WIL BOLTON
A Name That Hides Her
HB41
Hibernate Recordings 2012
06 Tracks. 37mins23secs

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Wil Bolton is one half of the team behind the excellent Boltfish Recordings, but he is perhaps best known as Cheju, his solo project, which has seen him release music on Percussion Lab, U-Cover, Smallfish, Static Caravan or Boltfish. He has also an ongoing music project with Murray Fisher, the other half of Boltfish, as Biotron Shelf, and has published an album with Mark Streatfield (Zainetica) under the name Anzio Green back in 2008 on now defunct Japanese imprint Symbolic Interaction. Moving away from the crisp electronics and beats of Cheju and venturing into more atmospheric and ethereal territories, Bolton has, in the last two years, published a number of records under his own name on Hibernate, Time Released Sound and Cathedral Transmission. Continue Reading »

BIOTRON SELF
Cloud Bands And Arabesques
BOLTLP012
Boltfish Recordings 2011
10 Tracks. 39mins25secs

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If Biotron Shelf may sound like a rather enigmatic word combination, a simple re-ordering of the letters reveal the names of Wil Bolton and Murray Fisher, two sound artists and musicians who are perhaps best known for their respective solo projects, Cheju and Mint. Their first collaborative effort under the Biotron Shelf banner dates back to 2006 and their album 33 Minutes North, published on U-Cover, which was followed a couple of years later by an EP, Transmissions (Smallfish). Three years on, the pair are back with an EP, Corrugations, and a second album, both released on their very own Boltfish Recordings imprint, a label they set up back in 2004 and which has since delivered a number of fine electronic records by the likes of Infinite Scale, Skytree, Zainetica, Yvat or Polestar to name but a few.

With Cloud Bands And Arabesques, the pair continue to develop the lush electronic soundscapes, crisp beats and evocative melodies that characterized their debut release, which also occasionally incorporates elements of acoustic instrumentation. Continue Reading »

WIL BOLTON
Time Lapse
HB22
Hibernate Recordings 2010
09 Tracks. 47mins17secs

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Liverpool-based Wil Bolton may be best known for his electronic outputs as Cheju, a project that has kept him busy for over six years now, with releases on Rednetic, Percussion Lab or U-Cover, or as one half of the team heading Boltfish Records, but he is also an sound artist who has, in recent years, worked on a number of sound or audio-visual installations with exhibitions not only in the UK, but also across Europe, in the US and, recently, in South Korea.

Published on the rather consistently excellent Hibernate, once again as a limited release, Time Lapse is Bolton’s first release under his own name. While it finds some roots in the melodic electronica that has been intrinsic of his work as Cheju, this album is in essence much more atmospheric and introspective. Continue Reading »

CHEJU
Broken Waves
BOLTLP005
Boltfish Records 2009
15 Tracks. 78mins52secs

Cheju is the solo project of Wil Bolton, who also shares duties as head of Boltfish Records with Murray Fisher, who regularly officiates as MINT. Bolton relocated from London to peaceful Norfolk a couple of years ago and now operates from the more urban Liverpool. Following a debut EP in 2003, he has appeared on labels such as Percussion Lab, En:peg Digital, Laced Milk, Rednetic or Static Caravan. Cheju’s music is a sophisticated blend of clean melodic electronica, angular hip-hop beats and processed atmospheric textures. Continue Reading »