When considering the upper echelons of pioneering producers over the last decade, there are few names that carry the influence of Clams Casino. With his acclaimed production work for the likes of Lil B, The Weeknd, Mac Miller, Vince Staples and perhaps most notably his enduring collaborative partnership with A$AP Rocky, Clams Casino helped to change the face of modern hip hop, while with his own personal output, Clams pushed immersive sonic textures and a dynamic form of ambience to the forefront of electronic music. Following on from the 10 year anniversary of A$AP Rocky’s Live.Love.A$AP, the record that cemented his position on the world stage, Clams Casino today releases a brand new project (and his first original instrumental music since 2019), Winter Flower.
Winter Flower might be interpreted by some as the spiritual sibling of Rainforest, Clams Casino’s critically acclaimed breakthrough EP on Tri Angle – an ambient, textured recontextualization of the sound he has contributed for so many seminal works of popular music. Here, the sound Clams Casino utilised to reconfigure the sonic confines of hip hop are taken apart; finding an impressionist approach to production with each of the tracks’ raw elements on show when listened to closely, but forming a stunning, immersive soundscape when taken in on a macro level. The project features source material from Japanese jazz and modern classical composer Ryota Nozaki (otherwise known as Jazztronik) on a number of tracks, with Nozaki sending select recordings throughout 2020’s global lockdown. It’s a process that brings another otherworldly layer to the project, with Clams accessing and abstracting sounds from out of reach parts of a planet in complete shutdown.
Created during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Winter Flower belies the confines of its creation as a vastly expansive piece that never settles too long on one theme, resulting in a concise trip through one of modern production’s most imaginative creators.
Clams Casino – Winter Flower
Released 17th November 2021
1. Water Theme
2. Water Theme 2
3. Misty
4. Tunnel Speed
5.Pine
6.Emblem
7. Unknown
8. Winter Flower
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