Curated, mixed and produced by lifelong gear collector Matt Horobin, it combines his signature downbeat, dub-steady, head-nodding grooves with the three-dimensional precision- detail that references his back catalogue from the halcyon era of jungle and drum-n-bass. “We started with the idea of a sampler of tracksfrom our first release schedule, paying duereverence to both ‘A Factory Sample’ and Warp’s‘Artificial Intelligence’, but it quickly evolved intoa record in its own right, an imaginary soundtrackmore akin to The KLF’s ‘Chillout’” says Horobin. “It’s down-tempo, glacially-paced in places, butdefinitely not background ambience – it’s organic,human, deeply emotional”.

The Horizon Is On The Horizon is structured around two re-edited tracks from each of the first three album releases by Delia Recordings artists Brown Fang, Torn Sail and Shrinkwrap. Brown Fang’s ‘Netherfield Lagoons’ album brings classic American minimalism, dub basslines, Tangerine Dream synths and widescreen, slow- release guitars, evolving the sound from the previous record, ‘Sherwood Pines’, released in 2021 by NuNorthern Soul. Torn Sail’s ‘Steady Weather’ continues themes familiar from much-loved previous releases and live shows, mapping a territory that spans space-music, jazz-fusion, 1970’s West-coast virtuosity and classical English introspection, like a post-Castlemorton, later-period Talk Talk, or John Martyn produced by Trevor Horn. Shrinkwrap’s as yet untitled album is a lost 1990’s studio project that started as a contemporary to Zero 7’s ‘Simple Things’ and has evolved to include twenty-five years of new influences, developing craftsmanship, and painstaking construction. This is the album that’s travelled the greatest distance to reach the horizon. Woven around the edge are five tracks which show the diversity of Delia’s friends and reference points, and find common ground in beauty, fragility and the place where the electronic and organic become inseparable. Brown Fang’s Henry Claude is utterly heartfelt as Never Ending Birthdays, with Nottingham risen-star Daudi Matsiko on backing vocals while Nine Voices (Huw Costin, Balearic legend B.J.Smith and Vicious Charms’s newest signing E.R. Thorpe) is a hint of a future project and a nerve-tingling choral close to the first side.

As well as showcasing both the starting point and future direction of Delia Recordings, The Horizon Is On The Horizon catalogues yet another Nottingham scene that refuses to stay underground, but resists mainstream compromises, so remains in the know. It’s an intricately connected, self-reliant Nottingham scene – the shared musicians of Brown Fang and Torn Sail make up Jim “CrazyP” Baron’s new JIM live band for example – and this record captures a moment of the magic, the people and the place.