Test Pressing are happy to welcome a new writer on board. Andrew Schirmer is a music and film fan who we came across on our TP forum writing under the name dreambeam. Andrew came up through raves in Seattle and has a classical music background. He works in aerospace, plays violin professionally on the side along with the occasional DJ gig when suits. He seemed a perfect fit so here we are... First up from Andrew is a review of the new Wilson Tanner from the ace Efficient Space label (shout to Michael who runs ES). On with the program. Enjoy.

"Ambient pastoral" is a deeply furrowed path. We may think of our age as a particularly anxious one ripe for escape into nature, but people have long been losing themselves in sound tapestries of bird calls, chirping insects, and crashing waves.

Wilson Tanner is Andrew Wilson and John Tanner who have been making brilliant music under their shared moniker and individually (Andras Fox, A.r.t. Wilson, Eleventeen Eston) for a long time--can it really be ten years since the blissed out Growing Bin classic "69" (cancer sign)? The next record "II" (Efficient Space) noodled deeper, reflecting the slow and occasionally wobbly cadence of the riverboat it was recorded on--I can't think another record that has truly conveyed the experience of earning one's sea-legs.

"Legends" brings us firmly back to land--recorded among the vines at Manon Farm in South Australia's Forest Range. Fifteen acres at the farm are devoted to vines and the farm produces a range of natural/low-intervention wines. Just so as the names of the tracks take on a vinous tinge: "Summer Rot", "Old Vine", "Botrytis". Without pushing the metaphor too far, the vibe is one of organic ferment as disparate elements--piano, clarinet, various string instruments (I think I caught a balalaika somewhere) emerge, vamp and break down, spooling into something new along with subtle electronic touches and what are presumably atmospheric recordings of the farm.

"Cherry" sets the tone with what sounds like a warm daybreak against a pulsing insect chorus. "Grasshopper" multiplies the strings and adding steel guitar, creating languid textures with an insistent metallic feel that grows in the fadeout. Indeed, the ensuing tracks more than occasionally evoke farm work quite viscerally--"Summer Rot" conjures up nothing so much as a hacksaw and "Hogshead" incredibly places the sounds of a mower alongside bending guitar strings and trippy synths, Sasha Shulgin taking care of the lawn. Listen closely enough and you can make out trowels scraping against the dirt, the snip of vines being pruned, the coming harvest.

Wilson Tanner's Legends is released on Efficient Space on the 9th May 2025 on vinyl and digital. Head to the Efficient Space BANDCAMP for more information.