Fictonian’s tracks have seen widespread acclaim over the past year, gaining plaudits from the likes of The Line of Best Fit, NME (Buzz of The Week), DIY, Clash, The 405, and Q Magazine. La Blogothèque also recently featured a beautiful performance of ‘Double Negative’ as part of their acclaimed Take Away series. In recent months Fictonian has completed live dates with Nick Mulvey, which included a show at London’s Roundhouse, as well as his own very special sold-out London headline show at St Pancras Old Church on July 16.
The debut album, ‘Desire Lines’, brings all of this material into full focus. Check it out on Clash.
Fictonian deliberately evades definition. With the music just one part of this bold, multi-faceted project encompassing music, sound recording, video, art, animation and photography. The man behind it, Glen Roberts, has remained elusive to date, determined to create a body of work which reflects a mind as visual as it is musical. “Fictonian is a specific state of mind within me,” he says. “There are certain types of songs that only come from this mindset I call my “fictonian” state. It means a person who spends more time in their head than reality, which I think everyone can connect to at times. This project represents that side of me.”
It was when Fictonian escaped from the hustle of London life and found solitude in the lush pastures of rural Herefordshire that he first realised the particular qualities that came from this kind of creative isolation. “These aren’t songs that would have come if I’d sat down at a piano and decided to write a pop song, they come from a very specific place in my mind when I was in the countryside on my own for a long time drumming up musical ideas.”
The result is truly magical – rousing torchsongs like ‘Make It Be Ours’ meet the wistful lullabies of ‘Double Negative’ bolstered by the stomping battle cry of ‘Kettle of Fish’. Layers build to crashing sonic crescendos, each song feels ethereal, barely there yet alarmingly bold, and anthemic. It is an album that manages that rare feat of grandiose yet beautifully hushed.
Much like the twisted paths most of us follow – this is not a linear album. Tracks glide together – themes emerge, sounds are layered like a puzzle reflecting our most intimate fears, needs and expectations. “I knew that I didn’t want to follow a genre to easily fit myself in,” he says. “I wanted this album to capture a moment in time”. His meticulous obsession for sound recording gives the album a startling, yet delirious sense of present. Everywhere he ventured, from the bustling streets of the capital, to deserted waterfronts on the Lake District to the Wye River where most of this album was written and recorded has somehow imbued the music.
Fictonian, at its very core, is a project about humanity. Fictonian may have been born out of a solitary state, but this is not an album of despair of isolation, it is a rallying cry, a rousing call to action, a message of change. “It’s about giving yourself the self-belief to follow your dreams,” he says. “To find your real desires though, you need to be true to who you are.”
– – –
Purchase – ‘Desire Lines’
– – –
GET IN TOUCH
info@charmfactory.co.uk
FEATURED CAMPAIGN
