The idea of the past bleeding into the present is heavy on Josh Semans’ single “In Shafts of Dust & Light” released today. A heavy and heady string & synthesizer composition, “In Shafts of Dust & Light” feature stirring string melodies and ebullient swells while anchored by the timeless drones and melodies of the Juno 6 synthesizer. The press release states, “Inspired by the ethics and intentions of brutalist architecture, ‘To Will A Space Into Being’ expresses a reverence for its raw materials, the space they occupy, and the world they create. 

Buildings like the New Street Signal Box in Birmingham, The Barbican in London, and the pumping station on Rotherham’s Marsh Street make no attempt to hide their means of construction. ‘To Will A Space Into Being’ channels a similar honesty of materials. The hiss and warble of old tape machines remind the listener of poured concrete taking on the texture of the wooden boards used as moulds for walls; interlocking floors and elevations are represented in repeating, polymetric string arrangements.

Josh was led to ideas of retro-futurism; visions of the future from decades ago. The now 40-year-old Juno 6 is at one point on this timeline, centuries ahead of the instruments of the string quartet. Then, the ondes Martenot navigates the years of space between them - oscillating between past and future effortlessly.”