The Balloonist - A Quiet Day (2024)

For this album, Ben Holton (epic45, My Autumn Empire, Birds In The Brickwork) explores the foggy, hazy memories of childhood. In particular, the peculiarly ‘lost’ days where nothing much happens. Maybe you are off school with a minor illness or it’s half-term and there are no friends about. Ben is a child of the 80s, and this very much sets the tone of the album.

The silence is broken by daytime TV, schools programmes and the odd afternoon cartoon. Daydreams occur against a backdrop of suburban stillness, broken by woodpigeon echoes and swaying trees. Formica table tops, frosted glass panels, traces of 70s décor, wood effect gas fireplaces and the dust motes floating in the afternoon sun.

Musically, there are traces of Teletext and Ceefax library music, the ambient jazz of Pat Metheny and other ECM artists, the gentle and dreamlike electronica of Suzanne Ciani and the atmospheric home recordings of founding Genesis member, Anthony Phillips.

The whole thing is a very personal achievement, one which Ben has been chasing for many years and has reared its head on some of his other projects. But, here it seems he has hit the main vein of a very specific set of memories.