#band: ampersand

[funicularinclinefan]

some old art of leslie cos im thinking hard about him again

[amaliatheartist]

Oh, this bitter peace in my mind

[bastille-blood]

I will be so for real daniel smith is the most lyrical genius of this generation and he proves it on each and every album I dare you to change my mind

[saguaroblossom]

Seasons & Narcissus by Bastille (official lyric video)

don't understand it, oh don't care that time just keeps on marching on can't comprehend it, oh bad news and voices just ain't sinking in ‘cus nothing round here seems to get me down and i'm the type who always seems to get down don't understand it, oh but i kinda like it

[nightcrypt]

When they say i was made for you.

I love you so, but still, it's hard to get my head around it.

[mpaizsounds]

Trends - Ampersand (Single; 2018)

Audio engineer, producer, editor, performer (guitar and vocals) < LISTEN HERE >

[scapegoated-if]

DEMO (128K) SOUNDTRACK PINTEREST BLUESKY Chapter 1 Release Date: 14th Mar 2025

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey.

18+ This interactive story includes graphic violence, sexual content, alcohol and drug use, profanity and more.

Disclaimer Gender and race-locked IF due to discussions of gender and racial politics throughout.

Take centre stage as a former-rockstar turned actress navigating your new career and the chilling grip of fan-obsession. Your once-famous band may be nothing short of a ghost of the past to you, but the rest of the world cannot seem to let go. The split in 1968 was scandalous, abrupt and mysterious. And although you’ve thrown yourself into acting and secured your first major role with a big time Hollywood director, whispers of blame have been on your tail ever since.

While most of Hollywood sees these rumours for what they are--empty gossip--a darker current takes precedence and poses a much more sinister threat to your life and the lives of those around you.

✼ Shape and mould into your truest ‘70s self. Perhaps you’re a mod-girl or a hippie? ✼ Interact with '60s and '70s icons on the Sunset Strip. ✼ Help uncover the identity of the 'Ampersand Killer' terrorising the West Coast. ✼ Decide which career path is more fitting for you. Are you made to live on the silver screen or stadium stages? ✼ Maintain and better your physical health and self-defence skills. ✼ Pick from a selection of love interests (including two gender-choice options). ✼ Includes an array of potential flings. ✼ A catalogue of original songs for fictional musicians.

Vincent "Vince" Buscemi, the ex-bandmate ⇢ You were part of one of the most renowned bands of the '60s together. Vince is a jaded soul, harbouring deep-seated reservations about many people--most notably the band's keyboardist--but he has always had a soft spot for you. Despite his guarded demeanour, he exudes effortless charm and impeccable manners, a testament to his healthy upbringing. Though widely celebrated as a pop-culture heartthrob, Vince defies superficial stereotypes. His truest passion lies in music, and it's clear that nothing in the world brings him greater joy.

Penn Hausler, the filmmaker ⇢ Though still considered an up-and-coming filmmaker, Penn has already made a name for himself as a creative force in the industry, thanks to his latest hit starring Faye Dunaway. He radiates charisma, with a shining personality and a sharp sense of humour. He's unmistakably a nerd--passionately devoted to his craft. He's also prone to being a bit of a square, often finding himself tangled in bouts of nervous awkwardness. Despite this, his unwavering commitment to his vision sets him apart, and he's not afraid to take bold creative risks. Case in point: he has cast you as a supporting actress in his next film.

Kai/Kaya Anahareo (m/f), the folksinger ⇢ Although they haven't yet broken into the mainstream, K is a highly skilled musician deeply respected by their peers. Their artistry intertwines seamlessly with their role as a political activist, with much of their protest powerfully conveyed through their music. K is the embodiment of levelheadedness, exuding an aura of calm and balance that draws people to them. Their presence is steady and reassuring, much like the songs they sing--thoughtful, impactful and unwavering.

Dorinda Fisher, the journalist ⇢ Dorinda is a sharp, driven and fiercely dedicated journalist. Relentless in her pursuit of a story or a hard-to-find answer, she doesn't back down easily. Hailing from a small town, she's well-read and possesses a no-nonsense approach to life. You first crossed paths through your bandmate, whom she dated earlier in your career. During the US leg of your tour, she joined the band on the road while freelancing, documenting the whirlwind of your band's journey during a fair few defining months in your rise to fame.

Please note: You will have the option to decide whether the two of you had a romantic connection in the past while you were on the road. If you choose not to follow through with this backstory, you can still romance her as a new connection.

