York Music Latest: Ian Cole creates soundscape from a rainy night

York musician Ian Cole’s spooky ambient evocation of a stormy summer night is the subject of his latest record. You can hear the entire album online here until August 25.

Multi-instrumentalist and keyboard player Ian is a well-known figure on the York scene, playing in a wide variety of genres.

You might have spotted him a while ago with punk/ alt-folk band Ryan Shirlow And The Bloody Marys, or more recently, as the driving force behind power pop girl troupe Katie And The Questions.

But this latest outing, The Clifton Hotel (Bristol 1), catches Ian in reflective mood, and back to his love affair with ambient music.

It’s his third album of ambient soundscapes, and the first in a three-CD set.

Ian, who also finds time to be an occasional contributor to YorkMix, is fast developing a reputation for his pioneering work in melding field recordings with acoustic and synthesised sound.

The new recording is based around a dramatic recording made during a stormy night on an overnight hotel stay in Bristol two summers ago.

Melding harp, oboe and a string quartet with synthesisers and home-grown samples, the album is formally released on August 31.

Here is an archived interview with Ian from 2011’s Streaming Festival in the Netherlands, where his album, Deconstruction : Demolition : Re-invention, saw him selected as “artist of the festival” for two days.