This week’s PBS Feature Album is the improvised electronica release, Downtempo 1, from the newly formed Tony Soprano Band.
Recorded and released via Dune Castle Records, the Tony Soprano Band are an instrumental project centred around live improvisation, collaboration and the studio as an instrument. Operating as a
rotating cast of musicians, the project is shaped within the Dune Castle environment.
Downtempo 1 sits at the intersection of live band interplay and downtempo electronic music. Drawing from the language of breaks, sampling and loop-based composition, every sound on the record originates from live performance. Drums, bass, synthesizers and hardware elements were performed simultaneously, with no fixed arrangements or predetermined outcomes.
After spending time with downtempo and break-led records, Patrick Ryan reached out to long-time
collaborator Daniel Rock with the idea of making something in that spirit - not through programming, but through live musicians responding to the form in real time. “I’d been listening to a lot of downtempo records and just thought - I want to be in the room when something like that is made,” says Ryan. “Not building it piece by piece, but letting it happen live, and figuring out what to do with it afterwards.”
Bringing together Pereira, Downey and Findlay, the group recorded a series of extended improvisations, guided only by loose sonic direction and feel. What followed was a second stage of composition: Ryan edited these recordings into their final forms, selecting and reshaping sections before mixing the material into a cohesive sonic world.
The resulting tracks retain the looseness of their origin while revealing a quiet internal logic.
Grooves emerge, dissolve and reconfigure; melodic fragments surface and recede. The music resists
climax, instead favouring sustained atmosphere and feel.
Tune in all this week to hear tracks from Downtempo 1. PBS Members have the chance to win a vinyl copy of the album - simply email your name and membership number to before midnight Sunday June 7.
Check out the Tony Sporano Band live on Deeep Space for Studio 5 Live. More info here.
Not a PBS Member? Join now!
TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING THIS WEEK
Erica Tucceri - 'Hey, Bear!'
The Seven Ups - 'Lossless'
Grace Cummings - 'My God'
Rowena Wise - 'Diamond In The Rough'
Cong Josie - 'Wawa Life'
Serenity Complex & Aika Mal - 'The Garden'
Miles Nautu - 'closer'
Shewita - 'Geminii'
Eddy Current Suppression Ring - 'Bop'
Fancy Weapon - '27 Minutes'
