Ben Frost has today released Under Certain Light and Atmospheric Conditions, out now on Mute.
Under Certain Light and Atmospheric Conditions is built upon two years of live shows, soundcheck improvisations, and field recordings. It is a 38-minute dreamspace of jetlag, melatonin supplements, roaring crowds and failing technology.
The album approaches live performance as both an ephemeral event and an archival construct mediated through the predatory veil of DSP servers, where “live” is simply another hashtag aesthetic in an ecosystem of fake music and fake news. Documenting stage extracts from locations including Havana, Naarm, and Kyiv, these artefacts exist somewhere between memory and simulation, capturing not just a singular reality but multiple.
The Scope Neglect tour finds Frost joined by Greg Kubacki of Car Bomb (who also features prominently on the album), and sound designer Carlos Boix, whose recordings of the past year of live performances Frost has seamlessly woven into the album. The tour, which recently presented a blistering performance at EartH in London, continues with a show in Uzbekistan in May – full details below.
Three of the tracks – ‘Tritium Bath’, ‘Chimera’, and ‘Turning The Prism’ come directly from Scope Neglect, while the remaining cuts – ‘Permcat’, ’Trancelines’, ‘Black Thread’, and ‘Prism Inversion’ (with their roots in Ukraine, India, Mongolia and Brazil) are previously unreleased.
Throughout 2024’s acclaimed album, Scope Neglect, there are touches of metal, sitting alongside crackling electronics, field recordings, breathing animals, and deeply contemplative explorations, resulting in something impossible to pigeonhole.
The presence of Greg Kubacki’s guitars, which unfold in sequences that smoulder relentlessly over time, echo the tape loop fantasies of Terry Riley. And through this meditative focus, frenetic logic gives way to an almost transcendental calm.
Scope Neglect is a deliberate opposition in terms; a dualistic game of obfuscation and obliteration, a sonic universe stripped to its most elemental core where the mechanics are reconfigured, reengineered, old energies diverted and redirected, scope expanded, contracted, and dissolved.
Frost’s diverse impact reverberates across film, television, and opera, earning acclaim for his score for Julia Leigh’s Palme d’Or-nominated ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and scores for TV series such as ‘1899’, ‘Raised By Wolves,’ ‘Fortitude,’ and the cult series ‘Dark.’ His opera creations, including The Wasp Factory for London’s Royal Opera House and The Murder of Halit Yozgat at the Hannover Staatsoper, have cemented his position in the world of contemporary music and live arts.
Recent exhibitions for ‘Broken Spectre,’ his latest collaboration with Richard Mosse, have run at London’s 180 Studios, Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria, SFMOMA, Photo Elysée, The Momentary Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2023, and New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery. Two solo installation works ‘A Predatory Chord’ and ‘Among The Petals’ have been staged in the past two years.
UNDER CERTAIN LIGHT AND ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS
- Tritium Bath, 克拉玛依
- Permcat, Ки́їв
- Trancelines, वाराणसी
- Chimera, Naarm
- Black Thread, ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨᠪᠠᠭᠠᠲᠤᠷ
- Turning The Prism, واحة سيوة
- Prism Inversion, Pantanal/La Habana
Performed by Ben Frost, Greg Kubacki & Tarik Barri
Recorded by Carlos Boix
BEN FROST LIVE 2025
- 31 May – Muynak, Stihia Festival (UZ)
Listen to / buy Scope Neglect: https://mute.ffm.to/benfrost-sn
