Photo by Joni Spaan

Airports and Ports by Hunter Complex

The enforced isolation of the last couple of years produced a longing for travel which for many was sublimated in interior journeys. Dutch composer and synth player Lars Meijer enlists an impressive roster of collaborators for his latest album Airports and Ports which, as the name suggests, provides soundscapes for dreams of movement and transcendence. Meijer merges elements of electronic ambience, new age, contemporary classical and jazz into a modern Third Stream that is smooth without being anodyne and tranquil without cloying. An optimism in many of the tracks that may have come from reaching out to other musicians a process seems to have loosened Meijer’s compositions and opened his arrangements.

Hunter Complex : Airports and Ports

For my money Lars Meijer, aka Hunter Complex, is making some of the most exciting and innovative electronic music currently. As a composer he approaches his work not only a student of the electronic music world, but from the world of jazz, modern classical, pop music, and from a cinematic approach. His releases over the last three years have been a continuous sonic world as Open Sea and Dead Calm…

“Get In Touch With The Rest Of The World”: Hunter Complex Returns With ‘Airports and Ports’; A Conversation With Lars Meijer

For me, the return of Hunter Complex, aka Lars Meijer, is a great thing. I can remember so vividly hearing Open Sea in late 2018, a couple months prior to it’s official release date and being blown away. That record was like breathing rarefied air; a sound world that felt like another place and time, yet there was a familiarity to it that was dizzying. Meijer had released a few albums as Hunter…

Hunter Complex : Dead Sea

I think one of the biggest musical discoveries for me in the last couple years has been Hunter Complex. The one-man music project of Lars Meijer has been a constant soundtrack in my head and ears since I first heard his Death Waltz Originals release Open Sea in late 2018/early 2019. That album for me captured a certain kind of magic; a 1980s sound that so few can summon unless they were actually…

Pandemic 2020 : Favorite Albums So Far In The Year Of The Great Sigh

It feels trivial to sit here and write about my favorite albums of 2020, but I guess I’m trivial. There are far more important things to be talking about, I’m perfectly aware of that. I look out my window and see the same fires burning as you. I see people ignoring science and believing lies so they can justify their ignorance. I see folks continuing with their Devil’s Advocate “All Lives…

Hunter Complex : Rain In Europe

Lars Meijer has had a pretty amazing song cycle over the last nearly two years. It started in early 2019 with the release of Open Sea on Death Waltz Originals. Then just two months ago he dropped that album’s follow-up, Dead Calm and Zero Degreeson Burning Witches Records. The songs from both LPs were recorded together during the same writing phase, so while they were each very unique in sound…

“Synths Are Not Nostalgic” : Lars Meijer Talks Hunter Complex’ Newest ‘Dead Calm and Zero Degrees

Lars Meijer works in a sonic world unto himself. You listen to one of his Hunter Complex records and you’ll likely hear something familiar, but within a moment the familiarity fades and you’re hearing something completely unique. Meijer pulls influence from artists as wide-ranging as Mark Isham, Prince, and Guided By Voices. He pulls bits and pieces of each and creates something wholly unique and…