Now… if you’ve ever gotten to know me, you may be aware that I’ve got a special place in my heart for music that is surprising. Whether it’s general amazement at the talent of a band like black midi, or the whimsy and mysticism of The Smile; I love a secret, I love a surprise. That being said, if any project has spent their time really leaning into the element of surprise, then SAULT are the ones to take the crown – in my opinion. Since their debut, 5, back in 2019, the group have maintained a level of mystery rivalling that of Daft Punk, other than the almost obvious production credits from Inflo, and vocal appearances from Cleo Sol and Kid Sister; everything else is pretty much under wraps. The group have never played live, released a music video, or given an interview; they also have quite a substantial list of unnamed collaborators. You can listen to new track “Air” below.
If the project has anything in the way of themes or consistency going for it, then we may be in for another sibling album to match Air. 2019 came with albums 5 and 7, then 2020 brought Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise). 2021 then gave us Nine… which didn’t come with a pair, but maybe this can be lumped in with 5 and 7 to give us a trilogy? I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get another surprise SAULT album called Fire, or Water in the next few months… both? But Nine was given a bit of a special release last year anyway, only making itself available for 99 days after release, so maybe that one doesn’t count. Regardless of its unorthodox release, the album was still nominated for the Mercury Prize.
Air is now on sale now at SAULT’s online store. You can look into =bagging a physical copy here. Presumably, this will come with the usual proceedings we’ve come to expect. That being: not a lot. If you’re not able to get ahold of a physical copy though, you can still get usual access through streaming or Bandcamp, and I do recommend that you do. Air is a little different to SAULT’s previous output, its suspenseful choral sounds take a very different path to what we’ve heard so far. However, if you were into SAULT for Cleo Sol’s vocals then you might be disappointed with the level of input she seemed to have this time around.
