Will Samson - Active Imagination

Will Samson - Active Imagination

Electronic / folk artist Will Samson announces the release of his brand-new album Active Imagination, the follow-up to 2019’s Paralanguage, released via Wichita Recordings. Worked on across the span of one entire year – from January of 2020 through to December – it’s comprised of nine beautiful new pieces and sits as a richly layered meditation on the idea of belonging, identity and the search for home in the most unstable of worlds.

Marking ten years since the release of Balance, his 2012 debut, Will Samson’s new album feels almost like the product of his learning and growth over the past decade. For the first time, he allowed himself a dedicated studio space outside of his home, a blessing for both his mental health and workflow, while he also upgraded his tools, finally purchasing a good vocal microphone of his own, and a new laptop that didn’t constantly overheat and crash, allowing him to upgrade his recording software for the first time in years. While these somewhat mundane details may seem superfluous, for someone who’s spent so much time in flux, they brought about a stability that Samson’s work has so often been unable to find.

Musically it bends subtly between folk and electronica, where little pulses of experimental flourishes sit next to Samson’s evocative vocals, and the record pulls many of its reference points from a number of the artists he’s shared a stage with over the years: from Bon Iver’s S. Carey, through to The Album Leaf, Olafur Arnalds, and Do Make Say Think.

Side 1

Arpy

Echo Spring

Always Meant

Percussive Beginnings

Side 2

A Certain Surprise

Juvenita

Two Flutes

Hostage

Shun