Dreampop duo Ummagma have revealed ‘Galacticon’, an instrumental sonic odyssey that gracefully fuses elements of dream pop, ambient sighing fragments of synth and shifting soundscapes. It’s the achingly affecting, lump-in-the-throat sound of floating through the galaxy that sounds like its been scored by Vangelis and Brian Eno.
Ummagma are comprised of Shauna McLarnon and Alexander Kretov and they hail from Whitehorse, Canada and Kremenets, Ukraine respectively. Having first met in the centre of Moscow, they moved to Ukraine during the Orange Revolution but now call Peterborough, Canada their home.
‘Galacticon’ is lifted from their Frequency EP, which features five original tracks and three remixes of ‘Lama’ by several legendary artists, including Cocteau Twins‘ kingpin Robin Guthrie, Malcolm Holmes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, both of whom bring their signature sound to the mix, as well as Welsh trio Lights That Change.
This EP follows their two debut LPs Ummagma and Antigravity, released simultaneously in 2012. After relocating to Canada from Ukraine due to the war there, Frequency was the creative output of a search for optimism that helped the band put this tragedy behind them and find new ground. It explores such themes as space and distance, timelessness, escapism, and the search for tranquillity.
The latest video is for their spacey ambient track ‘Galacticon’, focusing on the ethereal element of the song. The video features much floating and flying, with aerial footage taken in western Ukraine over the town of Kremenets, band member Alexander Kretov’s hometown, where Ummagma built its recording studio and lived for nearly a decade. This is one of the only cities in this country that managed to stave off the Mongol-Tatars’ influence for centuries thanks to an extensive network of secret underground tunnels. In this video, you can see the ruins of the Bona castle and a mixture of Soviet and Polish style structures, left over from many years under Polish rule until it was annexed the Soviet Union at the end of World War One.
