Hawksmoor : Oneironautics

Last we heard from James McKeown, aka Hawksmoor, was last year’s excellent Telepathic Heights. This was the UK electronic artist’s debut with the legendary record label Soul Jazz Records. If you’re not familiar with Soul Jazz Records, you need to get out from under whatever rock you’re currently residing under and get acquainted. Their compilations are legendary, and I’m still reeling from Deutsche Elektronische Musik Volume One and Space, Energy, and Light years after first grabbing them.

I really got into James’ work as Hawksmoor back in 2020 with his releases on Spun Out Of Control. Methods Of Dreaming was a revelatory album, combining heady electronics with electric bass giving us something somewhere between Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd, and a hallucinatory trip on heavy anesthesia. He followed that up with Concrete Island(with The Heartwood Institute), On Prescription, and Head Coach, each one building on what came before.

With his Soul Jazz Records debut Telepathic Heights McKeown found a comfortable Komische pocket to grow in. Heady beats and Berlin School electronics came together for a cosmic musical trip. Oneironautics continues on that path to stunning effect. Fully embracing those 70s sonic excursions originated with Froese, Schulze, and Roedelis while adding soaring melodic notes and touches of Hauntology for good measure. Oneironautics might by Hawksmoor’s most realized work to date.

The songs here are densely-layered and rich in tone. Album opener “Parallelograms” has an earthy low end to it thanks to electric bass and syncopated guitar lines. Soon enough synthesizer comes in and launches us into the stratosphere. There’s a wheezing, kinetic heartbeat under the surface that keeps the track moving in elevated sonics. “The Transcendentalist” sits in optimistic light, sounding like a technicolor sunrise on some otherworldly plane. Hypnotic and hallucinogenic simultaneously. “Glass Teeth” has a propulsive groove that carries you along on it’s buzzing journey, bringing to mind Cluster and Harmonia.

Over the course of these ten songs Hawksmoor ebbs and flows between ethereal soundscapes and Berlin School with melodic intentions. From the 8-bit buzzy elegance of “Galadali” to the menacing “Nereides” to title track album closer “The Oneironaut”, this album buzzes and ripples with melodic phrasings and visceral sound swirls.

It’s yet another stunning release from McKeown and Hawksmoor, bringing the spirit of 70s and 80s journeymen German electronic music and modern approaches together to give the mind and ears a heady aural experience.