Will Samson

Unimpressed by genre boundaries, Will Samson has been exploring the interfaces between electronic, folk and ambient sounds for over a decade, with a focus on an intensive listening experience and analog recording techniques.

Will Samson is influenced by different countries: His grandparents come from Chile and India and later met in Kenya. Born in Oxford, he himself emigrated to Australia with his parents, where he lived for ten years before returning to Great Britain. He later began commuting between Oxford and Berlin, then Brighton, Lisbon, Brussels and back to England again. It quickly becomes clear why a majority of Samson's captivating songs often deal with identity and belonging.

Will Samson has released albums via Wichita Recordings/PIAS (Bloc Party, American Football, Ride), 12k (Taylor Deupree, Ryuichi Sakamoto), Dauw and even the British dance label Aus Music. He has performed with artists such as Ólafur Arnalds, S. Carey, Kurt Vile, Efterklang and Do Make Say Think, as well as at European festivals such as Rewire, Explore The North, Fusion and Le Guess Who? There were also numerous headlining tours in Great Britain and Europe. Remixes and collaborations were created with Gold Panda, Masayoshi Fujita and The Album Leaf, among others.

https://www.willsamson.co.uk/

English:

“Will Samson is dead.” These were the direct words heard during a six-hour ayahuasca ceremony in April 2024. After many years of contemplation, research and careful thought, Will Samson Partook in the Plant Medicine Tradition, Practised by Indigenous People of the Amazon Basin for Hundreds of Years. One of the most powerful psychedelic plants on earth, the ceremony strongly alters perception, offering what some say is equivalent to years worth of psychotherapy.

Not to be romanticised, this largely dark and terrifying experience provided invaluable insights — with the recovery and processing gradually unfolding over the proceeding one and a half years, during the creation of Sings Again.

Amongst many powerful visions, including conversations with his late father and memories of earliest childhood, Samson was taken to his own funeral.

“In the months afterwards, I truly did feel as though something significant in me had died... and then through psychotherapy I was able to process the experience and also learn how to move forward with an emphasis on creating from a new internal space.”

Where lyrics were often shrouded in cryptic language, Samson now sings us a raw and direct insight into the most vulnerable parts of himself.

Written over the course of two years, the album was mainly recorded in isolation during a long stay residency in the Portuguese region of Alentejo, at a small rural village between Lisbon and the Spanish border.

Musically inspired by the early works of Bjork, Four Tet & Efterklang, much of the album was built upon recording and then sampling organic sounds such as twigs, rocks and paintbrushes to create percussion. An empty glass bottle was transformed into the otherworldly organ on the raw opener 0333AM, and Samson's own voice became the moody synth sound on the sparse electronica of Darabuka.

The familiar collection of old tape machines that have characterized much of his sound remain (with a 1971 Seinnheiser microphone for the vocals), firmly rooting sings again in an organic sonic landscape of electronic and acoustic influences.

Releasing records since 2012, Samson's practice has always been that of an instrumental artist, treating voice as another melodic element in the same way as any other instrument. However, as the name suggests,

Sings Again marks a return to vocal focused music, after a reflective period that saw him release two instrumental works on Belgian label Dauw and the esteemed ambient label 12k (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Taylor Deupree). On his return to singing, Samson offers a raw and direct insight into a long-established artist beginning again.

Photo: Joseph Ball