It's new music time. As you may or may not (probably not) know, YES/NO MUSIC has launched a record label. Called Pleasant Place, it is dedicated to all manner of instrumental music that summons worlds, allows listeners to escape or relax, and provides an undemanding but imaginative sonic space. You can learn more about it on our dedicated page or you could even head over to http://pleasant.place yourself to check it out.
Our first release is an album called Dreams from the Roller Palace by Hidden Fort. This is a "musical tour" of Maida Vale Roller Skating Palace and Club, which was to all intents and purposes an Edwardian roller disco and pretty much London's top spot for skating between 1909 and 1912 (when it closed). Many years went by and it later became home to the BBC and is now best known as Maida Vale Studios. It was up for auction recently; thankfully composer Hanz Zimmer brought it in partnership with several others, sealing the fate of the iconic studios, but hopefully for the best.
Hidden Fort, a transcontinental duo (one in Tokyo, one in London) who would seemingly prefer to remain anonymous, have created a pretty gorgeous love letter to the heritage of the studios. It's new music, of course, but Dreams from the Roller Palace feels utterly timeless.
We are very happy to be the label home for this rather stunning debut release; yes, we're biased, and yes, it would be a conflict of interests of we were to write a long, gushing essay about how intriguing the concept is, or what wondeful flights of fancy are summoned by the smorgasbord of vintage instruments are used throughout, or comment on just how unusual their mix of ambient and postclassical structures is. But it's cool, and we hope you think so too.
- 🔔 Dreams from the Roller Palace by Hidden Fort is out now. You can purchase this lovely slice of new music over on Bandcamp, either digitally or physically as a cassette tape. How exciting.
