Ancestral Voices

Experimental electronic project Ancestral Voices was the second solo incarnation of Manchester's Liam Blackburn, formerly best known for his drum'n'bass work as Indigo.

Blackburn began his musical career as Indigo in 2008 with the single "Set to Cycle" on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mindset%22">Mindset</a>, which had more of a dubstep sound. Further singles followed over the next few years on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Smokin%27+Sessions%22">Smokin' Sessions</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22On+the+Edge%22">On the Edge</a>, OpenEarz, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Exit%22">Exit</a>, during which time he gravitated toward a drum'n'bass style. After several collaborations with <a href="spotify:artist:4B5oxjbZ2CClTNt8iEiC4n">Synkro</a>, the pair teamed up to form the duo <a href="spotify:artist:5jz40KDNd44qa9nZH0uPDM">Akkord</a>, releasing their eponymous debut album in 2013 on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Fabric%22">Fabric</a> offshoot <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Houndstooth%22">Houndstooth</a>. Through his friendship with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Samurai+Music%22">Samurai Music</a>'s Geoff Presha, originally his agent, Indigo issued releases on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Samurai%22">Samurai</a> offshoot labels <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Red+Seal%22">Red Seal</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Horo%22">Horo</a>. Always at the more experimental end of the drum'n'bass spectrum, he naturally gravitated toward these outlets, which at that time were pioneering the so-called "autonomic" or "grey area" sound, a stripped-down, skeletonized version of drum'n'bass which incorporated elements of techno. Eventually growing apart from the drum'n'bass scene and wanting to try something completely different, he abandoned the Indigo moniker and launched the ambient-leaning Ancestral Voices project. His debut album under this new moniker, 2015's Night of Visions, was inspired by his participation in a Shamanic ritual in the Amazon rainforest, and trod a middle ground between the grey-area style and more ambient soundscapes. In 2016 he released two more club-oriented singles on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Samurai%22">Samurai</a>, "Old Earth Voodoo" and "Yantra." His sophomore album, 2017's Divination, was a sprawling, largely beatless, dark ambient affair. In 2018 he launched his own label, The Fifth Kingdom, with the single "Mycelia." His third album, 2019's Navagraha, had a complex harmonic concept based on ancient Sanskrit notions of the celestial bodies of the solar system. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi