Since his first release in 2007, Matt Cutler a.k.a. Lone has been constantly reinventing himself musically. While his first three full-length albums Everything Is Changing Colour (2007), Lemurian (2008) and Ecstasy & Friends (2009) were dominated by abstract, downtempo hip-hop beats, the Manchester-based producer picked up the pace with his much-lauded album Emerald Fantasy Tracks two years ago. Incorporating influences from Chicago house, Detroit techno and 90’s UK rave, this record and the following EP “Coreshine Voodoo” on R&S Records introduced Cutlers dreamy soundscapes to a much more widespread audience. His new album Galaxy Garden, which will available via R&S in May, sounds like Cutler has fused all the stylistic variations of his previous records into one single narrative.
Some of the tracks on Galaxy Garden can be heard for the first time in the colourful video trailer below. The clip has been animated by Knox-om-pax, who is also responsible for the album artwork.
Video: Lone – Galaxy Garden (Album Trailer)
Matt, looking back at your previous releases, Galaxy Garden seems to be your most varied album in terms of rhythms and tempos yet. Did you have a certain concept in mind while writing the album?
Initially there was no real concept, although I knew I was getting bored of writing 4/4 house tunes. So in order for it to be any fun for me at all, and if I was to be happy with it, I had have to try something new. The album as a whole is a pretty visual thing for me and the overall idea started to come together after I had written a couple of the tracks. For some reason, the tracks were all making me picture the same sort of environment… I kind of imagine a huge outdoor gathering in a rainforest looking up at space from the ground. An almost artificial, tropical paradise at night. So it was just about making the soundtrack for that basically.
There are two collaborations with Travis Stewart a.k.a. Machinedrum on the album. How did you hook up with him and (even more importantly) how did you to convince him to pick up the microphone and sing on both tracks?
Me and Machinedrum had spoken a few times about maybe collaborating on some productions as we’ve always had respect for each others stuff. But the opportunity to sit down and work on some music had never really come about as we’d been so busy on our own projects. When it came to doing my album though, I knew I wanted to have some vocals on there somewhere, and thought back to the idea of me and Travis collaborating. My favorite track by him is „Carry The Weight“ and I knew he had provided his own vocals to that track. So I hit him up about maybe doing the same kind of thing over a track I had made for my album. Within a couple of hours he had nailed it and sent it back to me from Berlin. He didn’t take much persuading, ha! I was super impressed and hope we can do some stuff together again in future.
If there was a Galaxy Garden in real life, what would be your favorite space plant?
Anything from the artwork Konx-om-Pax cooked up. I really think he saw the music in the exact same way I did.
Lone – Galaxy Garden (R&S)
1. New Colour
2. The Animal Pattern
3. As A Child (With Machinedrum)
4. Lying In The Reeds
5. Dragon Blue Eyes
6. Crystal Caverns 1991
7. Raindance
8. Dream Girl / Sky Surfer
9. Earth’s Lungs
10. Cthulhu (With Machinedrum)
11. Stands Tidal Waves
12. Spirals (With Anneka)
Release date: May 7, 2012
