Ben McElroy & A Spot on the Hill - Everything Was Different Yesterday (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

From their respective home studios separated by the Atlantic Ocean, Ben McElroy (U.K.) and A Spot on the Hill (U.S.) have created an enchanting album that blends folk, ambient, neoclassical minimalism and drone.

It started in December 2021 with a message from A Spot on the Hill’s Dan Cook to Ben McElroy proposing a collaboration. By the start of 2022, the two were trading recordings of drones, strings and piano. Ben would take a simple piano part from Dan and improvise multiple layers of cello, violin, viola and clarinet parts to accompany it, as well as adding mysterious drones and found sounds. Dan would sift through the accreted layers of sound, chiseling away at some so as to reveal the beauty of others. Then, back to Ben, who masterfully sculpted the evolving pieces into cohesive artistic statements.

Other times, Ben would send Dan a starting point — an ambient drone mix or a collection of layered string parts. Dan would listen for the key and the pulse, then sit down at the piano. Again, back to Ben, who further refined the mix.

Everything was Different Yesterday is born out of the mutual admiration of two artists, and it reflects both their similarities and their differences. McElroy brings endless melodic motifs, versatility on multiple instruments and a special gift for texture, while Cook brings a penchant for intimate, sparingly constructed musical architecture. Everything was Different Yesterday sounds like both of the artists who made it — and like something else entirely.

Tracklist
01. Pardon the Garden
02. Journal in the Drawer
03. The Wilder We Became
04. Waltz for an Imagined Past
05. Moving to the Mountains
06. Tar Sands
07. Fog Hangs Low this Morning
08. Where the Birds Still Sing
09. Everything Was Different Yesterday
10. A New Light