Illum Sphere – Ghosts Of Then And Now Vinyl LP

Ryan Hunn, aka Illum Sphere, is founder of Manchester’s renowned club night Hoya:Hoya, has remixed Radiohead, toured the world’s best club nights and released music on some of its finest imprints – 3024, Tectonic, Young Turks, and now Ninja Tune, where he’s found a long term home. His album arrives on the back of eager expectation. If anyone seemed set to make one of the standout albums of the era, it was Illum Sphere. The good news is that he’s delivered in spades. Ghosts of Then and Now has been deliberately and uncompromisingly conceived as a full length record; an album in the traditional sense, full of music that couldn’t be more modern, whilst nodding to Hunn's various influences. Opener "Liquesce" – which features the drumming of Shigeto – is aptly titled, conjuring as it does a sense of blissful dissolution. It also contains a haunting refrain that’s deceptively familiar, the sort of melody line you’ll hear for years. The song ends abruptly (and cleverly) in a deep intake of breath, as if preparing itself for the album ahead.