Distant Animals
Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully (Distant Animals) is a composer, writer, performance artist and researcher based in Lewes. Unable to commit to any one endeavour fully, he simultaneously teaches electronic music theory at a leading London conservatoire, works as a researcher for inter-disciplinary digital participatory art projects, writes for the Quietus, creates music videos for local bands, and runs a largely unsuccessful micro-label. Sometimes he dresses as a rabbit.
Night Swimming is a double-length sonic journey carved from one of the coldest nights of the year — a live-recorded soundtrack performed on modular synthesiser and radio receiver during an all-night outdoor swimathon.
Split into two expansive 40-minute tracks — Front Stroke and Back Stroke — the album mirrors the endurance and rhythm of long-distance swimmers pushing through icy waters. The soundworld is stripped back, hushed, and elemental: radio static dissolves into rippling tones, minimalist patterns echo the churn of water, and silence itself becomes part of the composition.
This is not music for spectacle — it’s music for immersion. A rare compositional victory in restraint, Night Swimmingstands as a quiet reply to melodrama, proof that sometimes the most minimal gesture can carry the deepest weight.
For listeners willing to dive in, Night Swimming offers a meditative, hypnotic experience — endurance art you can live inside.
Not defined by traditional symmetry 