RESPIRE

Dextro, the project of  Newcastle based Scot Ewan Mackenzie (also the drummer in Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) has returned with a fifth album, ‘Respire’: a journey into an absorbed space, where acoustic motifs combine with symphonic electronics to create enchanted soundscapes. Dextro, having been released through Border Community (James Holden, Nathan Fake, Luke Abbott) and Groenland Records (Neu, Harmonia, Eno), and remixed by Clark (Warp), The Village Orchestra and Dane Law, among others, crafts a distinctive sound of hypnotic patterns, emotive melodies, and ethereal drones. An ambition on ‘Respire’, Mackenzie suggests, “was to try and create a sense of freedom for thought and feeling where,for example, we might consider deeper systems of time or ecology in a more reverent way”. 

Characterised by minimalist rhythms on the one hand, and subtle melodic phrases, often on piano or guitar, on the other, Dextro is committed to sonic experimentation. ‘Respire’ involves collaborations with prominent musicians in the Newcastle scene, such as the free form Saxophone of Faye MacCalman (Archipelago, Me Lost Me, The Unthanks) on ‘Forgetting’, the poignant Cello of Tom Merrit Smith on ‘Inseparable’ and ‘Hope Window’, and the brooding Harmonium of Kate Halsall (Galvanize Ensemble) on ‘Inseparable’. Recording of some parts also took place at Blank Studios, home of fellow Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs bandmate and engineer Sam Grant, who also mastered the album.