Phillip/Phyllis Wright (m/f), the movie star ⇢ P is a Hollywood icon, a name already as timeless and celebrated as the likes of both Hepburns, Cary Grant and Sidney Poitier. An Academy Award-winning actor, they embody the pinnacle of cinematic stardom, capturing Penn's admiration and dream of collaboration. Known for their charm, striking good looks and effortless sophistication, P commands every room they enter.

Lesley Nielsen, the detective ⇢ Detective Inspector Nielsen is a man married to his work. His guarded and disciplined demeanour can often make him seem laborious, but beneath the tough exterior lies a dry wit and the ability to crack a well-timed joke. A strikingly handsome gentleman, he's adept with a handgun and keeps one at his side at all times. A seasoned veteran of the force, Nielsen only crosses paths with you once he's assigned as the lead detective on the high-profile Ampersand Killer case. Whether you share much in common is up in the air, but one thing is certain: your mutual determination to bring a cold-blooded murderer to justice.

[vimbry-moved]

I thought I couldn't love this song more, but I only just found out that there's a second demo with three extra verses than the first demo has, yet left out of the final, two of them being in spanish.

which are cute, because it sounds like they begin with the main narrator talking about looking for the titular sombrero, which then has a verse from its point of view, wishing it could try singing but feeling it always messes up. in this version, the song closes with more of the narrator continuing to build up its confidence :)

"hovering sombrero" is honestly a contemporary lullaby to me. it's like being wrapped up in a warm, comforting hug while being told you have potential and that everything's going to be ok. there's something of a "birdhouse" quality to it.

[sad-boys-book-club]

"&" Ampersand - A Literary Companion

Selected stories with the themes of Bastille's upcoming project "&" Ampersand. And, of course, a love letter to my favourite band.

PART 1

Intros & Narrators: Wallace, David Foster. Oblivion: Stories. Little, Brown and Company, 2004./ Nancherla, Aparna. Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome. Penguin Publishing Group, 2023.// Eve & Paradise Lost: Bohannon, Cat. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2023. / Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Alma Classics, 2019.// Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky: Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them. Harvard University Press, 2016. /Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson: Letters. Edited by Emily Fragos, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2011.// Blue Sky & The Painter: Prideaux, Sue. Edvard Munch: Behind the Scream. Yale University Press, 2019. / Knausgaard, Karl Ove. So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch. Random House, 2019.//

PART 2

Leonard & Marianne: Hesthamar, Kari. So Long, Marianne: A Love Story - Includes Rare Material by Leonard Cohen. Ecw Press, 2014./ Cohen, Leonard. Book of Longing. Penguin Books Limited, 2007.// Marie & Polonium: Curie, Eve. Madame Curie. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./Sobel, Dava. The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024.// Red Wine & Wilde: Wilde, Oscar, et al. De Profundis. Harry N. Abrams, 1998./ Sturgis, Matthew. Oscar: A Life. Head of Zeus, 2018.// Seasons & Narcissus: Ovid. Metamorphoses: A New Verse Translation. Penguin, 2004./ Morales, Helen. Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths. PublicAffairs, 2020.//

PART 3

Drawbridge & The Baroness: Rothschild, Hannah. The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013./ Katz, Judy H. White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-racism Training. University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.// The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings: Ardoin, John, and Gerald Fitzgerald. Callas: The Art and the Life. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974./ Abramovic, Marina. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas. Damiani, 2020.// Essie & Paul: Ransby, Barbara. Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson. Haymarket Books, 2022./ Robeson, Paul. Here I Stand. Beacon Press, 1998.//

PART 4

Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze: Gautier, Theophile. Mademoiselle de Maupin. Penguin Classics, n.d./ Gardiner, Kelly. Goddess. HarperCollins, 2014.// Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her: Chang-Eppig, Rita. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023./ Borges, Jorge Luis. A Universal History of Infamy. Penguin Books, 1975. // Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024: Kaufman, Bob. Golden Sardine. City Lights Books, 1976./ Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited, 2008.

Original artwork created by Theo Hersey & Dan Smith. Printed letterpress at The Typography Workshop, South London.

[sits-bound]

Bound: Nature and Nurture by @earlgreytea68

What an utterly fantastic fic! I'm happy with how the bind came out, but I have a few things I'd change if I did it again:

I wouldn't forget to put the ribbon in before the endbands

I would make the style more consistent. The chapter headings and the cover do not match at all.

I would be more careful when ironing the HTV on the spine

Not put a dang ampersand in the title on the header and the cover page. Argh.

