Premiere: Vincent I. Watson - 'Serene' LP

Glasgow-born, Amsterdam-based producer Vincent I. Watson is releasing his new ambient LP ‘Serene’ today, and we’re happy to exclusively stream the album here at Dummy. The classically trained producer, who previously went by his techno alias Vince Watson, has cultivated a rich and charming aesthetic over the past 18 years, not only with his hardware-only live performances, but also his hypnotic perspective of groovy, melodic and atmospheric releases on labels like Planet E, Tresor, his own Bio label, as well as one of Dummy’s favourites, Delsin.

Today will see the release of ‘Serene’, Watson’s eighth studio album on Pyramids Of Mars – which is a new leftfield and audio-visual label operated by Radio Slave’s Matt Edwards – as the follow-up to Maxxi & Zeus’s ‘Quiet Village Remixes: Too High to Move’. Moving into a new chapter of his career, this deep and gauzy 10-tracker represents the gradually-unfolding beginnings of Watson’s engrossment in TV and film under his full name. While the aspect of moving pictures for this project is yet to be disclosed, the cover sleeve is from a series titled ‘Today’s Levitation’ by contemporary artist and photographer Natsumi Hayashi.

Stream the album here, and scroll down to read our Q&A with the man himself.

Hi Vincent, how’s it going?

Hey, good thanks, busy busy but excited for 2013.

Can you please talk us through a bit about ‘Serene’? What was the process of writing the album like for you?

‘Serene’ was tricky but overall a very satisfying and liberating experience. I got to do lots of things I’ve wanted to do for a long time, I got to finally release tracks that I started the ideas for five years ago, I managed to get the album exactly the way I wanted it and it’s album no. 8 in the bag, what’s not to like 🙂 The hardest part was the levelling of all the sounds… being beatless there is always the tendency to overpower things, so getting the balance was tricky.

The album is very filmic and evocative; are there specific themes associated with it?

It’s all about the journey we all do every night. Well, most nights anyway! Going to sleep and waking up. I wanted the tracks to have everything that a dream would have, anthemic moments for those really powerful dreams that you remember and talk about for a few days, dark moments for those deep and unexplored parts of our subconscious that we only get to peak at during dreaming and the opening and closing tracks to represent the closing and opening of eyes. That’s what ‘Serene’ is.

While not writing ambient songs, you also produce club tracks, how’s that going? Can we expect forthcoming Vince Watson material?

I’m busy with a lot of projects at the moment, I’m not only launching this Vincent I. Watson alias for this kind of music, but I’m also launching two other aliases over the coming year. I’ve done everything under Vince Watson for the last 10 years but times have changed and it’s time to branch out a little bit more in each direction and see what happens.

We heard you relocated to Amsterdam, how’s it been living there for you?

Amsterdam is a mini Berlin really, but twice as expensive! Beautlful romantic city with fantastic electronic music scene and close to family and friends back home in Glasgow. Perfect.

How does it compare to Glasgow? Are the music scenes in the two cities very different?

Glasgow has its ups and downs with the club scene, the Subclub will always be there, it’s an institution and definitely one of the top 10 clubs in the world to play. The rest come and go, but there are a few good ones. Musically, traditionally it follows London as being the next best place to hear great music in the UK, and I dont see any difference now to years previous. They are very different places though, each with own charms to find.

What’s next for you?

Next up is some singles in the spring and a couple of remixes, followed by the start of production of my ninth album, where after my last album being jazz and this album being ambient. Fans of my techno will be pleased to hear I’ll be returning to it for them.

Pyramids Of Mars will release Vincent I. Watson – ‘Serene’ LP on 18th February, 2013