Russell Haswell's long-held preoccupation with minute-by-minute geopolitical developments picks up where his previous Diagonal album, Reality Therapy, left off — with tracks honed in the wake of failed assassination attempts, crypto meltdowns and feverish speculation surrounding ground-to-space warfare. Deep Time's primary musing, however, is the incomprehensible scale of time; namely, how humans measure and record the history of Earth — from nanoseconds to 13.8 billion years of existence.
The artist's recent expeditions to the Scottish Hebrides, amidst news reports on the Siccar Point rock formations, in which two adjoining rock types had been laid bare, provided the artist with an opportunity to glean the central tenants of this new album. “Unconformity”, an album highlight, derives its name from 18th century geologist James Hutton’s discovery of junctions between two types of rock formations, a phenomenon which to this day aids us in tracking the age of our planet. A graphical representation of this concept features in the typography used for the album’s sleeve design — devised by long-time collaborators Hamish Muir and Paul McNeil.
As ever with Haswell, the record presents an amalgam of influences, from European free improvised music and Detroit/Birmingham techno to Dutch gabber and 70’s and 80’s science fiction soundtracks.