Something special is coming up on the label very soon…

“We wanted to create something special for this project, something psychedelic: something that bridges the gap between the Maps and Diagrams & Atlantis output and Genoveva’s previous vocal work. It’s an exploratory, elemental union that includes a significant, immersive and expressive vocal narrative. The overall theme of light and hope is perhaps not so apparent on the first few listens because the vocals are full of hidden mystery. However, its nascent sense of optimism does become apparent the more you listen to it, essentially it’s a journey of hope”

- Tim Diagram / Genoveva – September 2012

Bluhm is the exquisite outcome of four months of collaboration between intelligent musical innovator Tim Diagram and enigmatic Macedonian songstress Genoveva. The album’s genesis began with Tim putting down basic unforced song structures. The musical production side utilises his trademark palette of drone, delay, reverb, discord, distortion, tape effects and granular synthesis. All consciously crafted with the light, ardour and purity that is always associated with his oeuvre.

These primary melodies were presented to Genoveva, who then added her seraphic vocals. Both protagonists contributed to the powerful and inspirational lyrical content of the work that exposes glimpses of the beauty and significance of true reflection. The album plays out like a journey of personal sacrifice and self-development. These artists bring swathes of emotional intelligence to the table, and this comes out in vocals which ebb and flow with a haunting poetic melancholy. There’s a strong sense of attachment to each of the songs, all of which possess dynamic emotive themes. There are tales of despair, of isolation, of staring into the abyss and being lost inside your own mind, chased by your own monsters and demons.

Both contributors view music as being a key element of their lives, and of their ultimate salvation. They find a release in creativity and relate to each other’s challenges and dilemmas. So this work is also the story of a blossoming friendship, one that was generated through a complete love and utter devotion to music. There is no formula to any of the songs, it all pieced together organically as the work progressed, with little or no arrangement with the vocals, they are as they were sung.

All of humanity can relate to the life-changing experiences that are so eloquently documented here. The effort of coming to terms with life’s ups and downs, the semiotic visions of self-pity, the torment, the psychotic episodes, the desire for acceptance; and above all, the hope of an eventual salvation that can only be gained through respective responsibility and inestimable self-effort.

Bluhm is pure euphoria; it leaves one feeling wholesome inside as its emotional and sensual overtones induce an altered sense of self-realisation. Sentient soundscapes of virtue and lucidity create a fabulous feeling of solid inner strength that permeates every fibre of human existence. Overcome by the profundity of the experience one will be fully prepared to dare to live one’s life once again.

Copies sold out from the label. Limited copies available from artist web site…

Here is something slow, pastel and elemental, in concert with the haze of early spring.

Enrico Coniglio–recording as My Home, Sinking–offers his finespun debut with contributions from Katie English, Barbara De Dominicis, Laura Sheeran, Orla Wren, and others. The joined arsenal boasts acoustic instrumentation as well as synthesizer, manipulations and field recordings. Here guitar, cello, piano, harmonica, melodica, percussion and voice ring alongside Korg Monotron, Orla Wren’s processing, and Coniglio’s vinyls.

Tracks range from glowing string examinations to humming whitewashes, from vocal reveries to textured pop allure. Listeners may already be familiar with the guitar reverberations of opening track “The Void,” which was originally released on the Wire Tapper CD #26, in August 2011. Remaining tracks are previously unreleased, yet still beckon like old companions. “Touching the Void” regales with De Dominicis’ surreal choir of one, the coquettish spoken word as lovely as her ravishing vibrato. “Skyline Obscured” tenders the gentle optic brume of ambient–that one kind of visual pollution worth hoping for. Keeping with the subject of horizons, “Sunset Eyed” sets electronic pinpricks against De Dominicis’ tender dexterity, English’s hopeful pizzicato, and the composite thud of percussion.

Elsewhere “Fading to White” floats above a simple, unadorned guitar lick, weightless with Sheeran’s savory vocals and the untethered gusts of harmonica. Sheeran also delivers a humming, layered performance on “The Body Tired,” a languid, guitar-driven beauty which simply mesmerizes. With this tender and crafted release, Coniglio has announced a new direction, and a number of Fluid Audio alumni have headed there with him. Perhaps we are all at risk of sinking in.

