Afterlife · 8 April 2020
Afterlife releases a 31-track charity compilation for Lombardy
Money from Unity goes to a coronavirus medical aid fund. Tale Of Us open the set with Alone.
In April 2020 there was nowhere in the world to play a record like this. Afterlife put out a compilation anyway. ‘Unity’ arrived as a surprise, 31 tracks deep, curated by Tale Of Us and stacked with artists already on the roster alongside a handful of names who’d never once appeared on the label before.
Money from sales goes to a medical aid fund treating coronavirus victims in Lombardy. A record that size takes real organising, and they put it together in a month when the entire business it belongs to had stopped dead, for a payout none of the people on it would ever see. Thirty-one artists said yes to Lombardy.
‘Alone’ opens the set and it’s the founders’ own track. Melody like cut glass. Slow oscillation underneath it, carrying far more feeling than something this sparse has any business carrying, and there’s almost nothing else in the frame at all. Tale Of Us went first and went quietest.
It doesn’t reach for the room. That’s the point of where it sits, and it’s why the thirty tracks stacked up behind it have somewhere to build from. Thirty tracks follow it.
