Land Observations

Land Observations is the indie/experimental project of composer and musician James Brooks. During a mid-2000s hiatus from his previous group, <a href="spotify:artist:3b8HfZUCNH3rZ75AdoZKa1">Appliance</a>, Brooks spent time on his visual art, showing his work at galleries in the U.K., North America, and Europe, and also continued working on music on his own. Inspired by travel and geography, he began working on pieces that looped and layered his guitar work into something intricate yet minimalist, evoking the work of <a href="spotify:artist:0dmPX6ovclgOy8WWJaFEUU">Kraftwerk</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5mNY0NPszdalbrb4ITO3M8">Cluster</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7MSUfLeTdDEoZiJPDSBXgi">Brian Eno</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5HKpBHDxIDNdtmEAGXGntl">Robert Fripp</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:1IOZiK4LTN0EjjdAogOCE1">Acid Mothers Temple</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:7AnU4Yfi2caZYDxp6qJzYH">Makoto Kawabata</a>, as well as more pop-oriented artists such as <a href="spotify:artist:7bu3H8JO7d0UbMoVzbo70s">the Cure</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:7fh7bwX9qV60tLxxsp9bTe">the Durutti Column</a>. Brooks' first Land Observations work was 2011's Roman Roads EP, which was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Enraptured+Records%22">Enraptured Records</a> in a limited edition of 500. Soon after, Land Observations signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Mute+Records%22">Mute Records</a> (also home to <a href="spotify:artist:3b8HfZUCNH3rZ75AdoZKa1">Appliance</a>), and the project's full-length debut Roman Roads IV-XI was released in September 2012; the year was rounded out with a handful of European live dates.

Brooks continued to build his reputation with further Land Observations gigs in 2013, and was also invited by actor/composer <a href="spotify:artist:3rmHfhqEmC3pO89AMSP7Wt">Simon Fisher Turner</a> to help perform his score for the BFI's restoration of The Epic of Everest, a 1924 film by Captain John Noel that documented George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's ill-starred attempt to climb the Earth's highest mountain. Taking its name from the European trip that many well-off university graduates embarked upon in the 17th through 19th centuries, 2014's The Grand Tour was a more intimate set of songs recorded in a friend's apartment near the Bavarian Alps. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi