Apollo announces new EP Atlantis, Ascending + airs reverent ode "Octopus Wake"

Apollo has already revealed "Oceans II" from the release, but "Octopus Wake" shines a spotlight on a new side to his sound.

The Brighton-based multi-instrumentalist/producer has constructed the song from dozens of sonorous voices and the rattling clank of creaky beats. "Octopus Wakes" expands during the course of its three-and-a-half-ish minutes, growing from a shivering hymn into a brooding electronica beast, with off-kilter percussion and a leviathan groan of bass.

Speaking about "Octopus Wake", Apollo says: "The track is the first I wrote for this EP. I started writing it two and a half years ago. Of all the tracks I’ve written in that time, it’s the one that’s changed the least. I wrote the lyrics and four-part harmonies on a scrap of paper at the call centre I worked at at the time. Back then, I wasn’t being treated for my mental health problems and the track grew out of the existential crisis/increasing dissociation I was experiencing. I ended up layering 72 tracks of my vocals, some pitch-shifted, to sound like a choir recorded in an empty swimming pool or cave."

This new release follows 2013's The Atlantis Experiment EP.

The Atlantis, Ascending EP is due out 4 March. You can pre-order it now.

Listen to "Octopus Wake" below, and check out the short-player's tracklist after.

1. “Octopus Wake”
2. “Oceans II”
3. “Like Gaslights”
4. “Big Guns”
5. “Hot Water”