Inspired by Reynolds’ love for bands such as Liars, Public Service Broadcasting and Radiohead, “Cascade” is an electrifying taste of what’s to come from his upcoming full-length Canary— taught, dystopic drones for a civilization in collapse marked by a compositional approach influenced by composers like Susumu Yokota, Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. 

Once again, Reynolds traverses modern classical composition and retro-futurist production, this time visiting upon the stillbirth of a child, the death of one’s parents, the nature of consciousness, the relationship between mind and body, the fragmentation of our collective mindscape, and the awakening of machine intelligence. 

References to John F. Kennedy, Carl Jung, and Robert Monroe’s influential book Journeys Out of the Body pepper Reynolds’ meditations as samples from contemporary figures Sam Harris, Lex Friedman, and Navy SEAL Jocko Willink both guide and disorient the listener. As always, Reynolds is keen on preserving a sense of meaning in the mélange of programmed and organic sounds he’s come to be known for. 

Reynolds has collaborated with German classical/expressionist musician/composers Anne Müller (Erased Tapes) and Alex Stolze (Bodi Bill) in their Solo Collective project, as well as Mike Bannard at The Aviary and others. He also continues to work on commissions for Neon Dance. Recent works with the company include Puzzle Creature, Prehension Blooms, the Thai-inspired Mahajanaka Dance Drama, and Manuals for Living and Dying. He is currently working on a film commission for Oxford University. His music has been widely supported across the BBC‘s networks and beyond. He hails from Oxford, where he spent his formative years cutting his teeth in the UK cult outfits Braindead Collective and Keyboard Choir.

We caught up with Sebastian regarding his video for “Cascade,” as we eagerly await the drop of “Fetus,” tomorrow.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?

Cascade explores the survival of a bomb attack as a metaphor for the survival of a traumatic life event more generally. “If you hear the bang, you’ve survived” as the sample intones, and Cascade is an attempt to capture the hallucinatory, altered state that one enters immediately following the survival of a trauma.

2. What was the inspiration behind this video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?

My friend Simon Blake’s amazing visuals capture something of the surreal state of mind that one can experience in the survival of a trauma. In terms of articulating something of these altered states I think many people can relate to being overwhelmed in a club and the combining of the visuals and the music capture an essence of this. Also the visuals and the track reflect each other aesthetically, both gesture at clubbing/dance music culture, but have an undercurrent of darkness and chaos. 

3. What was the process of making this video?

Having originally created the visuals for a project that never saw the light of day, Simon very kindly allowed me to cut the footage to the track in collaboration with editor Tom Schumann to help the visuals to follow the compositional narrative of the track. The visuals and track seemed to work so well together it was a fairly quick process!