Ocean Tales

You can't go home again, but Julien Mier attempts to whenever herecords as Santpoort. The Sydney-based producer/vocalist, composer,and visual artist mentally and musically revisits his Netherlandshometown of Santpoort, a small coastal village of lush, green forestsbordered by sloping sand dunes, with each project. "I draw inspirationfrom a place that I haven't been for so long," Julien says. "That createsthis feeling of nostalgia and melancholy in my music."

Ocean Tales, Julien's second Santpoort album on Friends of Friends,takes another step into his past while artistically leaping forward. Steel-toned kalimba melodies that glint like sunlight on crystallinewaves, poignant piano, resonant bass lines, soulful blues guitar --Julien plays them all to create richer, more layered lo-fi compositionsof hip-hop, electronic, ambient, and blissful psych-pop, accentingmany with chirping birds and recorded sounds from nature. He alsocollaborates with musicians like Canadian electronic duo Tennysonand Sydney songstress Little Green, the dewy-eyed lyrics of everyoneinvolved conveying the inherent longing at the center of Julien'sSantpoort project more powerfully than ever before.