Presented in four panel letter pressed covers with belly band, twelve page (recycled paper) photographic book by Giacomo Vianello, five bespoke prints on heavy card stock wrapped in archival paper, pressed lavender… All wrapped in luxury papered lyric sheets and sealed. The whole thing then rests inside hand typed/numbered envelopes. Two hundred and fifty copies for the world!

After holding two editions of the Off-Key Sessions in the Church of St John the Baptist, the organisers decided to move almost round the corner to the oldest building in Bristol still in use today, the Priory of St James. Founded in 1129, the Priory was home in the medieval period to Benedictine monks until it was dissolved under the reign of Henri VIII. Nowadays St James Priory provides ongoing support for people in recovery from addiction in their Supported Accommodation at St James House while the church itself is used for worship. As it happens, the Off-Key Sessions are quite a friendly and low-key affair where audience, artists and organisers can meet and get to know each other around an impressive selection of tea and cake while sampling a fine selection of records representative of the scene. Last Saturday, before the performances effectively started, Clothbound label-head Bryan Ruhe, greeted the audience with an impressive mix of his own unreleased tracks, mostly assembled from tape loops.

Katie English opened the evening in diminutive fashion using flutes, home-made dulcimer and field recordings. At times whistling to provide an underlying harmonic bed to her compositions, she gave rhythmic motion to her live improvisation by looping the sound of her tongue clicking against the microphone. As she layered incredibly intricate flute motifs, her performance ebbed and flowed in the vast space of the church to conjure vivid pastoral images and melancholic meditations that set the tone for the whole evening.

After a short break, Sara Galán and Edu Comelles, playing as Cello+laptop, more than lived up to the audience expectations during a set that condensed in 20 minutes haunted film noir atmospheres and disjointed spectral sonic clusters. Cello+Laptop have made quite an impression on Fluid’s writing team at the end of last year when they release their much acclaimed album Parallel Paths, so it was quite logical to have them play live at an Off-Key Session. They worked pretty much within the realm of pure improvisation, Sara Galán playing sombre and dystopian cello motifs fed into Edu Comelles’ laptop for additional processing and looping. If at first Galán appeared to be the obvious driving partner in this improbable duo, Comelles was working in the dark, slowly absorbing the devastating narrative of his collaborator and furthering the emotional impact of the cello through careful use of electronics. It’s only half-way through the set that he really engaged in the improvisational dialogue and launched a sparse sonic onslaught in the form of spectrally processed granular clouds. The sharp contrast between those disembodied granular clusters and the emotional heft of the cello gave the whole set a strong sense of structure and movement moving along in a sort of impossible and rightly impressive balancing act.

Following the spanish duo, Danny Norbury and Flau label-head Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aka aus) explored in their own way the interplay of cello and laptop augmented by piano and machines. They have played together in the past either in the UK or in Japan but somehow never have the time to properly rehearse their shows together, things usually happening the very intensity of the performance. It might be a exciting or a counter-intuitive approach depending how you look at it but it’s surely the risk of the unknown that make they collaboration such an interesting proposition. On Saturday, Fukuzono literally landed in Bristol in the middle of the afternoon and headed straight to St James Priory where he had just enough time to set up his equipment. Positioned on both sides of the church’s altar, both musicians looked like disembodied shadows barely moving against a backdrop of tiny candles, Norbury on cello and Fukuzono playing piano and electronics – a stunning view, especially for members of the audience seated at the back end of the church. Throughout their improvised set, Norbury was always careful to find appropriate gaps in his partner’s sonic tapestry, so his presence was never overbearing but on the contrary thoughtful and considerate. The overall performance had thus much contrast, depth and articulation, both musicians playing like a singular entity moving in slow undulating movements.

After a long break, Orla Wren came on stage as his music unfolded in near complete darkness despite the slow-moving visuals projected above the altar floating like aether-borne holographic projections. His tones and sounds were so delicate that they conjured iridescent images of ice crystals melting on the surface of grass blades. Using diminutive melodic lines, field recordings and digital processing combined in wonderful kaleidoscopic motifs, Orla Wren was at time playing music of such graceful and restrained beauty that time seemed suspended to allow the audience to observe the life of a microscopic ecosystem ebbing and flowing in slow-motion. In the last section of the set, long cello motifs came unhurried, gently hovering over Orla Wren’s echo garden until they dissolve into the enveloping silence of the church.

