Bibio - Sleep On The Wing (EP)

Stephen Wilkinson has a knack for making the countryside feel close, even when you’re stuck in a flat with the windows shut. Sleep On The Wing arrived through Warp on 12 June 2020, a short collection that sits alongside Ribbons from 2019, and it leans hard into the pastoral side of his palette. Bibio has always been a one‑person orchestra at heart, and this set makes that clear. The pieces feel handmade and deeply considered, recorded at home, pieced together with patience, and brushed with the kind of tape warmth that invites close listening.

The title track does the welcoming. It’s one of the few cuts with vocals, and it lands like a lullaby you think you remember from childhood. Fingerpicked guitar leads, gentle strings answer back, and somewhere beneath it all you can hear the living world, not as a trick, more as another instrument. Bibio has used field recordings throughout his catalogue, but here they feel especially tender, like air moving through the songs. It’s the sort of opener that sets a scene rather than issuing a thesis, and the album is better for it.

Much of the rest is instrumental, which suits his writing. He has a way of carving out small melodic phrases, letting them circle, then nudging them into new shapes with a second guitar line or a change in harmony. Nothing feels rushed. You get the sense these tunes were pulled from long hours of playing in quiet rooms, the microphone set a little back to catch the wood and the breath. The rhythms are gentle, sometimes little more than pulses, which puts the focus on tone and texture. A bowed line will drift in, a piano will appear and vanish, and the whole thing keeps a hushed, natural pace that rewards listening on a good pair of speakers or a late train with headphones.

Context matters with Bibio, and Sleep On The Wing makes a lot of sense if you’ve followed him since Ambivalence Avenue, the 2009 breakout that balanced cracked folk with dusty beats. Over time he’s tilted toward acoustic colour and melody, and Ribbons pushed that thread in a way that felt complete. This mini album, as the label framed it, extends the mood rather than trying to top it. It’s lighter on drums, richer in small details, and very comfortable with silence. The writing is strong enough that it never drifts into background music. Even the shortest interludes feel like sketches with purpose.

Critics picked up on the set’s calm spirit when it landed. The consensus was that it’s a companion piece, and that feels right, but it’s not an offcuts bin. The sequencing is careful, with the more lyrical moments placed like signposts. Production stays intimate across the board. You can hear fingertips, you can hear room tone, and there’s none of the harshness that can creep into all‑in‑the‑box folk recordings. Wilkinson has long preferred to handle his own engineering and mixing, and that control shows in the cohesion. Every part finds its place without crowding anything else.

On vinyl, this music settles in even more. Warp’s pressing is clean, and the nature‑minded artwork ties back to the Ribbons era, which makes it a tidy shelf pair for anyone deep into Bibio albums on vinyl. If you’re browsing a Melbourne record store and come across Sleep On The Wing vinyl, it’s the sort of record that turns a quiet evening into a small field trip. Fans who collect Bibio vinyl will also appreciate how this one plays front to back without any urge to skip. For those comparing formats or trying to buy Bibio records online from shops that specialise in vinyl records Australia, this release comfortably earns its spot.

What lingers is the tone of care. There’s no grand statement hiding here, just a set of pieces that treat simple ideas with respect. It’s music that notices the world, then answers it with craft. In a catalogue that has zigged between folk, funk, and electronics, Sleep On The Wing holds its own as a gentle favourite, a record you reach for when you want clarity and colour without strain. It may be a companion to Ribbons, but it lives easily on its own, a small, complete space you can walk into whenever you need a breather.