Second Nature is the 2012 album from Seb Taylor’s electronic downtempo project Hibernation. With a distinct sonic palette that includes stand up bass, muted trumpet, brush drums, glitches, womps and warm subs the Hibernation sound is crucial listening. Seb brings a lifetime of musical experience to his production, composition and arrangements, and it shows. Listening to Second Nature conjures up future memories of dark smoky jazz clubs, Bladerunner cityscapes, parallel universes, dreams half forgotten and epic nights. This is music with spirit, narrative and detail.
The first Hibernation album, Some Things Never Change, was released on respected label Aleph Zero in 2008. At this point Seb had released a number of Kaya Project albums to great acclaim and gained a loyal following among downtempo aficionados. With many different projects to his name Seb likes to keep them stylistically distinct and Hibernation is devoted to a more electronic realm than Kaya Project, which features live instrumentation from around the world. Hibernation, as the name suggests, heads inwards and locks onto micro edits, quirky samples, glitches and hyper-fine details. Here at Interchill we’ve been fans of Seb’s work for years, and Hibernation is some of the best and most timeless downtempo music around. On the new album Second Nature, Natasha Chamberlain contributes some dreamy vocal flourishes to a number of tunes and Seb also turned to the capable Riad Abji and Vicky Flint for stand up bass and muted trumpet in the signature tune Uncarved Block.
Seb Taylor has been producing for more than 20 years under a number of aliases; Shakta, Kaya Project, Hibernation, Digitalis, Chaos by Design, SE23, Radiate, and Subterfuge. An accomplished guitar player, Seb also plays the tzoura, zheng, banjoud, harmonica, hammered dulcimer, hang drum, various percussion, flute as well as the occasional vocal. Seb has performed around the world at clubs, parties and festivals; from fear and loathing style scenes in yakuza clubs in Tokyo to the over the top craziness of Shambhala in BC’s Kootenay mountains, from Mad Max doofs in the dusty Australian desert to the fabled beaches of Goa. When he’s not travelling Seb can be found in the studio in Brighton UK.
Released November 12, 2012
