The unlikely partnership between electronic pioneer Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and Nashville guitarist William Tyler yields a deeply personal exploration of shared musical DNA rooted in 1980s American country and folk. Recorded at Los Angeles’s Sargent Recorders, this debut collaboration transforms nostalgic influences into forward-thinking ambient Americana.

The album opens with an 11-minute deconstruction of Lyle Lovett’s ‘If I Had a Boat’, where Tyler’s pastoral guitar work gradually dissolves into Hebden’s digital manipulations, creating something that honours both the original’s narrative beauty and electronic music’s transformative possibilities. ‘Spider Ballad’ showcases Hebden’s ability to guide Tyler from vast landscapes toward the dance floor through cerebral electronica that reveals new layers with each listen.

The collaborative language they develop grows increasingly intimate across the album’s duration. ‘When It Rains’ demonstrates their push-pull dynamic, with Tyler’s forlorn Americana suddenly interrupted by Hebden’s discordant walls of noise. Conversely, ‘Timber’ finds perfect synthesis in its lullaby-like fusion of Tyler’s soft plinking and Hebden’s cosmic textures. The closing ‘Secret City’ provides a fitting bookend, with Tyler’s guitar work suggesting not an ending but a beginning, beautifully augmented by Hebden’s subtle flourishes.