Botany is the project of Austin based sound artist, composer and musician Spencer Stephenson. He’s back with a new album called Portal Orphanage which is out now via Western Vinyl. According to the press release, Papier-mâché’d from scraps of Motown soul, flower-power devotional, classical harp recordings, and even warp-speed country, Portal Orphanage is a 25-minute postscript to last year’s late-stage-capitalism beat mosaic End the Summertime F(or)ever, and quite possibly one of Spencer Stephenson’s final releases under the Botany moniker for the foreseeable future.
Where his previous LP anchored bleary-eyed optimism with concern and disillusionment, this EP ascends to the upper atmosphere to watch the dust of the 2010s– the decade encompassing most of the Botany discography– settle from a slightly more opiated vantage. Though there is still some sunlight breaking through the clouds, Portal Orphanage hums in somber resignation toward the darker promises of the future that have come true, while digesting the events of the last few years pensively instead of decrying them urgently.
Check the full streaming below.