Richard Barbieri (Porcupine Tree / Japan)

Richard Barbieri remains one of contemporary music’s most distinctive voices.

Emerging as a key architect of the late ’70s/’80s synthesiser revolution with David Sylvian’s art-rock ensemble Japan, his visionary synthesiser programming expanded the horizons of electronic music and left a lasting mark on artists from The Human League and Duran Duran to Gary Numan and Talk Talk. His subsequent and ongoing tenure with Steven Wilson’s legendary progressive outfit Porcupine Tree across albums such as In Absentia (2002), Fear Of A Blank Planet (2007) and, most recently, Closure/Continuation (2022) further affirmed his status as one of the most intuitive and unique musicians of his generation.

Hauntings is Barbieri’s first studio album since 2021’s Under A Spell, deepening the pensive, dark instrumental aesthetic of its predecessor. A diverse collection of immersive sound worlds, both dark and uplifting in equal measure, Hauntings is influenced by a nostalgia for the past and future, and for things that didn’t happen yet still manage to haunt the mind and soul. What is real and what is simulation?  

The album finds Barbieri at the height of his powers, his deft keyboard and sonic architecture conjuring a shadowy, creeping Lovecraftian atmosphere. The music wanders through the streets of a gloomy lamp-lit Victorian London and drifts into grain-speckled snapshots of Belle Époque Paris. These journeys into the past are contrasted with nihilistic but euphoric forays into the future, “Traveler” and “A New Simulation” bristling with the itchy modern anxiety that often runs through his best work.  

Contrasting the sound designs and electronics of Barbieri, the album features performances from renowned musicians Morgan Agren (drums and percussion), Percy Jones (bass guitar) and Luca Calabrese (trumpet).