New Music: Cloud Studies – Cloud Cartography

Adam Cresswell and Martin J Langthorne jokingly state that they started Cloud Studies “to explore the sonic possibilities offered by their large arsenal of effects pedals.” They’ve already made some damn fine music along the way, too.

Cloud Cartography is only the seasoned musicians’ second single as Cloud Studies, but, alongside Nat Guest and Adrian Taylor, they’ve quickly established their own striking and mournfully seductive sound.

Cresswell’s vocals come across as very different from his Rodney Cromwell persona, drifting off into the ether like half-remembered memories on another sunny day.

There’s more than a hint of the jangling indie-pop released by the legendary Sarah Records here, but the overall texture sees the quartet find a sonic sweet spot between shoegaze, dreampop, and the sharp dark proto-post-punk of Echo & the Bunnymen. Even though the lyrics have a Sisyphean side to them, the song offers more than a few moments of respite from a humdrum day.

“Cloud Cartography was the first song written by me for the band as a means to set the tone for the direction of our sonic explorations,” says Adam. “It was inspired by visits to the Derryveagh Mountains of Donegal in Ireland, and fighting off the elements as sheets of rain beat down upon the mountainous landscape.”

“The song is about trying to make sense of a constantly changing world and our efforts to document and understand it,” he continues. “In a library, the protagonist meets someone attempting to map and catalogue the clouds. They find themselves standing together on a mountainside battling the elements, their undaunted optimism constantly challenged by the impossible nature of their undertaking.”

Cloud Cartography is out now and streaming in all the usual places, including SoundCloud and Spotify. For more listening details, as well as keeping up to date with news from Cloud Studies, check them out on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Header photo by Alison Ahern