Epithym​í​a

Mark Nelson and Robert Donne clearly learned, from their days in Labradford, that change-within-constraint is fundamental to sustaining any project. With Anjou’s second album, they’re swimming in deeper waters – indeed, this aquatic metaphor feels core to Epithmyía’s overarching mood, which is one of floods, waves, bays that eddy, dams that break. They’ll tease with gentle, overlapping synths, as on the opener “Culcinae”, before a scrum of cymbals leads you into a dense swell of hum and hiss. The evocative, melancholy taste of the music – not quite ambient, not quite drone, landing in its own space – is captured by the album’s title, which is Ancient Greek for longing and desire.