Bristol’s Oliver Wilde has announced a surprise long-form EP entitled Long Hold Star, An Infinite Abduction, due for release this Friday, May 6th, through Howling Owl Records. The 7-track release will come in a limited edition, hand-crafted vinyl package and digitally with an extra track. Long Hold Star was created as his own Malthouse Studios, and mixed with Ali Chant (Gruff Rhys, Perfume Genius) at Toybox Studios.
After two quick-fire home-spun albums, A Brief Introduction To Unnatural Light Years and Red Tide Opal In The Loose End Womb, both of which gained high praise across the board for his widescreen, lo-fi glitch-folktronical gloom pop, 2015 saw Oliver Wilde disappear into the ether.
Feeling it was time to change his trajectory, he gathered his merry bandmates and decamped to a shanty art house on the tip of Land’s End to begin piecing together a new record. This time, it would be away from the solitary confines of his bedroom, broadened and coloured by a full band, Cornish sun, a plethora of close collaborators and new sounds, fusing his ideas with others for the first time.
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A scurry of different studios, re-writes and false-starts followed, as Oliver set about cramming myriad concepts into the mix, but it was proving a difficult beast to tame. Just as he was gaining control, Oliver was diagnosed with ‘Cardiac Sarcoidosis’, an ultra-rare virus that viciously scarring his heart, and at several points, almost bringing it to a permanent stop. Stints in and out of cardiac wards added further stutters to the progress, an ironic anathema for one usually so prolific.
Finally though, we have a breathtaking 7-track piece of work, Long Hold Star, An Infinite Abduction. A collection that captures a passage of time; a sometimes beautiful, sometimes frustrating time; a testing and a life-affirming time for Oliver. It serves as a side-step off the beaten path, a wonderous tributary before Wilde returns to complete his trilogy of home-spun albums later this year.
“It was nice to have met you, but one day I’m going to split…”, Wilde offers towards the close. On the contrary, it’s great to have you back Oliver, and we hope you don’t split any time soon.
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