Empty your mind. 'Closer' deserves your full attention. It’s harrowing; it’s serene; it’s metaphysical; it’s elemental. That’s just a fraction of the words that come to mind when listening to Anil Sebastian’s latest work, but in truth, they all fall short of this masterpiece. 'Closer' is a highly complex track that was painstakingly stitched together by Anil who spent many hours slicing samples of zithers, celestas, pianos, EP73s, flutes and a gamelan ensemble into micro-layers. As the London-based artist explains, "I wanted the strings to be raga-tinged - and capture the intricacy and drama of indian strings” - strings which were performed by expert musician Vince Sipprell who sadly passed away before the song’s completion. From there he went on to work with celestial singer Sian O’Gorman (who appears as a part-angel part-demon figure in the video directed by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro) and finally producing the track alongside his brother Ingmar. This compositional backdrop of death, familial ties, and even perfection all seeps into Sebastian’s lyrical content which focuses in on the tragic prevalence of depression and suicide among young people. He confronts the a psychological warfare between light and dark through feeling, movement, words, instruments, and of course in these captivating visuals. - HT