One could argue that exotica or lounge records were the first easy-listening releases in modern music, and that without them, down-tempo electronic music would sound entirely different. The genre first found favor on the home hi-fi apparatus of the 1950s and 1960s, a symbol of the sensual side of society, appealing to a whole generation of stylish listeners in search of some immediate and inescapable leisure. This was the sort of leisure you experienced while strolling across your shag carpet in your monogrammed slippers and smoking jacket to refresh your afternoon cocktail. It featured the sounds of a tropical islands and jungle getaways, complete with the calming loop of the ocean’s waves on white-sanded beaches or crayon-colored birdsong.
We wanted to capture the lush, sun-drunk soul of lounge music, so we called in Feist-collaborator Ian McLellan Davis to arrange a 15-piece orchestral session of strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, synths, and more. We recorded everything in one day at Rubber Tracks, and the result is Paradise Found, our newest and most chilled-out pack from Splice Originals.
