Broken Chanter release ambient EP to accompany life under coronavirus.

We’re living through strange times and with COVID-19 forcing lockdown and self-isolation its understandable we feel anxious, stressed, worried, sad, lonely or frustrated.  If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed sometimes the best escape is through music.  Given the anxiety drenched pandemic, calming, chill-out music has never seemed so relevant.

I’ve always been a big fan of ambient and chill-out music, from Brain Eno to Boards of Canada and recent artists such as Michael Grigoni and Stephen Vitiello who I wrote about back in February.

So I was delighted to find that Broken Chanter have released an EP of ambient music called Ambient 1: Music For Airing Cupboards.  The title itself, clearly a nod to Brian Eno‘s landmark 1978 album, Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

Broken Chanter is David MacGregor (principal songwriter of Scottish Alt-Pop darlings Kid Canaveral). Ambient 1: Music For Airing Cupboards is the first EP of new music since the critically acclaimed Broken Chanter debut LP from last year.

Bird songs, rain/white noise create a bed of calm as melodic keys and pulses move gently like a mobile hanging in still air.  Ambient 1: Music For Airing Cupboards is both wistful and beatific. It’s a mood enhancer and reflective.

It’s not altogether surprising that MacGregor has embarked on an ambient music project.  The Broken Chanter debut drew on field recordings including the sounds of a Japanese freight train as featured on album opener, the glorious cinematic ‘Nineteen Ninety-Eight’.

David said of the EP, “It’s not a change of direction or anything, but it’s been a focusing and relaxing thing to do and it has got the creative juices flowing again. The tracks are ambient inasmuch as they’re intended to accompany whatever you find yourself filling your days with at the moment – a hopefully enjoyable accompaniment to reading, cooking, relaxing, commuting, or even just staring anxiously at the wall.”

Put on some headphones, close your eyes and drift…

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All images © Al Donnelly