I WOULD NOT MISSPELL THE AUTHOR'S NAME wow this is embarrassing

Also to note about this bind:

I was going to print the chapter pages in color. I used this lovely graphic and beautiful drop caps, but a 57 chapter fic when you don't have a color printer is maybe not the best choice. Half the sheets would have had color on them, and it would have cost a fortune to print.

I scavenged the end bands and the boards from a book I bought at a library sale. Just to see. I feel like the glue didn't stick as well to the smooth cover as it does to bare chipboard.

The HTV on the spine got messed up a little bit when I was ironing it on, but I was able to pick off the bits that were messed up and iron on a fresh set of lettering/graphic and you really can't even tell now! Whew. (Note to self: Cricut brand metallic htv has been the best of all the brands I've used as far as application goes.)

But all in all, I'm happy with it. It's just for me, after all, so it's okay if it's not perfect. That said, if I do this one again, I'd make a different cover that's more consistent with the chapter headers. (Like, if the author wants a copy?)

Bookcloth: Allure Bookcloth Indigo Body Text: Corundum Text Light Chapter Headings: MrKeningbeck Pro Drop Caps: FLOWER Inside title: FLOWER and MrKeningbeck Pro and Filson Pro Cover: Filson Pro All icons from The Noun Project

[justcravingattention]

Friendly reminder that part of the "Bastille world" has literally always involved Dan tinkering around in the studio by himself/with Mark, and collaborating with other artists sans the other members of the band. Perhaps you have heard of a series called "Other People's Heartache", which consists of mixtapes that were released in between album cycles and were almost entirely Dan-centric releases. IMO, this Ampersand project seems akin to that.

In his cute little voiceover-ed reel from yesterday, Dan was very honest in admitting that Ampersand is sort-of a Bastille thing and sort-of not. It very clearly reeks of "we have a year off touring, and I can't bloody sit still!" Nothing more to read into than that. The other guys also have other stuff they do during off-years and in-between tours and such. It's not like Dan's cheating on them or anything.

I would further point out that if this little side-project situation is being unveiled now, it bodes well for there being another ~proper~ Bastille album coming down the pike shortly thereafter (say spring of 2025).

tl;dr sit back and enjoy the ride, kiddos. To the extent that this really was unexpected it's like a special little gift we're getting.

[rpfofficial]

okay i am totally not reading my book im working on my silly essay for @/autismlitmag and im writing it about bastille (of course) and while looking for an interview i wanted to cite i found this one where dan lists his 9 favourite songs and talks about their influences on ampersand and i nearly started crying just fucking reading his dorky ass talking abt music . because he put real love by big thief and the only living boy in new york by s&g back to back and i FREAKED it im always saying how him and i would get along so well and its just funny that this is the band im writing abt for the autism magazine because yeah i really am stupidly autistic about them. and literally everything to do with them. also he has to zion by lauryn hill on here which makes SOOOO much sense to me like of course he listened to that on repeat as a kid you can hear it all over bad blood and the other people's heartaches mixtapes... uugghhh daniel campbell smith i love you

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 11, Number 1

Jessica Pavone

Look at us embarking on another year. So much in flux, so much anxiety, and yet the flood of music continues, album after album after album (even though the album is dead, it’s doing okay). So let’s get on with it, listening and thinking and writing about the ones that catch our fantasy, and you all out there can get on with listening and reading about it and, for a lot of you, making it, too.

This time around we scratch the usual itches for death metal and improvised jazz, electronic experiments and hip hop mainstays. We’re happy to be here, and hope to continue—bear with us for another year, won’t you? Contributors included Jonathan Shaw, Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly and Ray Garraty.

Blazing Tomb — Singles from the Tomb (Creator-Destructor)

Twelve minutes of thrashy OSDM, Singles from the Tomb is a rollicking good time — if you’re looking for heavy riffage, up tempo grooves and volume that presses its knuckles right into your forehead. Nuthin’ fancy but hugely engaging, if a little presumptuous given the industry’s sense for the single. Used to be that labels bet on songs, as money makers and as marketing tools. But the idea of the single depended on a lot of context: the rest of the record from which the single was selected; the network of broadcast signals and stations, which wove together a system in which the idea of the “hit single” was measurable. The industry is in a very different configuration now. Does Blazing Tomb care about that history, and death metal’s tenuous position in it? Did a death metal band ever have anything like a hit single? Are these even the right questions to ask? The Richmond-based band provides “Tortured Minds” as a sort of response. It’s a banger, in heavy rotation in your humble reviewer’s digital playlist. It’s meaty and moldy enough to saturate the mp3 with something like the presence of the tomb. The single might be dead, but these songs lift the lid on the crypt.

