Schoolkids Records (Retail & Label)

Waking Hours, by NYC artist Photay (a.k.a. Evan Shornstein), is a meditation on time and, more specifically, our obsessive need to fill every moment with activity. Photay’s search for calm is at the very core of Waking Hours, and while he admits that making the album was therapeutic, it shouldn’t be mistaken for some sort of healing ambient excursion. The LP is largely electronic, but frequently verges on pop and extensively features Shornstein’s own vocals. The music is intimate and inviting, but it also suggest that Photay is perhaps at his best when he’s blurring genre boundaries.

Vinyl packaging includes a download card.