SHOLTO - The Sirens - 12" Vinyl (with Obi Strip)

Gilles Peterson-endorsed cinematic maestro SHOLTO returns with his third album in three years. Following the epic, sprawling odyssey of 2024’s double album ‘Letting Go of Forever’, his new project ‘The Sirens’ builds upon the groove-rooted, string-soaked dreamscapes and ethereal textures upon which he’s built his name, this time inverting the beauty into a haunting fever dream. Releasing on Friday 21st November via DeepMatter Records, the record is emotionally unflinching, exploring themes of duality, temptation, and emotional dislocation, in SHOLTO’s words “blurring grief with groove, seduction and surrender”.

Using the world of myth and the carnivalesque as a vehicle for exploring the intricacies of the human condition, ‘The Sirens’ emerged from a space of uncertainty and spiritual fatigue for SHOLTO. Drawing from ancient allegory to navigate his inner turbulence, the album is grounded in quiet defiance and tension that sometimes never quite resolves. Deeply cinematic at its core, the albums’ tender jazz harmonisations flow into a moving undercurrent of strings and harp, anchored by SHOLTO’s rhythmic sensibility and dramatic vocal cues that drift in and out across the record’s 12-tracks, capturing the essence of Sirens like dream sequences caught mid-thought. SHOLTO shares: “The Sirens trades the ethereal shimmer of my earlier records with something a little more nuanced and emotionally unflinching, slightly darker. It doesn’t really resolve, just resonates - a love letter to the parts of ourselves we usually avoid.”

Created once again in the fertile, creative hub of SHOLTO’s SFJ studio in Hackney, the album reunites a familiar cast of musical characters, giving voice to the community feel and cohesive sound world he’s building. The core of the SHOLTO sound is here, with Syd Kemp returning on bass, Clementine Brown on strings and Rachel Horton Kitchlew on harp. Lead single ‘Persephone’s Perception’ sets up the mythological themes of the album, reimagining the Greek goddess’s descent to Queen of the Underworld as a choice, rather than a fall from grace. A steady, rolling groove, low-slung bass, and euphoric string break set up a call-and-response between shadow and light, with SHOLTO embracing the beauty in allowing space for both control and surrender.

Album opener ‘Smooth Sailing’ sets a perfect tone for the album, with vocalist Phoebe Coco meditating on the quiet complexities of love and connection against a luscious backdrop of swirling strings, synths, and harp. Anchored by the line “today the clouds looked like mountains, why don’t we climb them”, the track unravels the myth that calm is synonymous with simplicity. Contrasting with this, ‘Tied to the Mast’ pushes the SHOLTO sound into more dramatic territory. Described by SHOLTO as “a stormy, myth soaked odyssey”, it opens with distant, scattered sequenced vocals - spectral and seductive, like ancient voices cutting through static. Then comes the drop, a hard swaggering groove of drums and bass pulling listeners into the eye of the storm. Following this, ‘Ghibli’s Dream’ drifts in like a new weather front, introducing a warm, welcomed breeze and sense of euphoria and surrender. A dance with the sirens in soft focus - indulgent, fleeting and hedonistic.

Oscar ‘SHOLTO’ Robertson has become a key-player in the ever-growing resurgence of cinematic psychedelia and library music spearheaded by the likes of Surprise Chef, Sven Wunder and The Cinematic Orchestra. Nodding to the likes of Piero Umilianiand David Axelrod whilst carving out his own unique niche, his music has drawn widespread support from tastemakers including Gilles Peterson, Huey Morgan and Deb Grant (BBCR6), Jyoty (Rinse FM) and Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM). His music career began in 2013, when a record deal took him to LA, leading to him working with producers like Nick Waterhouse (Allah-Las) before returning to the UK and collaborating with the likes of Inflo (Cleo Sol), and Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Squid). As well as being a prolific composer and producer, he has also toured as a drummer for the likes of Lady Wray, Katy J Pearson and Confidence Man.