Khotin - Release Spirit
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Khotin - Release Spirit
Holdrons Arcade
135A Rye Lane
Unit 11 Holdrons Arcade
London SE15 4ST
United Kingdom
Label: Ghostly International – GI411LP
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US
Released: Feb 17, 2023
Genre: Electronic
Style: Ambient, Downtempo
Khotin's fifth album on Ghostly International arrived at the end of a period of creative crisis — the fatigue of endless lockdowns bringing him close to giving up on music entirely. What emerged instead was a record of unusual clarity and freedom: Release Spirit, eleven tracks that move through alternating rhythms and atmospheres with the loose, exploratory energy of a producer who has shed the weight of expectation and found his creative self again on the other side.
The album's title borrows from a World of Warcraft game mechanic — when players die, they release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their bodies and come back to life. It is a fitting metaphor for both the personal and artistic process the record documents. Warped synths, breakbeats and piano drift through the eleven tracks with the warm, unhurried openness that defines Khotin's best work, while Montreal-based musician Tess Roby lends spine-tingling vocals to Fountain, Growth — the album's first ever vocal collaboration and one of its most affecting moments. A record about purging expectations and returning to the music, made by someone who clearly needed to make it.
