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October 2022
Though shot through with undeniable beauty and hope, the music on Cortisol 22 is shadowed by a number of serious health issues faced by Simon Order (aka Liminal Drifter) over the last couple of years. The album title refers to the hormone produced by the body during stress – something that Order faced repeatedly after experiencing a heart attack in late 2020. While recovering in hospital, Order began working on the music that would form Cortisol 22. The resulting album is an hour-long exploration of music as balm and recuperative destination. Opener ‘Child’s Play’ is a deceptively emotive slice of chilltronica, drawing on some of the dub vibes of 2020’s Connected, while wrapping the whole thing in a blanket of ethereal nostalgia. Latest single ‘Box Seat’ is a sun-drenched sonic playground, with an insistent acoustic guitar line, intricate percussive details and beatific electric piano. ‘Cut Out’ is clean and shimmering, punctuated by golden horns and keys, with a positive momentum counterbalanced by the bittersweet taste of leaving something behind. And ominous Boards of Canada vibes are woven into standout ‘Once a Day’.
June 2021
Following on from recent single ‘Child’s Play’ and his amazing run in the U.S. college radio charts (#1 chill record of 2020!), Perth-based ambient electronica artist Liminal Drifter presents his new single, ‘Lured by the Lounge’. Blending the louche, sax-driven swagger of latter-day Roxy Music with the thick bass textures of The Orb, ‘Lured by the Lounge’ is a sophisticated, nocturnal slice of ‘90s-indebted electronica. The track is lifted from Liminal Drifter’s forthcoming EP, due out later in the year.
“As the introspective electronica plays us out, it’s not hard to imagine a utopia being enveloped by the soothing and thoughtful sounds of Liminal Drifter.” – Xpress Mag on Connected
March 2021
After owning the US college radio chill charts last year (number 1 chill record of the year!), Perth-based ambient electronica artist Liminal Drifter is back with a stunning new single. ‘Child’s Play’ is a deceptively emotive slice of chilltronica, drawing on some of the dub vibes of last year’s Connected, whilst wrapping the whole thing in a blanket of ethereal nostalgia. It’s hard not be swept into it’s warmth and glow over the near 6 minute journey. ‘Child’s Play’ is the title track from Liminal Drifter’s forthcoming EP, due out later in the year.
May 2020
Following on from 2018’s wonderfully received The Dreams, Liminal Drifter delivers another suite of mesmeric electronica in his latest outing, Connected. Dripping with dub-inflected rhythms and intricate melodic tapestries, Connected is a collection of eight intangible travelscapes that touch on both the astral and the earthbound.”a beautifully choreographed snapshot of the artist’s knack for the surreal, fluid mechanics of mid-90s electronic music shaped with current-era finesse” – (Igloo Mag on The Dreams). The album’s buoyant and often uplifting electronica belies the conditions under which it was created. Born out of a period of personal trauma, Connected acts as a musical salve and a celebration of important moments. Opener ‘Choir on Mars’ is a playful invitation to enter Liminal Drifter’s bright musical space, its subtly phased electric piano playing against reverberant chords, crisp beats and breathy sampled voices. ‘Braxton’ brings to mind In Sides-era Orbital as it draws you inexorably into its centre. ‘Sheep Radio’ is a happy-to-be-sad slice of daydream-dub electronica, layered with intricate samples and an insistent yet delicate melodic progression. And closing track ‘Atlantean Shaman’ taps into a moody, reflective space, casting a majestic shadow across the preceding 40 minutes of music.
June 2018
Following his acclaimed debut album, Troubled Mystic, and its remix companion, Night Train Vacancies, this new collection displays Simon Order’s ongoing mastery of melodic, transportive electronica. Befitting its title, The Dreams has a notably woozy feel, its pristine sonics rendered uncanny by subliminal details. Track titles such as ‘Beach Fair’, ‘Angels of the Sea’ and ‘Fish Don’t Have Arms or Legs’ offer suggestions of the aquatic vibe of the release, with sonar pings and synth pads washing in and out as samples of submerged voices nag at the subconscious. Whether it’s the driving bassline of ‘Stranger Things’, the dream-pop guitars and skanking piano on ‘Man is Part of Nature’, or the thick synth arpeggiation on closer ‘Time Lapse’, The Dreams takes great care to offer up dense layers of satisfying instrumentation.
On Night Train Vacancies, Liminal Drifter takes his ideas of shifting identities, travel and states of consciousness to the logical extreme. While most of debut album Troubled Mystic (Hidden Shoal, 2015) was written while travelling and visiting new places, The Night Train Vacancies sees Liminal Drifter’s music taking new journeys of its own. By throwing the original tracks out into the world, to be reinterpreted by artists such as Erik Nilsson, Matt McLean (of Lilt), Lvmark, p_Frisk and Robwun, Simon Order has invested his musical flights of fancy with fresh wings.
Labelmate Erik Nilsson’s reworking of ‘Troubled Mystic’ is an exercise in both restraint and expansion, reining in the original’s downtempo beats and horns, pairing Chloe March’s voice with nylon-string guitar and shimmering synth. Matt McLean, working under the moniker of Feeding | Ear, morphs the ambient electronica of ‘Adventure Beyond the Body’ into a spectral, tension-and-release banger. p-Frisk’s sublime mashup seamlessly interweaves three originals from Troubled Mystic into an eerie shuffle, populated by ghostly hooks, while Order’s own remix of labelmate Kryshe’s ‘Lullaby’ renders the original in a palette that sits beautifully with the other tracks. In fact, if there’s a distinguishing feature of this collection, it’s how well the tracks flow together, despite the variety of remixers involved and their diverse approaches to the source material.
August 2015
Troubled Mystic is the debut album by Australian electronic artist Liminal Drifter, featuring collaborations with English dream-pop artist Chloe March. Drawing on the seminal Warp releases of the ’90s, including Black Dog, Plaid and early Autechre, as well as more contemporary peers, Liminal Drifter evokes a spectrum of emotions across beautifully detailed electronic tapestries. Moving from downtempo dream-pop to shimmering, spacey electronica, this suite of songs works as if by osmosis, gently irradiating your subconscious. Liminal Drifter roves widely and deeply across Troubled Mystic’s hour-long run-time, allowing the songs to breathe and cross-pollinate. The title track punctuates a bright, shuffling groove with golden swells of brass and an aching vocal from Chloe March. ‘Dark Sunlight’ recalls the brooding majesty of Massive Attack’s ‘Inertia Creeps’. And gorgeous closer ‘Soothed by Summer’ vibrates with crystalline melancholia, resonating long after the last note has dropped.
© Liminal Drifter 2020
