Hailing Ishimura – If You Get This, Follow Our Beacon (2022)

Hailing Ishimura offer up the bookend of their album ‘If You Get This, Follow Our Beacon’, which tells the last chapter in the story of the tracks. In the conclusion to an adventure through Hell, the main characters finally find what they have been looking for and set their beacon with a message for home. Hopeful yet resigned, the single is a journey itself that is painted clearly in your mind’s eye, through both the lyrics and melody.

While the single has changed a lot since its inception, the message remains the same, while the ambience has been built to new heights. Christopher True (guitar, bass) and Dom Hopson (guitar, bass, synths) are the duo behind the sound and are excited about this single. Since forming in 2021 in an old Pepsi Bottling Factory, they have been building the space adventure that this single concludes.

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‘If You Get This, Follow Our Beacon’ slowly builds, like a distant light growing larger as you edge closer. The guitars reach out toward you like tendrils of stardust, before bursting in a supernova of colours and glittering synths. There is a delicacy to the melody that brings a strange weightlessness to the sound, while moving you forward toward that opening light. The warbles of the synths offer an otherworldly edge that slinks closer to the cosmic the longer you listen. A touch of static brings the sense that you are moving out of range. Through the static, a light tone beckons you closer with a light sense of awe as you move with the characters to find what you are looking for.

While there is a clear journey woven into the instrumental movements of the track, there is something darker resting just beneath the surface. This is the realisation that while you have reached the end of your journey, there is a chance you will never be able to make it home. While the static and light electronic notes pull you toward the beacon of the story, the guitars seem to tell their own tale. As they soar out into space, it is like they are talking and telling you the story of the track. They also carry the beckoning call of the synths as they act as the beacon that you need to follow.

With a masterful use of instrumentation, Hailing Ishimura have you travelling through space, chasing the static transmission of ‘If You Get This, Follow Our Beacon’. As an instrumental single, each note of the melody has been perfectly crafted to tell a story through the musical movement. You can feel the story flow through your veins, carrying the happiness of finding what you are looking for and the pain of potentially never seeing home again.

Find out more about Hailing Ishimura on their website, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.