Seahawks

The British pair Seahawks has assembled a broad discography of hallucinatory, relaxed recordings that fuse strands such as new age, yacht rock, and cosmic disco, all paired with psychedelic visuals shaped by oceanography and science fiction. The project unites Jon Tye, who established the respected Lo Recordings imprint and performs in the Krautrock-inspired outfit Brain Machine, with Welsh illustrator Pete Fowler, renowned for his Monsterism toys and characters plus album artwork created for Super Furry Animals and additional groups. From 2010 onward the duo has issued dozens of albums and EPs, primarily through their own Captains Log and Ocean Moon labels. Although they appear to occupy an isolated realm, Seahawks have also worked with numerous artists across the years. After early singles alongside Badly Drawn Boy and Autre Ne Veut, the 2014 album Paradise Freaks featured contributions from Tim Burgess (Charlatans), Maria Minerva, and Indra Dunis (Peaking Lights). The pair has supplied remixes for acts including 2 Bears, the Horrors, and Ursula 1000, while a full-length collaboration with uncategorizable duo Woo, titled Celestial Railroads, appeared in 2019. Infinite Echo, released in 2022, shifted toward smooth jazz, whereas 2024’s Time Enough for Love explored downtempo exotica.

Jon Tye and Pete Fowler established Seahawks in 2009. Throughout 2010 they issued several limited vinyl singles, most of which—apart from “You Lied [Lies & Manipulation]” with Badly Drawn Boy—were gathered on the debut album Ocean Trippin’ at year’s end. Their prolific output persisted into 2011. In addition to the album Invisible Sunrise, they released Another Summer with Seahawks (a 7” bundled with a CD), the picture-disc LP Vision Quest One: Spaceships Over Topanga Canyon on Static Caravan, and the singles “Don’s Rainbow” (with Autre Ne Veut) and “High on You.” They also launched a series of mix CDs that mirrored their DJ sets, merging soft rock and psych with mellow disco. The full-length Aquadisco and the limited LP Tender Abyss, which incorporated material from an earlier CD-R, both surfaced in 2012. Acknowledging the group’s dancefloor inclinations, Seahawks issued the extended disco single “Adventures in the Land of Woo” and the remix album Phantom Sunset: Invisible Sunrise Remixed in 2013. Paradise Freaks, their most collaborative and vocal-oriented album to date, emerged in 2014 together with the remix EP Stranger Than Paradise. Continuing their ties to the neo-disco community, Seahawks put out the Sky Party 12” (with Eddie C) and another remix collection, Deep Haul, in 2015. Moving toward a new age-inflected approach, they released Escape Hatch in 2016. Pipe Dreams, issued under the name Pink Fluid yet credited as written and produced by Seahawks, appeared in 2017. This was succeeded by Eternal Beams (as Seahawks) in 2018. Eyes of the Moon, the duo’s first release for Cascine, arrived in 2019; Tye described the album’s concept as the idea of observing Earth from the Moon and beholding its beauty while also witnessing its destruction. Later that year the pair delivered Celestial Railroads, an LP recorded with new age-adjacent duo Woo. Island Visions came out in 2020, and in 2021 Seahawks reissued Secrets of the Deep on vinyl (originally issued as a CD-R packaged with a 2010 single). Returning to Cascine, Infinite Echo appeared in 2022. Time Enough for Love, an album of post-rave exotica inspired by Harry Nilsson demos, surfaced in 2024.