Pêtr Aleksänder

Comprising of Tom Hobden (Noah & The Whale, Gang Of Youths) and producer Eliot James (Two Door Cinema Club), I first heard about Pêtr Aleksänder through their recent re-imagination of Ride's album “This Is Not A Safe Place”. I love their total reworking and re-imagination of that record, and thankfully this EP of original material is just as wonderful.

Self described as an alternative modern classical band, ‘Another World’ is a largely instrumental collection of 4 tracks. Kicking off with the purely instrumental 'The Something Else', the band explained when releasing the track as a single that it’s "an instrumental arrangement for piano and strings built around 16 repeating notes which were originally inspired by Pachelbel’s Canon. Our 16 notes provide the backbone for a sweeping string arrangement which ebbs and flows around the central theme, accompanied by some slices of vocals and electronics which allude to the wider theme of our EP”.

A grand opening that delicately ebbs and flows, it sets the tone for the next 18 minutes. Recent single ‘Copy, Echo, Mirage’, a richly cinematic track filled with twinkling piano and lavish string, was Pêtr Aleksänder’s first move away from their entirely instrumental roots with the inclusion of a haunting vocal from Tom Hobden. The quietly anthemic 'The Real Thing’ builds and build and build some more before those layers of strings gently ebb away to leave behind just a simple piano, while grandiose title track and EP closer ‘Another World’, once again featuring vocals, feels like the most classically ‘classical’ track on what is a beautiful EP. As strings and hushed vocals intertwine atop of subtly hypnotic beat, you find yourself falling under Pêtr Aleksänder’s hauntingly moorish spell.