Adam Barley’s recording project Aphelyon isn’t like anything he’s done before. In fact, if you’re familiar with the Charleston guitarist and songwriter, it’s probably because of his “day job” in local funk party band DysFUNKtion. But Aphelyon (pronounced uh-fil-ee-yon) isn’t party-time funk, although it is funky.
“It naturally, organically, came about in a very non-planned way,” Barley told the Charleston City Paper. “And then all of a sudden, I started to see, ‘Oh, I’m really getting onto something here with this sound.’ ”
Pulling from influences like Thievery Corporation, Massive Attack and Emancipator, Barley has released a series of laid-back trip-hop singles over the past year.
The first single, “Aphelyon” came out in January 2022 and set the pattern for a string of single releases. A laid-back beat, spacious electronic sounds, Pink Floyd-style atmospheric guitar and subdued vocals guide listeners through the track until a seductive female voice begins singing the title. It’s a sound designed for low-key dancing with your headphones on.
“Wander” and “Shores Beyond” followed later in 2022, mining the same psychedelic trip-hop style Barley has been working on for years.
“My day job is music if you will,” he said. “I teach lessons and play in other bands around town. But, the Aphelyon project is certainly its own unique sound, that’s for sure. Probably six to seven years ago, I started to write these arrangements. And I was able to produce everything that I have up in my head freely and fully by myself. It’s a very different setting than doing that in a band setting, of course.”
Aphelyon’s newest single, “Ether Body” throws a bit of a curveball into the mix. It features a slippery, stream-of-consciousness rap from New York emcee Scott EP. Barley said “Ether Body,” which still has trip-hop elements to it, is just a natural outgrowth of the sounds he loves.
“One of the primary inspirations for it was my love of hip-hop that I’ve had for a very long time — and electronic music in general, whether that be full-on dance music EDM to more relaxed versions of that downtempo electronica.”
After his string of singles, Barley said you can expect to hear a lot more from Aphelyon over the next year or so.
“I’ve got an EP that I’m working on,” he said. “I’m really hoping I can wrap those tunes up in May or June, and then I’ve already got a full-length album LP that I will immediately begin working on after the release of the EP. I’ve probably got another full length album after that. So, I’ve got a whole lot mapped out for this project. I’m excited about it.”
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