To celebrate the premiere of their collaborative album Portals, English drum’n’bass titans Sub Focus and Wilkinson are releasing an exclusive one hour DJ set later today. The unique back-to-back performance will be broadcast at 7pm BST on MixmagTV with more details available on their Facebook page and YouTube Channel.
Speaking about their upcoming set, the artists stated: “The cinematic and expansive backdrop felt like the perfect physical representation of the album.” Dating back to the 10th century, the Corfe Castle stands proudly above the village of the same name in Dorset and is one of the most iconic surviving buildings from the Civil War. With its timeless ruins, grand architecture and surrounding nature one can hardly imagine a more suitable location to host Sub Focus and Wilkinson official celebration of their long anticipated experimental joined project.
Portals was officially released last Friday and is available on standard CD and LP from here, or ready to stream on all digital platforms. The album features the four main singles ‘Illuminate‘, ‘Air I Breathe‘, ‘Just Hold On‘ and ‘Turn The Lights Off‘, alongside seven other track that immediately form one of the most significant drum’n’bass project of the year. The record was received extremely well upon its premiere, with fans across social media platforms praising its fresh take on the genre, brave experimentation and vast sonic scope.
Centred around the idea of escapism and teleporting to different realities, Portals sends its listeners to a journey across the open outer space of electronic music production with its grand compositions, real instrumentations and gentle melodies. Speaking about the exciting release, Wilkinson shared his gratitude for all of the support and added: “2020 has been testing to say the least but I hope this record brings a bit of joy to you all“.
PORTALS is out! What a journey from Real World Studios all the way through to lockdown. 2020 has been testing to say the least but I hope this record brings a bit of joy to you all. Thank you @subfocus it’s been a real pleasure making this record with you! https://t.co/v5d3fEZroY — Wilkinson (@WilkinsonUK) October 9, 2020
Well known for huge club anthems and drum’n’bass classics, both Sub Focus and Wilkinson approached Portals in a very different state of mind and context. Talking about their influences and recording process for UKF they agreed the album “truly represents their inspirations” and was created to allow “listeners to delve into an immersive musical journey and escape from the shambles that is life right now“.
As part of the album promotion, Sub Focus and Wilkinson performed an exciting back-to-back set for BBC Radio 1’s Essential Mix series, available to listen online. In the 2-hour performance, the DJs covered almost the entirety of Portals, iconic tracks from their own reperoirs and favourite genre classic in a brilliant mix that only reminded us how much we miss live shows. Tune in later today to witness yet another memorable set against the monumental backdrop of Corfe Castle.
Listen back to our @BBCR1 #essentialmix from last nights show right here. As always thank you to the General @petetong #R1Dancehttps://t.co/16tB54OLMg pic.twitter.com/P2xodr5zSv
— Wilkinson (@WilkinsonUK) October 10, 2020
