Kieran Hebden, William Tyler – 41 Longfield Street Late '80s

41 Longfield Street Late ’80s is a rich and evocative collaboration between Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and William Tyler that maps a shared fascination with ’80s American country and folk into ambient, electronic, and guitar-driven soundscapes. Built around memories, mood, and texture rather than straight genre homage, the album blends Tyler’s expressive fingerpicked guitar work with Hebden’s deft atmospherics and synthetic manipulations. The opening 11-minute reimagining of Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat” establishes the tone: familiar yet transformed, rooted in nostalgia but unafraid to roam into abstraction. Across its seven tracks — including “Spider Ballad”, “Timber”, and the meditative “Secret City” — the duo explore spaces between memory and experiment, letting moods drift and textures emerge.

Recorded between Los Angeles and Nashville, the album draws on the artists’ mutual upbringing around music like that of Lyle Lovett, Joe Ely, Nancy Griffith, and David Grissom. It is past-looking without being stuck there, offering moments of warmth, gentle introspection, and occasional bursts of distortion or drone. The result is a contemplative — even cinematic — work that feels as much about reflection as about invention, suggesting that the sounds of one’s youth can still be fertile ground for unexpected artistry.

Reviews

“41 Longfield Street Late ’80s … serves as a tribute to 1980s Americana and country music, genres deeply rooted in both artists’ upbringings.” – The Guardian

“The unlikely pairing of electronica auteur Kieran Hebden with guitar alchemist William Tyler results in a meditative gem in 41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s.” – The Line of Best Fit

“Opener If I Had A Boat is the loveliest track I’ve heard all year, an 11-minute exploration of Lyle Lovett’s country classic that slips along on a gorgeous guitar motif before sinking slowly beneath a bubbling, teeming sea of electronics and feedback.” – NARC. Magazine