Closing the evening, Andrew Hargreaves and Craig Tattersall playing as The Boats gave the whole evening a unexpected twist as they unleashed for half an hour or so remnants of Detroit Techno laced with Industrial undertones whilst always avoiding to be bound to a particular genre. Standing in front of an intricate assemblage of machines and computers, Tatersall and Hargreaves never put their 4/4 beats center-stage but opted on the contrary to twist their sounds until they got deeply scarred. All the way through their set they seemed more interested in the grittiness and abrasive textures of their analogue circuitry than in all-to-easy trap of becoming alienated to the repetitiveness of their beats. Superb!

- Film: Gianmarco Del Re / Words: Pascal Savy / Images: Richard Outram

www.clothbound.net
www.fboxrecords.co.uk
www.ausmusik.com
www.dannynorbury.tumblr.com
www.orlawren.com
www.oursmallideas.tumblr.com

Time for some very special news! In a few months Facture will be releasing a monster of an album by ‘The Seaman & The Tattered Sail’ (Craig Tattersall and Bill Seaman). Over 7 hours of music will fit into a 2 x vinyl, 2 x CD and DVD. Years of work have resulted in some of the most beautiful heartfelt music we have ever heard! This mix only just scratches the surface of what is to come. Enjoy…

Craig Tattersall:

Craig has been involved in several music projects chiefly The Boats, The Humble Bee, The Remote Viewer and some labels too…

He currently lives in a 1930′s spy thriller

*Guitar, piano, dusted loops, analogue loops, digital loops, drum machine, analogue synth, synth bass, field recordings, abstractions, fragment constructions and reconstructions, abstractions of Seaman (etc.), analogue spatial recordings, artificial wind, crackles (record surface noise).

Bill Seaman:

Bill is a musician and media artist. He early on explored interactive and generative music (he calls this recombinant music). He has been in multiple bands and collaborations. His own albums as SEA — Thoughtbody, and Songs and Dances of the Neosentient, as well as his album Entry with ATTSEA (working with Rafael Attias) are available on itunes. He has recently collaborated with Daniel Howe on an album entitled Minor Distance (available at billseaman.com); and is currently working with John Supko on a project entitled S_Traits. Seaman and Craig Tattersall (The Boats, The Humble Bee, The Remote Viewer, etc.) have worked for approximately one year on their large scale project – The Seaman and the Tattered Sail – Light Folds. Seaman has also done numerous soundtracks for his media works. He currently lives in Ableton Live…

* Piano, vocal, text, fragment constructions and reconstructions, time abstractions, quartet samples, trumpet samples, clarinet samples, drum machine abstractions, drum machine constructions (samples), digital distortions, bit reductions, synth abstractions, abstractions of Tattersall (etc.), digital loops, radical pitch shifts, noise enhancements, historical samples, crackles – record surface noise (from Tattersall), artificial crackles.

Credits:

Trumpet (sample recordings) – Robert Ellis-Geiger
Ciompi Quartet (sample recordings) – Eric Pritchard (violin), Hsiao-mei Ku (violin), Jonathan Bagg (violin and viola), Fred Raimi (cello)
Clarinet drones (sample recordings) — David Beaudry
Ableton Live (construction space), Roland Edirol R-09HR Ver.3.0 instrument and voice recordings

www.fac-ture.co.uk
www.tape-dust.tumblr.com
www.billseaman.com

Headphone Commute recently caught up with Matthew Collings to discuss the inner workings of Splintered Instruments…

You’ve been working on a lot of different projects in the past, what finally prompted you to release a full-length album under your real name?

It was mainly at the suggestion of someone else actually. I’d been recording under the name Sketches for Albinos for a few years, and the music I had in my head really no longer matched that aesthetic or feel. It didn’t make any sense to keep working under that name. It’s also nice not to be hiding behind a moniker or other identity, and to really put yourself out there in a raw kind of way. There’s also my own battle with the word ‘composer’, which I now feel comfortable describing myself as. I think the word needs to be re-claimed from the ‘classical’ sense of the word, as in someone who works with traditional instrumentation and writes out sheet music. For me Burial is a composer, as is Chris Watson, David Lang, Michael Gira or Kevin Shields. They use different means and tools but what they create is of equal value and interest.

How would you describe your music?

That’s always a tough one… Guitar and Electronic music always at the edge of collapse, sometimes aggressive, sometimes kind.

Tell us about the process of recording Splintered Instruments.

