WILD FRONTIERS
After grabbing global attention with their captivating debut Since I Left You in 2000, The Avalanches’ star could have easily waned, especially given the time it took the Australian duo to resurface again with another full-length. Still, in 2016 came Wildflower – and with it the zeitgeist was captured once more.
The imagination showcased in their sophomore album’s standout singles Subways and Frankie Sinatra ensured that these delicately constructed tracks were irrepressible earworms, and cemented Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi’s tally of two-for-two classic albums.
Hailing from the town of Maryborough, close to Melbourne, the duo formed their partnership as part of youthful noise-punk outfit Alarm 115 in 1994. It wasn’t long before film student Chater began to experiment with more interesting concoctions of sampled sounds alongside original member Darren Seltmann. The three formed The Avalanches in 1997 and their patchwork approach to song-building soon began to bear fruit. It would lead them on a journey whose endpoint was that classic, distinctive debut.
Building songs from an eclectic assortment of samples, Robbie and Tony have been inaccurately defined as sampling traditionalists in the years since. “I just love the idea of using the least amount of stuff,” says Chater. “I want to let the music be the guide. In general, there needs to be less shit between you and your imagination.”
With their third LP We Will Always Love You finished in a comparatively brisk four years, what do the pair put this accelerated productivity down to?
“Making Wildflower over 16 years was a journey of discovery and finding out what that record was about,” says Chater. “With this record, the concept and destination were clear from the off, so maybe that’s why it took a shorter length of time. Even in terms of collecting sounds and building a palette, if you know what you want thematically, you can narrow down the types of samples you need far more easily.”
COSMIC LOVE
The new album’s guiding concept emerged after Chater and Di Blasi read the story of astronomer Carl Sagan’s romance with NASA creative director Ann Druyan. Back in 1977,
