Tag Archives: Castles in Space

Switched On – Andrea Cichecki: Drawn Into The Edge Effect (Castles In Space)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The music of Andrea Cichecki speaks of the great outdoors, the environment she now calls home having moved after years of city life.

Each of the nine tracks tells a personal story, the music complemented by field recordings made in the Ore Mountains and Saxon Switzerland, designed to further the immersive listening experience.

What’s the music like?

The season of spring courses through Cichecki’s music, which teems with life and hope. The lush textures of A Lost Memory are a case in point, where the warm keyboard sounds build up in layers, melodies swirling towards a greater whole. The lush textures are beautifully managed.

Cichecki uses no drums but generates plenty of momentum on tracks like Choosing Paths and Diffused Reflection Of Yourself, both a hive of activity with melodic loops bubbling up in lively counterpoint. The Edge Effect is the musical equivalent of looking at the bright light of a new morning, with dappled, treble-rich textures.

A Tale Not Everyone Knows is poised and rather beautiful, while the expanse of tracks like Naked Animal and Different Step is enhanced by the field recordings.

Does it all work?

It does. Cichecki’s music has an inner serenity and brightness that give it an immediate appeal.

Is it recommended?

Very much so. This is music to soothe the fevered brow, but through its ambience there is also an inner energy that provides a great deal of positivity. Andrea Cichecki makes music to enhance and energise!

For fans of… Matthewdavid, M83, Julianna Barwick, Ulrich Schnauss, Jon Hopkins

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Published post no.2,514 – Friday 25 April 2025

Switched On – Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan: The Nation’s Most Central Location (Castles in Space)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Gordon Chapman-Fox moves onto his fourth album under the alias Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, which finds him in a conflicting position. “I’m nostalgic for an optimistic future”, he writes on his Bandcamp page, pining for the time when the future really did seem a boundless set of opportunities rather than a state in which to be fearful.

As before this is a wholly solo album, one man and his electronics – but painting vistas far beyond those means.

What’s the music like?

Wonderfully moody. There are some dark thoughts here, shot through with a windswept beauty that gives them impressive grandeur.

The stern countenance of Just Off The M56 (J12) sets the slightly industrial scene, and though the initial impressions are stern, the way Chapman-Fox works his ideas together brings out the optimism in his thinking as the synth line cuts through the cloudy texture.

There is a winsome elegance here, very English in its restrained but telling emotion, coming through most obviously in the excellent Rocksavage, with its steadily oscillating figures, and then allowed more mechanical energy on Thelwall Viaduct.

Chapman-Fox secures a wonderful ebb and flow, and on brooding soundscapes such as London’s Moving Our Way there is a sinister undertow bringing John Carpenter to mind, not to mention a powerful sense of occasion.

Meanwhile Europa Boulevard presents a colder climate, the airiness and relative dead air of industry captured in music, though it soon warms up when extra layers are added.

Does it all work?

It does. These are vivid evocations of cityscapes that we would maybe rather not have but which are an intrinsic part of English life. Chapman-Fox treats them with respect but also highlights their unexpected angles of beauty. There is also, in the closing A Brighter And More Prosperous Future, a stern yet assured hope for better times ahead.

Is it recommended?

Very highly. This music has its roots in the 1980s, and the likes of Cabaret Voltaire or John Foxx, but Warrington-Runcorn Development Plan is a gateway to some accomplished and very meaningful electronic music.

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