‘Splintered Instruments’ really started properly when I started work with Ben Frost in Greenhouse Studios. That’s when things started to shape up and all the possibilities in these ideas started to appear. It was kind of like the training wheels came off. After that is was a very slow process or carving up ‘song-like’ structures into something more spacious, but always trying to be highly rhythmic. Much of it was about avoid certain things; not making ambient-music, being ‘rock’ but not… The sound I had in my head was like Sonic Youth’s ‘The Diamond Sea’ meeting ‘Music for 18 Musicians’. I wanted to take songs and kind of dissolve them and then bring them back again, with everything just being on the edge of these various types of structures. I also wanted to record everything to a certain standard which delayed the record a lot. I also distracted myself by focusing on a lot of extraneous details rather than the core of the music sometimes; it was a real adventure making that record, and I learned a huge amount. I also worked very closely with Paul Evans, who was an engineer at the studio, on a lot of pretty abstract ideas and recording processes including a lot of ‘prepared speaker’ work which has become a focus of much of my work since. Dan Rejmer also mixed the record like a king, so there were a lot of key people and valuable inputs along the way.

Talk a little on the physicality of sound in your compositions.

Physicality in sound is something I’ve really become interested in over the last few years. My favourite music is really immersive, in one way or another, in texture, feel, volume; I want to be overwhelmed by it. I also realised that I have to have this in live performances as well, both in terms of volume and physical engagement with the music. I can’t stand and stare at a laptop, I need to hit a guitar, thrash at it (I often end up cutting up my fingers at gigs from this) and have something which physically makes me engage otherwise I just can’t get into it. So I’m really interested in finding ways to do this. I wrote a piece a few years ago which I play live a lot called ‘Elysia’, which is based around the behaviour of sets of side-chained compressors, all controlled from an electric guitar. This way you have to play the guitar really hard to get certain effects from the material, as crushing the material up is the basis of the piece. It becomes a physical experience and performance otherwise it really doesn’t work. I’m really interested in that. After all music sounds and feels better when you move.

You mention that one of the concepts behind the album is a “revolt against machines”. Can you expand a bit on that?

It ‘s just about trying to use physical objects to process sound. Using broken speakers, or pushing in the cones as drums play through them, or re-recording parts in real rooms rather than using reverb, combining live instruments with multiple takes of themselves etc. Just finding more interesting ways of recording than just using plugins on a computer. Having said that, a lot of my more recent work has been using custom-made software to achieve certain ends, but I’m usually far more interested in real-world sounds than artificial ones. I use the computer so centrally in what I do only out of convenience… If I could do it all on an acoustic guitar, trust I would! I really used machines to assemble giant collages of material on this record, which would have been impossible otherwise. But 90% of the material is from the acoustic, ‘real-world’.

I have to ask this – how did you get involved with Ben Frost?

I lived in Reykjavik for 6 years. It’s a small place, eventually you run into most people. I met Ben through my job at the time, which was a happy coincidence really, as I’d just seen him play at Iceland Airwaves shortly after the release of ‘Theory of Machines’ and been excited by what he was doing. We got to know each other, and I played in his piece ‘Music for 6 guitars’ a couple of times. We look at a lot of music and sound in similar ways so there was plenty of common ground. He liked some demos I gave him and we just started working together, which went on on and off for a few years. He was the perfect person for me to work with at that time, and I’m very grateful for that.

And how did you end up on Fluid Audio?

I had a few mutual acquaintances who knew Dan, who runs Fluid Audio. When I was looking for a home for ‘Splintered Instruments’ they felt it would be a natural fit. Their releases are always works of art, with such quality and time poured into them. I’m extremely grateful for all their hard work and support.

Talk a bit about your other projects, such as Sketches For Albinos and Graveyard tapes.

Sketches for Albinos was a lo-fi/ambient project I had when I lived in Iceland. I issued a number of albums under that name. I still really love that stuff, it’s all very very personal and I’m hoping to return to that project later this year, only it will have to take on a slightly different form. Graveyard Tapes is my project with Euan Mcmeeken. Euan comes from a more traditional songwriting, piano and vocal background and it’s a collaboration based around song-like forms. We recently released a record called ‘Our Sound is Our Wound’ on Lost Tribe Sound, which we’re really proud of and has fantastic artwork by Jamie Mills. It’s great to work with this project as it helps frame some of my experimental tendencies into a specific form, and working with Euan is also a lot of fun.

And what about your sound installations?