Jonathan Shaw

The Brunt — Near Mint Minus (Aerophonic)

The name of this album might imply a vinyl quality rating, but this album will never rest in a crate-digger’s hands, since it’s only available as a download. Like so many 21st century manifestations, it requires you to either kvetch in vain about things taken away by time (in this case, the album’s essential thing-ness) or count your blessings. The latter option is easier on one’s blood pressure and not that hard to do, since this Chicago-based free music quartet’s debut is a rewarding listen. There’s the alternately jousting and supportive interaction of saxophonists Dave Rempis and Gerrit Hatcher, who share a determination to make heavy lifting an act of grace. But equally rewarding is the rhythm team of double bassist Kent Kessler, who has been an essential member of the Chicago scene since the days when Hal Russell helmed the NRG Ensemble, and drummer Bill Harris, whose maxi-informed drumming firmly situates the action in the anything’s possible musical milieu.

Bill Meyer

Faithxtractor — Loathing & the Noose (Redefining Darkness)

An appealing set of gonzo death metal tunes, this curiously titled LP (what’s with the ampersand? wouldn’t a simple “and” do the trick?) from Faithxtractor flirts with melodeath and blackened textures. But mostly it slashes and growls with abandon, packing more riffs in per tune than most other outfits manage across whole albums. Ash Thomas, who plays almost all the instruments and gamely gurgles and howls, is in particularly fine form, soloing with demented energy and having a palpably grand time tearing sound into meaty gobbets. The pleasure is infectious, an entertaining counterpoint to the bummed-out vibe of many of the tracks’ titles: “Noose of Being,” “Ethos Moribund,” “Flooded Tombs” and so on. For a band that sees so much hopeless darkness, they sure are having fun.

Jonathan Shaw

T. Gowdy — Trill Scan (Constellation)

The Canadian experimental artist T. Gowdy got his musical start with the American Boys Choir in Princeton, and his love of medieval and choral music comes through in this 11 track meditation on alchemy. Trill Scan melds twitchy, hyper modern electronic elements with haunting flights of sung melody. “Strewn” conjures the mystery of monk chant in ancient abbeys, then interjects a blippy, synthetic motif. In “Novus Lumen,” vocals murmur and sigh, as altered guitar patterns circle and repeat. Some of these songs are pure skitter and glitch, as in the hammering, percussive “Flit” or the architectures of polyrhythms that define “Arislei Bone.” But the two “Anonymous” cuts, IV and V, juxtapose ethereal, god-scented plainsong with the antic play of synth beats, a kind of alchemy all its own.

Jennifer Kelly

The Loft — Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same (Tapete)

Pete Astor’s the Loft was part of Creation Records’ roster in the 1980s, and he’s also recorded as the Weather Prophets and the Wisdom of Harry. He’d been mostly out of sight until the dawn of the current decade, however, when he released the marvelous Time on Earth (“applies the sounds of romantic, rain-on-windows, C86 pop to late middle-aged subject matter and by doing so achieves an unlikely grace,” said Dusted). Two years later, Tall Stories and New Religions reinterpreted songs from Astor’s multi-decade catalogue, and it, too, was very fine. Cut to 2024 and The Loft has reformed, returning with 10 jolts of clever bittersweet-ness, power pop but ruminative about it and touched with a certain amount of sadness. Boisterous, 1960s fuzz garage leaning “Dr. Clarke” is the single; it could pass for a long-lost cut from the Minus Five. But I like the yearning ones the best. Gorgeous, elegiac “Greensward Days” abuts on the Clientele’s wistful patch of baroque pop, while the languid “Killer” gestures gracefully at bands like the Blue Nile. An unexpected new chapter for a life in pop.

Jennifer Kelly

Roc Marciano / The Alchemist – The Skeleton Key (Pimpire Records)

Released in December, The Skeleton Key was meant to make a lot of EOTYs. But it didn’t happen and not because it was too late. The Skeleton Key is probably the least memorable of Roc Marciano’s tapes. None of it works as songs, and apart from a few lines and a couple of phrases nothing sticks in mind even after a dozen of listens. Marci stopped working on his music as he used to, and instead of songs we get this underbaked poetry, sadly, over even more underbaked production by The Alchemist. Marci and Al the Chemist get too comfy with each other here, and the result is a dud.

