Pye Corner Audio releases a new album, More Songs About The Sun, on June 19. It’s his second studio album for Sonic Cathedral and a sequel of sorts to 2022’s acclaimed Let’s Emerge!. The title is a light-hearted acknowledgment that the album picks up exactly where the last one ended with ‘Warmth Of The Sun’, with opener ‘Euphoria’ mixing blissed-out Balearica with guitars by labelmate (and Ride / Oasis member) Andy Bell. “I definitely wanted it to feel like a direct continuation from the previous one,” explains Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “I wanted the whole record to be awash with distortion and saturation, but not in a blown-out guitar amp kind of way.” He’s right: everything here feels a lot bigger, bolder and acid bright. “The musical influences are all the usual suspects – Stereolab, Spacemen 3, Harmonia, Cluster, Suicide,” he reveals. “But I think that this album wears them in a much more direct way.”
Several songs feature vocals, and not all by Martin himself – ‘The Breath Of Now’ has a stunning, spoken word monologue by Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin. The resulting dystopian nightmare is the first time that clouds of darkness obscure the sunshine, but, as Martin says, “you need the shade to appreciate the sun”. “If there’s a theme that runs throughout then it’s optimism, even in these darkened days. The sun will continue to rise… even if there’s no one around to see it.”