Anton Pearson - Driving Through Belgium (2026)

Anton Pearson, best known as a guitarist for the British post-punk outfit Squid, has announced his debut solo album, Driving Through Belgium. The concept of the release was born from a specific, slightly surreal feeling of melancholy and exhaustion that arises during long highway drives between cities on European tours. In contrast to the driving, mathematically precise, and tense music of his main band, the musician turns to entirely different forms in his solo work—namely ambient and contemporary classical. The six instrumental pieces featured on the album are built not on conventional melodic lines or harmonies, but on the exploration of pure sound texture, atmosphere, and real-time improvisation.

The recording took place at a studio in Brighton, where the artist enjoyed complete creative freedom. The process was highly experimental: Anton Pearson explored the capabilities of unfamiliar equipment, fed guitars through complex effect chains to transform them into dense drones, layered muddy analog textures, and utilized vintage synthesizers. A key element of the work was the intentional embrace of imperfections and a rejection of hyper-analytical precision. The first, most intuitive takes were left unedited; accidental bell-like sound loops were kept, as were unpolished, naive trumpet parts. At the same time, compositions like Teeth to Cut the Grass disrupt the meditative tone of the record with harsh, abrasive noise, preventing the album from dissolving into passive background music. Ultimately, Driving Through Belgium stands as a profound, intuitive, and contemplative sonic canvas focused on a sense of suspended time and the joy of playful experimentation.

Tracklist:
1-1 Anton Pearson - Driving Past the Muscular Cows in Belgium [20:04]
1-2 Anton Pearson - Builder in a Bottle [3:31]
1-3 Anton Pearson - Tintinnabulation I [6:38]
1-4 Anton Pearson - Teeth to Cut the Grass [5:09]
1-5 Anton Pearson - Tintinnabulation II [7:16]
1-6 Anton Pearson - Tern Daylight [4:12]