Ray Garraty

Jessica Pavone — What Happens Has Become Now (Relative Pitch)

What Happens Has Become Now is Jessica Pavone’s fifth album of solo viola music, and it shares several characteristics with its predecessors. It’s short (most of Pavone’s solo albums hover around the half-hour mark) and its pieces prioritize certain musical elements — long tones, physical vibration, repetition — which are arranged with enough freedom to satisfy both an improviser’s impulse to push past the known and a composer’s desire for organization and control. Two of the album’s four tracks are acoustic, and each is a finds a way to make you hear how wood feels and sense vibrations in your own palms and torso. A third piece for viola and pedals is straight-up noise that induces a different sensation; via sound alone it induces the feeling of being in a black and white movie, on a train, putting your head out the window and getting a blast of dry sand and dust in your face. And on a fourth Pavone also swaps her own instrument for an invented one, Ken Butler’s Sword viola, which yields distant pitches that seethe and sputter.

Bill Meyer

Silvan Schmid / Tom Wheatley / Eddie Prévost—The Wandering One: High Laver Levitations Volume 2 (Matchless)

Given the predominantly analytic tone of improviser, author and drummer Eddie Prévost’s writing, High Laver Levitations imparts an intention that one might more readily to William Parker — that the power of the music will defy gravity. But if you listen, you are likely to concede that the claim is not mere hubris. Prévost’s light touch and acute responsiveness results in music that at some points is lighter than air, but it also generates an energy combustible enough to bring about some updrafts. Joining him in the All Hallows Church in High Laver, Essex are Swiss trumpeter Sylvan Schmid and English bassist Tom Wheatley. The former’s smudges and smears give the music body and the latter’s near-subliminal rumbles a sparse but sturdy mobile structure. The recording, by noted soundtrack producer Daniel Blumberg, nicely captures the church’s clear but generous acoustic. Lift off achieved!

Bill Meyer

Vazesh — Tapestry (Earshift)

Vazesh is trio from Sydney, Australia. Hamed Sadeghi plays tar, a Persian stringed instrument whose quick decay makes it sound a lot like a banjo. Jeremy Rose plays bass clarinet and saxophones (in this setting mainly soprano). And Lloyd Swanton, best known outside of Australia as one-third of the Necks, plays double bass. Like the Necks, they improvise collectively, but there the similarities end. Sadeghi’s melodic sense is steeped in Persian traditions, and Rose takes his cues from Sadeghi. Swanton’s contributions are more overtly contrapuntal in the Necks, particularly during the passages where he plays arco. Despite the album being divided into 14 tracks, it’s one continuous performance, whose evolving, narrative quality lives up to the album’s title. During the best moments, the trio combines exploratory impulses with a capacity to project an array of emotions. The one caveat is that when Rose waxes melodic on saxophone, there’s a little too much sugar and butter in his tone.

Bill Meyer

[strange-wafflez]

I’m slightly concerned that the whole Ampersand project might be mostly a YouTube thing and might not be available on streaming platforms… 😱

From a legal standpoint, it might be tricky to put it out as a “Bastille” release when in reality it’s not. They could release it under Dan’s name but judging from the campaign so far, it is highly unlikely. Unless of course they dealt with the paperwork, and the band is 💀

What’s confusing is:

they’re not referring to Ampersand as an “album” or “EP”, only a “project”

it’s very rare that a music video is released before a song’s official release, and we already have two MVs

there’s no information about the two songs we heard so far here

search engines that identify songs don’t recognize Intros & Narrators (and I’m pretty sure it’s the studio version of the song in the video)

Anyway… here’s my conspiracy theory lol I hope it doesn’t mean anything, and we get new music on all streaming platforms this Friday 🤞

[zackthebrownartanddesign]

The music of Bart's band Bartholomew & The Dampened Sands of the Ampersands has been described as a mix of "psychedelic sea shanties," "gnome yacht rock," and just the "general vibe of your guardian angels hurrying you into a drugstore to purchase laxatives."

[birchbritches]

Gets a Temperature

muirburn bandies with the wind, has an endless ampersand of bands to bundle the heather, hands doing the bundling, pockets and concentrates it to manipulate the flame, concocts fireworks for aesthetics, has had its fill of ambient standstill, stagnation, et al, has had to eat crates of Hades like animal-feed and has a churning stomach not built for it set bleeding, has to see what it can cook if things get hot