The first collaboration between Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, and guitarist William Tyler (of Lambchop and Silver Jews, among others) surfaced in 2023 with the 12-inch Darkness Darkness. Their new album opens with an eleven-minute version of Lyle Lovett’s 1988 country ballad »If I Had A Boat«—and this cover contains more than even the most reference-hungry music nerd might be able to process. Symphonic ambient meets American primitive guitar picking, Four Tet’s signature glitter textures from the house-not-house corner, and microscopic guitar loops that evolve into rhythmic patterns. It’s as if Brian Eno had collaborated with John Fahey and Jim O’Rourke—not such an absurd thought, really.
As the album progresses, some tracks lean more towards Hebden’s stylistic signature, others toward Tyler’s. Still others oscillate between the two: guitars are digitally chopped and warped, flashes of minimal house, krauty folk minimalism, post-rock structures and drones emerge. A short interlude of feedback peels back another layer before the closing track »Secret City« fades out in the kind of optimistic ambient that only Four Tet can conjure so effortlessly.
