Bleep

Press Release

Dylan Henner returns to Dauw with his new album Flues of Forgotten Sands. This marimba-based album is the follow-up of his Dauw debut Flues of Disappearing Sand which saw the light in 2020 and sold out quickly.

This is the first record Henner completed in fatherhood. Since his daughter was born, life changed in so many ways and as of then, joy holds a new meaning for him. Wonder is a new feeling. It has changed his perspective on life and the world, and reminded him of life’s preciousness, even in our times of conflict and unhappiness. Fatherhood - especially to a newborn - doesn't leave a great deal of time for creating music but, even though all the challenges, he found the time to write a new album for marimba.

“I dedicate this music to the people of Ukraine, in sympathy and solidarity with all they endure. It's a heartbreaking thought, that my daughter was born into a world at war, where peace and unity and brotherhood are forgotten like flues of sand trickling away into the sea.”

Very little is known about Dylan Henner, who appeared on the ambient scene in 2019 with cassette and digital releases for Brighton-based Phantom Limb, Belgian label Dauw and his debut album for AD93.

Henner is not too keen on promoting himself on socials, instead choosing to communicate mostly through wondrously imaginative soundscapes and disarmingly poetic song titles (’The Sun Made the Sea Look Gold’, ’Marie Fell Asleep With Her Shoes On’, ’A Spring With The Remains Of A Fire’) and ditto visual artwork.

Henner’s first full longplayer The Invention of the Human attempts to tackle a set of basic philosophical questions - what exactly makes us human? What good is civilisation when there’s so much misery attached to it? How will technology affect humanity in the long run? - through the mind and soundcard of a computer. The result is a collection of superbly constructed human-not-human soundscapes built from synthesized vocals that are morphed into two pocket symphonies, with moods ranging from serene and cerebral to alienated and desolate, referencing ambient and experimental music, sound design and field recordings. The invention of the Human is a bleak vision of a future in which humans are only a small part of the equation. A new world that’s neither utopic or dystopic, with nature and technology in a strange yet perfect balance.

He has also covered Terry Riley and Su Tissue and released a loveletter to a train journey through rural Pennsylvania in late 2021 EP Amtracks. He will release new music in the second half of 2022.