. Instrumental gems like “Goodnight” and “Surrounded by Trees” are built around detuned riffs in round-like structure, both drifting and static like the motion of waves. With original pressings fetching three digits – if you can even find a copy – this reissue is essential listening for fans of John Bender, Transparent Illusion, and the early 80’s DIY cassette scene. Each copy of Good Night comes with a postcard featuring a photograph and notes by Elms. “This record is intended for anyone who by accident or design spends most of their time alone (whether in the body or in the mind).” – Ian Elms.