I’ve done a number of installations (see some of these here) usually using custom-made software and various ways of interacting with the space, sometimes using light, sometimes hacked game controllers. I really enjoy this type of work as you can really see and instant reaction in people, and you also reach such a broad range of people. That’s really rewarding. I developed an algorithmic cinema project recently with Erik Parr called The Third Mind, which we exhibited as an installation with ‘foley stations’ where the public could contribute sounds into the system in the same way as you would as a foley artist adding additional sounds onto a film. I’d love to do an installation which was based on physicality and a space using infrasound or something similar. Something very meditative from pure sound and guitar amplifiers, bathed in deep red light. Very Lynchian…

What are you working on right now?

The follow up to ‘Splintered Instruments’, which I’m really excited about. I’m really trying to condense and explore certain ideas, such as the relationship between rhythm and texture, but still making something with a sense of narrative, and dare I say it, ‘pop’. Although I’ve been told I have a very messed up idea of what pop music is. At the moment it sounds like David Lang meeting Nirvana, Raime meeting Steve Reich. I’ve also started working with Euan Mcmeeken on the second Graveyard Tapes record, which has a lot of spirit and energy behind it. I think it might be my most optimistic record to date. Also finishing off a full-length record with Dag Rosenqvist (after our EP ‘Wonderland’) and a record of improv-based recordings with Christos Michalakos under the guise Black Isle Corpus. Busy as ever…

Read Headphone Commute review of  Splintered Instruments

www.reviews.headphonecommute.com

The good folks over at Wake The Deaf web site recently caught up with Matthew to discuss new album ‘Lamorna’…

…………

One of the biggest compliments we get as a blog is the number of emails we receive on a daily basis from labels, PR companies and artists asking us to listen to and promote their stuff. Unfortunately we just don’t have the time to sift through all of these emails and a lot of those sent to us get buried.

However, every now and then we receive a submission that really jumps out and grabs our attention. This was the case with an email we received from Fluid Audio over the weekend concerning the latest release, Lamorna, from Matthew Shaw, a Dorset based ambient artist.

Lamorna is a sweeping, ambient landscape of sound, perfectly capturing the environments in which it was created, full of blending harmonies that build and dissipate almost at will.

We were lucky enough to get the chance to speak to Matthew about his latest release:

1). You’ve spoken before about ‘relying on the sounds of the places themselves’. How do you select these places? Do you actively head out in search of places with the aim of finding and recording sounds, or is there more luck to it than that?

Serendipity is a word I might use for how the recordings come about but coincidence is probably more appropriate as it’s me coinciding with the places at a certain time that makes it work. It’s about me being in the right place mentally to pick the right spot to record and the sounds. I’ve often gone to a place specifically to record and it not work. It can’t really be rushed, if I don’t slow down and tune in it just doesn’t work.

It’s true that each place has it’s own sonic footprint, and it’s not in stasis, it’s constantly changing, evolving, in the present tense. Though it’s often somewhere with an incredibly interesting past that brought me there to record something to be released in the future.

2). Music such as yours provokes a sense of reminiscence. Would you agree that records such as yours convey a sense of collective memory of a place? For example, the Boleigh Fogou, one of your key inspirations for this release is believed to have been the location for birth and death rituals in the Iron Age. Is it these events, experiences and memories that you aim to capture when creating your music?

Yes, that is definitely something that interests me a great deal. I believe there is something to Jung’s theory of collective unconscious, and I like theories such as that by T.C Lethbridge. He states that images or emotions of something that happened can be left at a place when heightened emotions or great repetition took place at the same spot. Lethbridge talks about this as the events being magnetically captured where an underground source or water exists, or when humidity and moisture coincide at a certain time of year, the conditions being just right. Yeats also talked about this at length as something he used to aid his poetry in “A Vision”.

I think there is something there, the main thing is taking time, slowing down and opening up to what the place itself can tell you.

3). Could you describe the processes you go through when composing a piece? How long does it take you to collate your ideas into a coherent whole? Do you ever have trouble ‘letting go’ of a piece?

The actual recording happens quite quickly. All the parts for “Lamorna” were recorded over five or six days, some on location and others, such as the Moog, indoors. I then take quite a while sculpting the sounds together to form a finished piece.

I do have problems with knowing when a piece is completed. It’s about getting the right balance of spontaneity with the overall intention for the music and then realising when it’s done. I have exactly the same concern when painting.

