- It's been a while since we last heard from Jochem Peteri, the artist better known as Newworldaquarium and Ross 154 (or simply 154), but it feels like he never left. The music he released in the '90s and '00s prefigured the scuffed sound that would define much of this decade's electronic music, and has since then achieved classic status, with some of his tracks, like 2000's "Trespassers," remaining in many DJs' repertoires today. Now, he returns with Wherever You Go, I Will Follow, released this month on Boomkat Editions.
When we spoke back in 2011, Peteri described two key parts of his creative process. The first is that he draws inspiration from day-to-day experiences, whether it's an oddly pleasant hangover, or the memory of a landscape in Northern France, glimpsed from the back seat of his family's car. The other is that he would often stay up all night making music—or "sculpting sounds" as he put it—then cut a chunk out of the session and whittle it down into a finished track.
Wherever You Go, I Will Follow seems to carry on both traditions. It's inspired by the birth of Peteri's second child, and comprises one 22-minute piece split into two tracks, "Wherever You Go" and "I Will Follow." This last detail is the record's only flaw—even on the digital version, one track abruptly fades out and the other comes roaring in, which is a bit jarring for such a meditative piece of music. And it is indeed meditative, a dense, fizzing mass of sound that stretches to the horizon, with euphoric chords that beam in like sunlight to the ocean floor. It could pass for an old recording from Peteri's vaults, though apparently it dates from sometime after 2014, which raises the question: could there be more where this came from? Either way, Wherever You Go, I Will Follow is a welcome addition to this beloved artist's catalog.
TracklistA Wherever You Go
B I Will Follow