Immersion

Married couple Colin Newman (Wire) and Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) produce flowing instrumental soundscapes as Immersion, drawing from influences such as ambient, techno, and Krautrock. The duo’s recordings, all of which appear on the duo’s own Swim label, mesh expansive synth textures and hypnotic rhythms with Newman’s recognizable guitar tones and Spigel’s basslines, producing a rough, post-punk take on electronic music. Immersion debuted with the 1994 full-length Oscillating, which was followed by a remix album and a second album, Low Impact (1999). After putting Immersion on hold for well over a decade, Spigel and Newman resumed the project during the 2010s, releasing the full-lengths Analogue Creatures Living on an Island and Sleepless, their most focused works yet. The two musicians first met in Brussels in 1985, when Newman was producing Minimal Compact’s Raging Souls. Spigel then worked on Newman’s 1986 album, Commercial Suicide, and the duo were married that same year. After working on several other projects together, the couple moved to London in 1992, where they founded the Swim label in order to release their own works. After forming Oracle, a proto-trip-hop project with Spigel’s Minimal Compact bandmate Samy Birnbach, Spigel and Newman began using the names Oscillating, Earth, and Immersion for remixes (and also to make it seem like Swim had a bigger roster). Soon after Oracle’s lone album, Tree, was released in 1994, Immersion debuted with Oscillating, which included two previously issued remixes of Oracle tracks. The duo’s songs were remixed by Vapourspace, Mick Harris, Claude Young, and others across three 12″ EPs and the 1995 CD Full Immersion: The Remixes, Vol. 1. An additional 1995 release, 2nd Immersion, found the duo dipping into atmospheric drum’n’bass. The project’s second album, 1999′s Low Impact, was far less rhythmic and more zoned-out than its predecessor, with two tracks stretching past 15 minutes each. The album’s first pressing included a bonus CD titled Backflip, which included tracks from 2nd Immersion as well as otherwise unavailable material. Other than a few compilation tracks near the beginning of the millennium, Immersion weren’t heard from for a while, as Newman resumed his duties as Wire’s frontman, and both Newman and Spigel released several albums as part of the alternative rock group Githead. Immersion returned in 2016 with the full-length Analogue Creatures Living on an Island (also released as two separate vinyl EPs), a far more melodic, Krautrock-esque effort than their previous releases. This was followed by 2018′s Sleepless, which featured guest drumming by Matt Schultz of Holy Fuck. ~ Paul Simpson