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Pentatonik's most ambitious album to date both artistically and technically...

R. Simeon Bowring's debut Pentatonik album ‘Anthology’ was released in 1994 and forged a brand new, and much mimicked, path for intelligent and emotive electronic music. Over ten years later he made ‘The Five Angels’, a beautiful album full of melodic compositions, vocal hooks and intricate self-portraits. Now, after a much shorter time, Bowring returns with his third Pentatonik album 'A Thousand Paper Cranes'. This time he builds upon his own musical legacy on an enormous scale using organic and electronic sounds with incredible effect, the result is his most ambitious album to date both artistically and technically.

Pentatonik has been described as 'bridging the gap between dance culture and classical music' (NME) but Bowring has always existed away from the mainstream of electronica and techno, preferring to inhabit the same musical outposts as Brian Eno, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass, Klaus Schulze and Vangelis. In this latest album Bowring's compositions only help emphasise Pentatonik’s development in sound, orchestration and music into a world that conjures up strong emotions, sweeping images and soundtrack adventures. 'A Thousand Paper Cranes' puts Bowring firmly into a place where he has always spiritually belonged, a world that could be thought of as electro-symphonic. Bowring has taken much inspiration from the events and the music of the first half of the 20th century. Emotionally involving, his melodies conjure up a time of fear and war but also of great courage and human endeavour. Musically he has been heavily influenced by the 'romantic' classical composers of the pre-war period, especially the works of Rachmaninoff to create his own musical film noir.

'A Thousand Paper Cranes' is a landmark album both in sonic emotion and production, recorded in Bowring's customised studio 'Vertigo Heights' in Crystal Palace (looking out across the vista of London). You can’t help escaping to the memories and places this album evokes. 'Aquamarine', the album’s opener, conjures up images of men both below and above the sea, huge ships thunder through the ocean as they fight against the elements and against all odds to navigate the storm. 'Night Raid on London' takes it’s inspiration from the air raids on London in the early 1940s (with a musical reference to Sir William Walton's incredible abstract score for the ‘Battle of Britain’ movie) as roaring modular analogue synthesisers create a sense of anticipation and panic, and give the impression of huge planes thundering through the sky as the almost angelic choir (the people of London) call out for help as fire engulfs the ground. 'By The Sword'... the whistle of the protagonist echoing through a musical valley conjuring up the nostalgic feel of long gone battles and the code of a distant warrior.

‘A Thousand Paper Cranes’ is R. Simeon Bowring's 'peace' album, an album that decries war and celebrates the human spirit. The paper crane has become a symbol of peace around the world, being made by school children in Japan to this day. Bowring was inspired by the story of Sadako Sasaki who was a 12 year old girl who died from the effects of the H bomb. It was her belief that if she could make a thousand paper cranes she would be cured of her cancer. She died before she could complete her task but she left these words

'I shall write peace upon your wings, and your heart and you shall fly around the world.'

Bowring, obviously touched by her words and story, has made an album that is full of emotional journey and statement. As a contemporary listening experience ‘A Thousand Paper Cranes’ is unique in many ways and stands out on its own, it’s deep reflective filmic qualities at moments leaving you quite breathless. Because of it’s scale it should have taken Bowring another ten years to make this album, but with his previous critical momentum and his depth of inspiration pushing him forward the process was considerably accelerated. All the better for us !!

‘A Thousand Paper Cranes’ is hugely relevant now but at the same time timeless.