Michael and the band are hugely grateful for the overwhelming response they've gotten for their new album, their 10th, Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams: Recordings for The Dark Outside.
Very kind words and airplay have followed the album's release, just three weeks ago, from places near and far flung. Michael is particularly grateful for the reviews of two legendary broadcasters who we all have revered for decades. WFMU's Irene Trudel called the new record "Wondrous! A great album!", playing tracks over consecutive weeks. And on December 17, 2021, legendary BBC Radio 3 and Soho Radio DJ Max Reinhardt closed the first set of his show with these words and the album's closing track:
MAX R (on air): “…Well, there’s only one way to go - to people I’ve never met in my life but they are good friends. We hear from them quite a lot: Bipolar Explorer.
Bipolar Explorer are a fascinating band, who I have described as “liminal”. They’re always becoming. And they’re always stepping out of having become, too. This is off a new album that just came out at the very beginning of this month - "Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams: Recordings for The Dark Outside". It’s on Slugg Records and Bandcamp, by the way. And they are Summer Serafin - who’s still there - vocals, spoken word. Michael Serafin-Wells who plays a great many instruments and tape loops and things and Sylvia Solanas who’s also spoken word.
So, the origins of this work is a 24-hour broadcast from Galloway Forest. The Dark Outside has been held annually since 2012. Furthering its mystique, the broadcast can only be heard within the narrow range of the transmitter rented for the event. So, actually this expands that listenership because the album comprises seven pieces they recorded for this experimental radio broadcast in the UK. It’s called The Dark Outside and it’s probably well worth finding when it’s there. But when it’s not there, you can always listen to this album from Bipolar Explorer. This track is called “Prayers With a Cathedral of Trees”.
(plays track, live tweets: “Now playing - the sublime Bipolar Explorer”…)
“You had it all there, really, didn’t you? You had minimalism. You had Musique Concrète. You had real sound. You had just an amazing feeling of release. And somehow being out there under the stars and the wind. That was “Prayers Within a Cathedral of Trees” - Bipolar Explorer. And maybe that’s one of their finest tracks ever. It is for me. That’s off their new album, Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams: Recordings for The Dark Outside, originally made for an experimental radio broadcast event - very mysterious, you’ll have to find out when it’s on, it happens in this country, every… I think once a year - The Dark Outside. For more information, Google “The Dark Outside” and see what you get. But brilliant, brilliant band - Bipolar Explorer.”
Max Reinhardt
Soho Radio (London)
December 17, 2021