Keeno - LIGHT / DARK

At nineteen, Will Keen was signing to Hospital Records; four consecutive top-25 entries on the Official Dance Albums Charts and over 125 million streams later, he walked away in 2022 to build Keeno Music on his own terms. 'LIGHT / DARK' is where that gamble becomes a statement: 21 tracks on his own label, and on eighteen of them the only name in the credits is his.

That makes him both lead actor and architect: the first half (LIGHT, tracks 1-10) rolls on the orchestral drum & bass that is his signature, its spine locked at 87 BPM, while the second (DARK, 11 through 21) drops into heavier territory —'Home Away From Home' surges to 131 BPM— without giving up the ambient interludes breathing in between: 'Not Soon Enough', 'Hardown' and the tiny 'Chiaro', 77 seconds of calm to seal the gesture. He has described the record as a way of finding life beyond the norms of liquid.

The three guest moments work as carefully chosen counterweights:

• Vibre Strings on 'Juliet' (5:18): the strings carry the project's cinematic weight from the inside, never as decoration.
• Kate McGill on 'Lift Me Up' (D major): planted deep in the DARK stretch like its valve of light.
• Sam Welch and Noppo on 'The Simple Life': the most crowded credit on the record, three names propping it up right before the solo closer 'Read My Mind'.

Fifteen consecutive sold-out shows with live piano and string quartet explain the confidence behind the move: Keen knows he can hold a 21-piece double album almost single-handed. The striking thing about 'LIGHT / DARK' is not its guest list but how short it is —and how little, once you hear the result, you miss a longer one.