Memotone - smallest things

Will Yates has been recording as Memotone since 2007, crafting intricate, searching music that resists easy categorisation. On smallest things, he sheds the looping and electronics of previous work in favour of something almost entirely acoustic — sparse but deeply evocative. Guitar, cello, clarinet and percussion form delicate, textured arrangements that recall Morton Feldman or the quiet poise of a Morandi still life. There are echoes of folk, jazz, and DIY experimentalism, but the atmosphere here is wholly his own. Album highlight ‘I Could See the Smallest Things’ sets the tone with wide-open space and earthy tone. ‘Time is Away Theme’ shuffles in with tipsy grace, and the closing ‘In Dreams’ — featuring Eva May — is breathtaking. smallest things is a work of rare intimacy, driven by close listening and a deep attunement to the natural world.