Lilacs & Champagne

Alex Hall and Emil Amos, the founding members of Portland, Oregon experimental instrumental outfit Grails, launched Lilacs & Champagne as an ancillary endeavor. The pair adopted a sample-driven method to construct eerie, unconventional beatscapes shaped by 1970s film scores, dub, trip-hop, and privately issued psychedelia. Their self-titled debut arrived in 2012, followed by one release annually through Midnight Features, Vol. 2: Made Flesh in 2015. After nearly a decade of inactivity, the project resurfaced in 2024 with Fantasy World.

Hall and Amos built their core sound on an Akai MPC sampler, drawing eclectic fragments from unconventional origins such as thrift-store vinyl and radio static. They identified the production techniques of hip-hop innovators J Dilla and Madlib as primary touchstones for the venture. Consistent with their Grails output, the sample-driven assemblages incorporated live playing and treatments of layered audio. Intensive studio work yielded the self-titled debut on Mexican Summer in early 2012. Danish & Blue, which pulled material from Scandinavian adult films and late-1960s cult cinema, followed a year later. The EP Midnight Features, Vol. 1: Shower Scene surfaced in 2014. Returning swiftly, Lilacs & Champagne issued their third album, Midnight Features, Vol. 2: Made Flesh, in early 2015—an increasingly polished blend of hip-hop references and psychedelic found audio.

Nearly ten years elapsed before the duo reemerged. Fantasy World appeared in 2024, extending the project past instrumental hip-hop into tape collage and culture jamming reminiscent of Negativland and Severed Heads.