A year ago, Million Moons were tracing doomed polar expeditions through sound, tying every track of I May Be Some Time to the frozen steps of explorers like Oates and Shackleton.
That album, released in July 2024 through Ripcord Records, carried listeners into Antarctica with fractured rhythms, ambient voids, and the weight of survival stories. Now, the same band has stepped off the ice and onto new ground—China—where they’ve just signed a three-year deal with the label AnGoal.
Their entry point was Offside Festival in Hangzhou, a city so vast that, as they describe it, the tower blocks erased the horizon like something from Cyberpunk 2047.
That appearance marked their debut in China and, just as importantly, the beginning of a partnership meant to secure a long-term presence in the country’s post-rock scene. The deal with AnGoal stretches beyond booking shows. The label will run the band’s Chinese social media, distribute their records locally, and help build a fan base in a market where physical releases—vinyl included—still matter. Tours across the country are already being mapped out, with the plan to return after the release of their third album in 2026.
The move follows a pattern for Million Moons: binding each phase of their career to a strong concept. If I May Be Some Time was snow and ice, the next album is described as something grander in scale, spanning epochs instead of lifetimes. Ed Thompson has been writing new material with live audiences in mind, crafting passages that invite participation and interlink songs into a whole. The band admits the pressure to carry a concept into every record is self-imposed, but for them it’s essential—instrumental music needs a framework for listeners to enter the world.
Offside also exposed them to China’s own experimental undercurrents. Acts like Cosmic Visitor, who weave traditional instruments into post-rock, and An Corporation, who moved from Offside to Dunk! Fest in Belgium, showed them that China’s underground is already innovating within the genre. At the same time, browsing through the AnGoal roster led them to a new personal favorite, the US band Vaudlow, whose track Blue Desolate has stuck with them since.
Million Moons’ signing with AnGoal is not just a logistical step but a shift in perspective, widening their audience far beyond the UK and Europe. Their new chapter is tied to China’s layered, evolving music landscape, and the next few years will determine how deep those roots can grow.
In the conversation below, we talk with the band about their first experiences on the ground in Hangzhou, the scope of their upcoming third album, the weight of concepts in instrumental music, encounters with local Chinese acts, and the future of their live shows under this new partnership.
That first step into China at Offside Festival — how did it really feel on the ground? I mean, not the polite version, but the smells, the noise, the moments where you went, “yep, this is a whole other universe.”
I don’t think any of us imagined we’d ever visit China, let alone perform there at a festival! When we changed over in Beijing, I remember feeling very far from home, but from the moment we touched down in Hangzhou and met up with the Offside team that anxiety all went away. Everyone was so nice and welcoming!
It was a two-hour drive through Hangzhou to get to the festival site, and that was really something. It’s a city of 14 million people, and there were long stretches where the tower blocks completely blocked out the horizon. It was like something from Cyberpunk 2047. That was when the sheer scale of China really sank in.
When you signed that three-year deal with AnGoal, was it more of a “this is the start of a marathon” feeling or a “let’s light the fuse and see what explodes” moment?
It’s always going to be a bit daunting signing a three-year contract, but we wanted to make a statement about our commitment to the Chinese market.
We want Offside Fest 2025 to be the start of a journey that sees us build a deep and long-term relationship with post-rock fans in the region.
We’re planning to return to China in 2026 after we release our third album, and I will be onwards and upwards from there.
AnGoal has been so supportive every step of the way, we can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together in the years ahead!
China’s such a massive, layered place—what’s the plan for actually building a fan base there without it feeling like you’re just parachuting in once a year?
That is a good question! One of the best things about Offside Festival 2025 was meeting so many post-rock fans, posing for photos and chatting at the signing tent. We definitely want to ensure we can deepen those connections moving forwards.
AnGoal will act as a lot more than just our booking agent for China. The team will also be helping to manage our Chinese social media accounts and acting as our record label in the territory. We’re already having discussions about the best way to distribute our music in that part of the world, with one eye on a vinyl release for 2026.
At the same time, the China tours will form a significant part of our touring schedule moving forwards. We want to visit as much of the country—and perform for as many fans there—as we possibly can.
Did you have any moments during that trip where you thought, “okay, this is changing how we’ll write music from now on,” or did the experience feel more like a parallel adventure to the band’s creative path?
I would say that getting invited to perform internationally and appear alongside so many of the biggest bands in our genre just vindicates our approach to date. We want to keep doing more of the same, while finding ways to push the envelope and continue growing as a band in the process.
I know Ed has written a number of the demos for album three with the live show in mind. We have some plans for audience participation, as well as plenty of opportunities for linking the music together to form a cohesive whole.
A year ago, we were deep into talk about polar exploration, Shackleton, and those vast, cold landscapes. Has your headspace shifted since then, or are you still carrying those images with you into the new stuff?
Album three will be another concept record and it will be exploring all new territory, chosen to match the tone of the music we have been writing. All will be revealed in time.
If that last album was snow and ice, what’s the texture or temperature of what’s brewing now?
Well, it’s a post-rock record, so it’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows, is it?
Without giving too much away, this record will be a lot grander in scale. We’re thinking in terms of epochs, rather than lifetimes.
After the whole Antarctica-in-sound concept, do you feel pressure to match that kind of narrative depth, or is the next chapter more about letting go of heavy concepts and just seeing what emerges?
We do feel pressure in this regard but it’s completely self-imposed.
For me, having a strong concept for each release really helps to tie all the music together into a cohesive whole. Without any lyrics to give the songs meaning, I think it’s really important to provide a framework to help people get into the right mindset when listening to our music, so the experience can be as meaningful as possible.
China’s underground and indie circles are still a mystery to a lot of people here. Did you get a glimpse into the local post-rock or experimental scene while you were there? Any bands or artists that made you think, “damn, people need to hear this”?
There were lots of Chinese acts on the bill at Offside Festival 2025 and many of them were really incredible to watch!
There was a band performing on the side stage called Cosmic Visitor who incorporated traditional Chinese instruments seamlessly into their arrangements. I remember being very impressed by that.
An Corporation are also definitely worth checking out, especially if you like bands with a more experimental sound. After performing at Offside Festival, they flew to Belgium to kick things off at Dunk! Fest.
And closer to home—in 2024 and 2025, who did you stumble across that really stuck with you? Could be from your scene, could be some random late-night discovery that’s still echoing in your head.
My most listened to new post-rock find is a US band called Vaudlow. I discovered them while looking through the other bands on the AnGoal roster and their track Blue Desolate is absolutely killer!
You’ve always been an instrumental band, but now that you’re pushing into a whole new audience and market, have you thought about experimenting with any unexpected elements—guest musicians, collaborations, even something outside of post-rock altogether?
You will have to wait and see!
When you look three years ahead with this AnGoal deal, is the vision more about evolving the live show, recording in different places, or just riding whatever currents come your way?
The nice thing about Million Moons is that it’s a very easy band to be in. We all get along and love spending time together. I imagine we’ll still be making music together in 30 years, let alone three!
We want to keep releasing music that we love and performing it for (hopefully) more and more people year-on-year.
Continuing to improve our live show is certainly another piece of the puzzle, and we have a few plans in motion to achieve this already. Watch this space.
