My Autumn Empire

Staffordshire based dreamy folk-pop melodicist Benjamin Thomas Holton is the man behind My Autumn Empire and the lynchpin of pastoral experimenters’ epic45. His latest release ‘The Visitation’ (April 2014) is testament to his willingness to experiment and is the most conceptual album to date. Holton pulls out his inner ELO to deliver a space themed, televisually inspired, dissection of human relationships and all their complexities. The themes are realised by utilising sumptuous vocal harmonies and rich progressive pop structures all the while retaining the smudged and hazy sonic textures for which he’s renowned. The first studio release entitled ‘The Village Compass’ (2010) presented a collection of recordings that centred around the idea of life in a remote Staffordshire village, from where Holton hails. Serving as introspection to convey a “dreamlike state of self imposed isolation”. The album was recorded in tandem with epic45’s ‘May Your Heart Be The Map’ (2007), with Holton’s solo work sharing many of that records concerns with folk and sample based textures. Follow up album ‘II’ (2012) demonstrated a radical departure into a world with a seventies tinged dreamscape, replacing the ambient electronica and samples with live drums, multi-layered vocal harmonies, shimmering synths and acoustic guitar. Haunted Pop/Ghost Folk