Above & Beyond launch new label ‘Reflections’

Above & Beyond
Above & Beyond

Above & Beyond launch ‘Reflections’: the third label under the Anjuna umbrella alongside flagship labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep. The announcement coincides with the release of the double single ‘Morning in Deira / Time Heals‘ on May 16th.

Reflections was founded in 2000 by the two-time Grammy-nominated trio Above & Beyond as a new imprint to release their ambient and downtempo outputs. Above & Beyond’s landmark 2019 album, a downtempo classic that emerged from a serendipitous sunrise yoga session on the Burning Man playa in 2014, and the band’s highest streaming album, with over 300 million streams. In 2019, Reflections also gave a name to a new, hugely successful downtempo compilation series on Anjunadeep… the label launch is true to the backstory of the company.

Above & Beyond’s ‘Morning In Deira‘ and ‘Time Heals‘ kick off Reflections. The former served as the opening track for Above & Beyond’s acclaimed January 2022 performance on the Rock of Guatapé at La Piedra del Peol Guatapé in Colombia, for live streaming platform Cercle. The rippling piano instrumental – a nearly six-minute quiet-is-the-new-loud anthem – was not only a newly written composition from a beloved band with 2.2 million monthly Spotify listeners alone. It would also be the flagship song for a new venture under the Anjuna umbrella, the company founded by Above & Beyond in 2000 to release their music and home to two labels, Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep. Five months later, ‘Morning In Deira,’ backed by another new Above & Beyond song, ‘Time Heals,’ is the album’s first single. The songs deftly set the tone for this new, third label from the Anjunafamily.

Our two record labels, Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep were born on the dancefloor. For over 20 years these labels have taken us, our music, and our artists, to dancefloors across the world. The third Anjuna record label is our new downtempo and ambient imprint called Reflections, and we are delighted to share it with you. Reflections is born from all those moments in between the dancefloors – the mornings after, the nights apart, the journeys shared along the way. Those moments of Reflection. – Above & Beyond

This is a genre that we have a history in and one we belong in. If you look back on what we’ve done, on the Above & Beyond albums, there’s always been two or three standout downtempo tracks that have connected really well. Then, with everyone stuck at home, people had this sort of music on in the background while they were working. Mood listening became a really big thing. So lots of things conspired to make Reflections feel like a good idea at the right time. A lot of our artists just started naturally sending us this kind of stuff. Yotto, for example, wrote a chill-out album which he sent to us when we were already planning this label. His record ‘Erased Dreams’ is going to be the first album on Reflections. – James Grant, co-founder of Involved Group.

Recognizing the discussion of wellness and mental health, as well as the role music can play, Reflections’ Label Manager Penny Longstaff adds, “Alongside the music, we’ll be releasing, a lot of which is going to be conducive to sleeping, relaxing, and focusing. We’re also launching a host of curated mood-based mixes. That just opens up so many new avenues of who we can reach with the music.

Longstaff, who is supported by Anjunadeep A&R Dan Curpen, company Label Director Allan McGrath, and Anjunadeep Label Manager Dom Donnelly, is committed to highlighting new talent. Longstaff singles out Northling, a six-piece from near Blackpool who “sounds more like an alternative indie-electronica band.” ‘Damselfly,’ one of their tracks, sounds like the lost soundtrack to a Scandi noir TV drama that never was. Then there’s Jessie Marcella, whose ‘Untitled 01’ for piano and woodwinds is mantric mood music at its best. “And we’re working with a soundscape audiovisual artist called Lyndsie Alguire, who’s from Canada,” she adds of the ambient piano auteur.

Above & Beyond in Guatape, Colombia for Cercle