ESP Summer

A collaborative effort between <a href="spotify:artist:4LMQqMZYbFJgvxBOzshZVL">His Name Is Alive</a>'s Warn Defever and <a href="spotify:artist:0WY2ddzQUF9eh16GiqrElA">Pale Saints</a>' Ian Masters, ESP Summer originally combined Defever's minimal acoustic guitar figures and Masters' patient, lulling vocals for a dreamlike and pastoral reading of delicate indie pop. The project issued one dazzling self-titled LP in 1995 before disappearing for the next 25 years, until the new album Kingdom of Heaven appeared mysteriously in 2020.

Defever and Masters met in 1992 when both artists were signed to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%224AD%22">4AD</a> label. They became fast friends and Masters occasionally spent time as a touring member of <a href="spotify:artist:4LMQqMZYbFJgvxBOzshZVL">His Name Is Alive</a>. In 1994, the duo entered the studio and recorded a set of sparsely arranged songs, releasing them over the next few years under the name ESP Summer on various small-scale formats. There was a self-titled tape on Defever's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Time+Stereo%22">Time Stereo</a> outlet as well as a 10" vinyl EP in 1995, and the following year, ESP Summer got a more wide-scale release on CD. After a 7" EP in 1997, there was no new material from the project until 2020, when a four-song album entitled Here showed up out of nowhere, consisting of field recordings, ambient sounds, and some guitar sketches. Later that year, another EP, Kingdom of Heaven, was released in a limited run of lathe-cut records. In 2021, the moody and skulking sounds of Kingdom of Heaven were reissued and made widely available on streaming services. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi