The greatest thing about being a musician is experiencing it with other people,” says Ed Riman, the Brighton-based half-Welsh half-Indonesian singer, songwriter and sound-scapist who records as Hilang Child. “It’s a totally elevated experience when you’re not alone.”
Proof rings out with force and feeling on Hilang Child’s superlative second album, Every Mover. Released in early 2021 to acclaim from Clash Magazine, The Sun, Rolling Stone and more, as well as plaudits from BBC DJs Radcliffe & Maconie, Janice Long and others, it’s a natural evolution from 2018’s serene debut Years. The ‘isolating process’ of making the first album had left Riman hungry for alternative ways of working. Drawing on a rich spread of collaborators, sounds and themes, Riman uses his frustrations to transform the brimming promise of Years into upfront and expansive new shapes with Every Mover.
“Good To Be Young” serves notice of this leap, its twinkling sound clusters leading to an assertion of fresh force when the main beat lands, punctuated by gang-vocals from a 12-strong choir of Riman’s friends. “Seen the Boreal” ups the ante with its spectral woodwinds (from multi-instrumentalist John ‘Rittipo’ Moore, of Public Service Broadcasting and Bastille previous) and ecstatic chorus. And “King Quail” surges forward with Krautrock propulsion, developed in jam sessions with dream-pop wonder Wyldest.
Passion lights up Every Mover, an album that hymns the redemptive qualities of richly expressive music crafted in simpatico unison with friends.
