Modern Studies release a new EP, ‘Life Flows In Endless Song’, on Fire Records.

Containing three tracks, it’s the first of two EPs written this year in lieu of the Anglo-Scots quartet touring, with the second instalment, ‘The Body Is A Tide’ due out in 2021.

Following the release of album ‘The Weight Of The Sun’ in spring, the band spent time together putting together musical ideas which, during lockdown between summer and autumn, were pieced together into a set of songs.

These were recorded partly at the Glad Café in Glasgow with Emily Scott and Joe Smilie laying down piano melodies and percussion, before Rob St John added guitars and modular synth.

St John and Scott began writing vocal melodies and collaborating on lyrics whilst Pete Harvey began mixing the new ideas in his Pumpkinfield studio and recording the basslines, cello and musical saw.

As well as these new and more conventional tracks – ‘Endless Song’, ‘Slow, Then Sudden’, and ‘The Failing Light’ appearing on the first of the two EPs – the band also constructed an ambient track which was created when all the tracks from ‘The Weight Of The Sun’ were accidentally played at the same time.

The band say of the new material: “We shook off our usual song structures in favour of something repetitive, slow and heavy; life flows in endless song. We added chopstick drums, prepared guitars, harmonium, xaphoon, bowed clock gongs, chimes and violins from our homes.”

‘Life Flows In Endless Song’ is available now to download or stream.

More at modernstudiestheband.com.