Perfect pitch isn't the goal here—in fact, it's quite the opposite. While making his new album "Requiem For A Village," Steven Wilson deliberately steered clear of AI and pitch correction tools, choosing instead to let the mistakes and rough edges of live performance stay right there in the recording.
The former Porcupine Tree member, now an independent producer and singer, released his eighth solo album, "The Overview," last year, inspired by the "Overview Effect"—the profound psychological shift astronauts experience upon first seeing Earth from space. Now he's announced this follow-up will arrive on November 6 via Fiction Records.
According to the press release, "Requiem For A Village" is a rejection of modernity. Wilson explained: "I wanted to get back to music where you can hear the metaphorical fingerprints. Doubling down on human motion and human flaws—things software just can't create." He noted that the album relies solely on analog synthesizers, embracing their unpredictability, and that some instruments were deliberately left slightly out of tune. He even picked up instruments he barely knew how to play—violin, oboe, drums—"playing instruments I don't really understand, and finding more inspiration in that than I expected."
"Approaching the music with a kind of naivety, just to see where it would take me," he added. "And it took me to that village."
The album features narration written by XTC's Andy Partridge and voiced by David Tennant. The 12 tracks, in order, are: "Swirl In A Lark's Eye," the title track "Requiem For A Village," "The Same River Twice," "Now Departing," "Hiraeth," "On Chapel Slope," "Murmuration," "Curcus Fingerprint," "A Basket Of Bees," "Great Green Map," "Wheel," and "The Old God Is Buried."
