In September, Iran-born producer Amirali released his Sokoot EP, working alongside the world-class soloists of Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Following on from this ambitious release, Amirali has now released his sophomore LP, a decade on from his acclaimed full length debut In Time.
Out now via his own imprint Dark Matters, Trial & Error is a labour of love which found Amirali completing the project at Abbey Road with our own mastering engineer, Oli Morgan.
Trial & Error allows Amirali a colossal palette to work with, resulting in some of his most cinematic material to date. The first glimpse he gives us into the project is with the single, Vertigo. Vertigo enters a new sonic world of Amirali’s, inviting a new soulful perspective to his discography. Resembling the sound of beatmakers such as Burial, Woodkid and SOHN,Clash Magazine described the track as “a graceful, glacial, slo-mo performance, oozing out of the speakers in its shimmering, opaque beauty.”
Amirali continues the atmospheric journey on his second single Moments, perfectly setting the tone for what to expect from the rest of the album. On producing the record, Amirali expanded: "Making this album was a period of self-discovery in which I got to know myself on a deeper level. My goal was to simply learn and try something new. I always feel the urge to evolve and to explore different avenues in music and I think I have succeeded on this album.” I tried to be honest with myself throughout this whole process, this is why I called the album ‘Trial & Error’; I didn’t have a dynamic setup in the studio and I was constantly changing things around, experimenting and using different techniques to to compose these pieces.”
We were thrilled that Amirali brought the project to Abbey Road Studios for its finishing touches, where he worked alongside mastering engineer, Oli Morgan. Oli stem-mastered the album, a process that offers greater control over the sonic shape and balance of your music.
On working with Oli, Amirali explained: "I had a great experience working with Oli and I think this is going to be a long term relationship as I would like to continue working with him for the foreseeable future. It's very important that the mastering engineer can recognise and see your vision, especially when you do stem mastering; I think Oli and I connected quite well in that regard. I'm very happy with how the masters have turned out, Oli did a fantastic job. I gave him almost seven years of my work and he took great care of them with a lot of precision."
Trial & Error is out now on Dark Matters. Purchase here.
