New Album ‘Beyond the Outer Loop’ Out Now!
I’m very happy to announce the release of my new album, Beyond the Outer Loop, out now for streaming and download.
In addition to Bandcamp, it’s available on Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, Google Play etc.
As ever, getting the word out about new music always proves incredibly difficult, so if you don’t mind helping by sharing the news on your social networks, I’d hugely appreciate it. Thanks! 
Press release (pdf version):
This year sees Ochre (Christopher Leary) return with Beyond the Outer Loop, his first full-length album since 2013’s National Ignition, following his Isolette EP in 2015.
Beyond the Outer Loop constitutes a refinement of Ochre’s trademark musicality, paring down his synthesiser-focused arrangements without sacrificing the emotional and melancholic style for which he is known. The album contrasts from the upbeat, technical intricacy of opener ‘Anaphora’, to the more pastoral tone of ‘Rowing to the Riverhead’ and ‘Gilded Ground’, as well as more minimal, almost choral ambient pieces exemplified by ‘Out of the Gyre’ and ‘Weak Transponder’.
At the album’s core, ‘Suspension’ is notable for its use of vocals, weaving glossolalia into the fabric of ethereal, fluttering synthesisers and an unwavering hiphop beat. Along with ‘Tourmaline’, it typifies the more utopian, optimistic side of the album, while ‘Port Authority’, ‘Fenwick Colliery’ and ‘Light Rail’ exhibit a darker and more urban, dystopian unease.
As Leary himself explains, “As the album coalesced, I began to draw a parallel between a narrative evoked by the music I was writing, and the routes I would walk when taking a break from the studio. My excursions out through the suburbs of Newcastle, along the often detritus-laden trails, follow a trajectory from constantly evolving, frenetic and noisy urban environments, through brownfield areas littered with signs of their industrial past, to the serene and expansive rural and coastal destinations. It gave me a real sense of getting away from the fumes and grit of my everyday surroundings, albeit temporarily. I’d then hop on the train back to the city outskirts. My music has always had a utopian melancholy at its core, so it’s perhaps unusual that I’ve ended up writing quite a location-specific album.”
Beyond the Outer Loop will be available on all major streaming services and download stores from the 24th of February, 2017.