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Jun 27, 2023 By Kat Ramkumar Photography by James Sharp

Modern Nature (the band led by Jack Cooper) have announced the release of their new album, No Fixed Point In Space, and shared a music video for its lead single, the seven-minute “Murmuration.” No Fixed Point in Space, which will be the band’s third LP, is due out September 29 via Bella Union. Swirling with openness and vivid Technicolor, this album branches out from anything Modern Nature has released before. Watch the video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover artwork.

Of the album, Cooper says: “I wanted the music to reflect nature: beginnings and endings, arrivals and departures, process and chance. I wanted the music and the words to feel like roots, branches, mycelium, the intricacies of a dawn chorus, neurons firing, the unknown.

“The way you see or hear music in your head is abstract and magic… often more beautiful than what eventually appears on tape. When you sit down with an instrument and begin translating an idea, it quickly conforms. I’ve tried to develop this music without thinking in terms of set rhythms, time signatures, folk or pop structures, syntax; the devices you associate with the music world which I come from. I wanted to make music that was abstract, free and honest, whilst still being predominantly tonal and recognizably song based. It feels like time to make something that no one has heard before.”

It’s an ode to all sounds and music that Cooper hears out in the world. He says: “I think the most important aspect of that idea is collectivism; the rhythm, melody, timbre, dynamics, all the aspects of music are not the responsibility of one instrument, they are the responsibilities of all the instruments. The vocals are no more important than the bass. That makes the music move in an organically unpredictable way. Like a flock of birds or a school of fish, notes breaking the surface and then disappearing. That’s how I want this music to feel.”

The musicians and collaborators for this record include Anton Lukoszevieze, Mira Benjamin and Heather Roche of Apartment House, Alex Ward (This Is Not This Heat / Spiritualized), Dominic Lash, Chris Abrahams of The Necks, and Julie Tippetts (FKA Julie Driscoll), as well as long-term collaborators Jeff Tobias (Sunwatchers) and Jim Wallis.

Read our interview with Cooper, where he discusses his previous album, Island of Noise.

No Fixed Point in Space Tracklist:

1. Tonic
2. Murmuration
3. Orange
4. Cascade
5. Sun
6. Tapestry
7. Ensō

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