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Sand is the debut solo release/project from NAO's Sam Healy.

During the last few years North Atlantic Oscillation have been steadily building their fanbase and reputation. Well known fans such as Zane Lowe and Guy Garvey have been drawn to the band's unique combination of sonic complexity and melodic intrigue.

Sam Healy, NAO's frontman and songwriter, returns with Sand.

Written, performed and recorded throughout 2012 and 2013, the album allowed Sam to work in a different way.

He describes:

"I wanted to try something that I could work on entirely alone, with no deadlines or schedules intruding on the process. It was an experiment to see if I could conceive and execute a whole record without any outside influence. I only told few people about it until it was almost complete. I had a sense after the release of Fog Electric that I should try something else before starting on a third NAO album, something with a different feel, a musical palate-cleanser."

This change in process has resulted in an album which, while still sure to appeal to fans of Healy's previous work, has a more intimate and personal feel, both sonically and thematically.

Melodic passages and conventional pop structures are framed by striking changes in dynamics, to create a dramatic sonic palette which ranges from the barely audible to the wildly loud and back again (often within the same track).

1. Life Is Too Easy
2. Clay
3. Destroyer
4. Meanwhile
5. On A Spent Sea
6. Astray
7. Elegy For The Old Forty-foot
8. A Pill To Keep The Plane From Crashing
9. Don't Nod
10. Red Queen Freezes