Ryan Vail

Derry electronic producer Ryan Vail discusses his new album. Ryan Vail has been an innovator since he first appeared on the music scene in 2009. At a time when so much electronic music was being generated using software on laptops, Ryan arduously and ardently followed the more complicated path of using actual hardware synths, drum machines and samplers. In 2019, he released the critically acclaimed “Borders” album with Elma Orkestra and it went on to win the Northern Ireland Music Prize for best album. His new album “Residual” was supposed to be his next release as a solo artist but, in 2020, everything changed. At the start of that year, Ryan’s visionary manager Lyndon Stephens died. Within two months, the first COVID 19 lockdown effectively shut the music industry down and made it almost impossible for musicians to work. The album was shelved. Indefinitely. However, six years later, it is now seeing the light of day and it is a stunning record filled with the analogue warmth and layers of carefully pitched beauty and darkness that is the signature sound of Ryan’s work. On this week’s show, he discusses the record with Stephen while they listen to tracks from it.