Matt Hillier – 10 Essential Tracks
Matt Hillier – 10 Essential Tracks
Matt Hillier, aka Ishq, Elve, Indigo Egg, Ishqmatics, Ishvara, and a host of other aliases, has been delighting chill music fans with a blend of trippy psychill and warm, medidative ambient music for years.
“Orchid” Album Cover (2001)
Hillier began making music back in the mid-90s, when he met Jake Stephenson of Alien Mutation and Shamanic Tribes on Acid fame. Their collaboration resulted in the Älien Mutation vs Indigo Egg classic album “Microcosmacrocosm”. Stephenson’s ear for the psychedelic and Hillier’s more introspective ambient sensibilities fit perfectly together. What makes this album special is the mix of futuristic soundscapes, (“Neuroscopic Bubbling Pond Life”), echoes from nature, (“Gateway To The Sun”), and the kind of ambient trance that was a signature of 90s psychill music (“Cloudhopping”).
Matt Hillier, aka Ishq, Elve, Indigo Egg, Ishqmatics, Ishvara, and a host of other aliases, has been delighting chill music fans with a blend of trippy psychill and warm, medidative ambient music for years.
In 2001, Hillier released his first solo album, Orchid. Now considered a psychill classic, it was also his first collaboration with vocalist Jacqueline Kersley, a partnership that lasts to this day. With gentle sun-kissed beats, birdsong, and faerie voices, Orchid is like floating through a vast botanical garden.
Hillier returned to his Indigo Egg project in 2008, with “Ixland”. Although perhaps not as well known as Microcosmacrocosm, it is a worthwhile sequel to his first partnership with Jake Stephenson. The futurism mixed with field recordings of nature still shine through, but with the track “Lhasa Oblongata”, we go to a spookier place that was not evident in Microcosmacrocosm.
“And Awake” Album Cover (2011)
Later, Hillier established Virtual Records as a vehicle for Ishq music, and continues to release music with Jacqueline Kersley under their various aliases. Although most of his music is released on Virtual, some collaborations, such as with Spatialize and Paand also as an opportunity to continue to collaborate to is still making psychill, ambient, and IDM music with Jacqueline Kersley and still collaborating with other artists, such as Spatialize and Pan Electric.
We have gathered together 10 of our favourite Matt Hillier projects, with the goal of showcasing both his psychedelic and his ambient side, as well as his evolution as an artist.