2019 saw the release of Fink’s seventh studio album, the critically acclaimed Bloom Innocent swiftly followed by an acoustic version of the record recorded live in March earlier this year. Today we see the third metamorphosis of the album come into existence – the Horizontalism Sessions…

The Berlin-based musician had not planned for this third adventure into Bloom Innocent but the unforeseen circumstances of 2020 lead to it being the first thing he was drawn to during lockdown.

“The plan was always to release an acoustic version of the record – recorded live – as a kind of companion to the full grown, all guns blazing studio album. What wasn’t planned is obvious to us all now was an enforced hiatus from the road, and for those of us who are lucky enough to have them, a whole bunch of unplanned studio time. The first thing I did in lockdown was dive into the Bloom Innocent record again, this time from a Horizontalism perspective – inspired by the album of the same name, a remix project formed out of touring the Hard Believer album back in 2016.”

This however is a record that should not be classified as a remix album explains Fink:

“I wouldn’t even call it a remix album really – it’s another incarnation, another version, a companion, a version of events intended for those moments where you just want to get Horizontal and let the world just flow over you. It’s a narrative of events from a record written from the other side of the song – the music side – and I hope it finds a moment to soundtrack a moment in your life like it has mine…”

What was a spacious, adventurous masterpiece has now come into a new sense of being with the Horizontalism sessions, a creative exploration Fink describes as “a sonic landscape” that undeniably still holds the essence of Bloom Innocent. The journey of the songs is where it differs, leading you into almost a hypnotic state surrounded by the comfort of the familiar instruments which have now been brought into the spotlight but without the familiar and distinctive vocals of Fink.

“Under the sonic apprenticeship of the mighty Flood, I opened up the record again and this time wanted to create a journey without the song, a journey guided purely by sonic glue. I worked with so many fantastic musicians on the Bloom Innocent record, and by removing the song, and the structure that brings, new horizons and perspectives grew from the stems laid out all over the studio like so many rolls of sonic film.”

The result is a musically expansive, alternative universe of Bloom Innocent. 

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