Blackpool, UK-based musician and Third Eye favorite Fred Laird, best known for his cosmic psych explorations with Earthling Society and Taras Bulba, drifts into even more ethereal territory with Oriental Land, his latest release under the solo guise of Empty House.
Formed in 2021, Empty House is Laird’s vessel for minimalist instrumental voyages, fusing electronics, field recordings, and Asian instrumentation into a foggy, meditative soundscape. Think of it as music for yoga, martial arts practice, cloud-watching, or simply dissolving into your living room sofa.
Recorded in a cramped box room somewhere in the quiet northern edges of England, Oriental Land emerged from improvisations and skeletal basslines, later sculpted under a strict self-imposed rule: no more than eight instrumental layers per track. The result is a beautifully restrained, deeply textured world that feels simultaneously intimate and infinite.
Dub pulses subtly throughout these pieces, sometimes upfront, sometimes a ghostly undertow. Tracks like “Strong Arm Dub” flirt openly with the genre’s roots, while elsewhere the influence is more of a vapor trail than a direct hit.
The rhythmic backbone was built using a Stylophone Beat, layered live with electronic drum pads and drenched in analog effects: 646 spring reverb, Dual Bi-Phase, and the handmade Ras EFX dub delay, each effect becoming as much an instrument as any synth or guitar.
On “Sunburst Resonance” and “Magnolia Murmurs,” Laird introduces the Suzuki electronic Taishogoto, an oddball Japanese string instrument famously used on Neu!’s “Lieber Honig.” Laird managed to slip one past customs (a “lucky sod,” in his words), adding shimmering, slightly detuned color that weaves beautifully into the dreamlike tapestry.
The album’s title refers to a real park in Shanghai’s Qingpu district, a place that haunted Laird’s imagination during visits to China. “Oriental Land” boasts a giant model aircraft carrier and a submarine you can tour, not exactly a poetic muse at first glance. Yet, it sparked an unexpected sense of wonder that runs like an undercurrent through the album’s drifting melodies and hidden textures.
Limited to just 100 glass-mastered CDs (no CD-Rs here) and a digital release via Bandcamp, Oriental Land is a secret postcard from a fantastical realm, though that realm is, in this case, Laird’s vast and eccentric imagination.
Laird handles everything himself on the record, and it’s a lot: bass, guitar, Taishogoto, Wasp synth, piano, organ, marimbaphone, Stylophone beat drum machine, Alesis Micron, percussion, samples, dub siren, e-bow, and a healthy dose of carefully sculpted glitches.
It’s a record that will reward close listening or, if you fancy, to simply let wash over you in a soft, opiated haze. Either way, Oriental Land is a great new entry into Laird’s ever-expanding sonic universe under the Empty House moniker.
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