Marlais - Stream of Forms - Tape

Love comes in many forms and so do love songs. Stream of Forms is a collection of love songs that speak of love in all its guises: newfound and unrequited, sexual, lost and scorned.

Taking inspiration from the oral traditions of English and Irish folk music, the tales told on this album speak of emotions, as ancient as the human voice itself. Michael Culme-Seymour aka Marlais positions his vocals amidst traditional instruments, digital choirs and deep, harmonic electronics, inhabiting these songs for no more than a moment. A fleeting moment but one long enough to evoke a vivid, living history of everyday people.

Arranged in episodic installments, Stream of Forms is a tale of universal feelings finely balanced by the singularity of its telling. Completed in 2020 and five years in the making, it was during an artist residency in the mountains of Tusheti, Georgia, that the album began to take its definitive form.

Embedding himself within the narrative as the story-telling protagonist, allows Marlais to reflect on his own experiences, living, working and performing in Berlin. The immediacy and authenticity of the songs on this album are testament to a life lived outside the typical constraints of modern society. As a result, his voice - as vulnerable as it is enchanting - is soaked in the real-life emotions, of which he sings.

(Text by Pete Littlewood)

Released: 15. Oktober 2022

Recorded & produced by Marlais
Mastered by Tim Rees at Schnittstelle Berlin
Photo by Stefanie Kulisch
Cover art by Etkin Çekin
Treibender Teppich & Kinship 2022 Berlin