4). You describe yourself as a musician, artist, photographer and songwriter. Would you consider yourself predominantly as one of these, or do they all represent an equal measure of yourself? Do you find the content you produce as one aspect, influencing the others?

Making music is my favourite thing. Music is a hugely important part of my life and has been for many years. Painting is something that takes me to a very similar place during the process. At its best, it’s like meditation for me.

Song writing is something I’ve done much less of in recent years. I had a ten-year period in my life when the song was the beginning of all my music. The sound, instrumentation and texture came afterwards. Over time all those other elements have come to the fore, which is more exciting to me. I still write new songs, it just takes me longer than before. The music I recorded and toured as tex la homa is all song based.

Photography is newer to me as a creative outlet. I’ve only recently bought a decent camera, primarily to capture images of my children growing up. With this came an unexpected creative side to things. When visiting places to record I would photograph the process and places. Some of these captured the places almost as well as the field recordings. I’ve worked at it and got to the point where I was happy to publish some of the photos in my book Præ. Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery asked if they could use a photograph I made of Lanyon Quoit in Devon as part of their permanent collection, which made me feel quite validated as a photographer.

5). You take an incredible amount of care in the way your music is presented in its physical form. This release is accompanied by 6 large format double sided photographic prints, a natural Larch wood slice, pressed Viola flower, a poem written by Ithell Colquhoun and a scent. It’s refreshing to see an artist put so much time and effort into the physical accompaniment to a release, especially in an age where download codes and online streams have become the norm. At what stage do you begin to consider the presentation of your record, and how do you select what to include?

Art, music, the overall presentation, what to show and how are all very important in giving the listener an idea of what I’m aiming to communicate. On this occasion I have been very lucky to work with Dan and Fluid Audio who put such care and love into their releases, and attention to detail that is second to none from a label.

6). You’re clearly interested and influenced by your environment and surroundings. Do you feel you’d be creating different music had you grown up in a different environment?

That’s very difficult to answer. I suppose if my life had been different in any way, the places I’ve lived and so on, then what I’d be doing now would also be different. For a simple question I think this opens up a huge philosophical question that is much bigger. I think ultimately it’s about choice but where that impulse comes from is where the question gets very interesting.

7). Other than your environment, what have been your primary influences in the way you create your music? These don’t have to be other artists, they could be experiences, books, relationships…

Books have always been a huge inspiration. At the moment I’ve been re-reading Yeats a lot. I also read a lot of books on folklore, history, prehistory, Phsychogeography, The Occult, Esoteric subjects, travel and occasionally the odd novel. Some of these areas have taught me to experience things on a practical level, others are more of an interest to read of.

Personal relationships have always been something I’ve drawn on when creating, which might be more evident with my songs but it’s still there through everything in some way.

8). Finally, what are you listening to right now?

I’ve been listening a lot recently to Valentin Silverstrov, Gimell, Vaughan Williams, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Morton Feldman, Coil, Kate Bush, Chris watson, Third Ear Band, The Incredible String Band, Current 93, Richard Youngs, Julian Cope, early & mid period Bowie.

In terms of new artists that might be less well known I would heartily recommend my regular collaborators Brian Lavelle, especially his “Just a Song at Twilight”. Andrew Paine, anything he self released on Sonic Oyster. English Heretic are making have been self publishing some fascinating journals and music well worth investigating. Adam Baker and his micro-sound recordings under the name Dead Wood are also very good indeed. On the wider free guitar/noise side of things I can strongly suggest San Francisco’s White Pee. Michael and the band have been making consistently thought provoking music on the further reaches of guitar based psychedelia for some time now and remain largely unsung.

Lamorna is available from Fluid Audio at the end of the month, with a limited edition run of 100 hand made letter pressed CD’s, resting inside hand typed, numbered and sealed Manilla envelopes. It promises to be an all round beautiful experience.

www.wakethedeaf.co.uk

Matthew Shaw’s travels continue. His wanderings have led him to Seatown, Sandbanks, the woods of Zeist, and the inner city of Vancouver. Now he documents a week-long trip to Lamorna, Cornwall, in the summer of 2012.

Shaw writes: “The recordings were made in the Lamorna valley, the cove, the woods and also within the Iron Age Boleigh Fogou which is an underground structure over 2,000 years old. The Fogou derives from the Cornish for Fou or Vou, meaning cave.”

“In terms of the sound of the finished music, it was recorded largely on location using acoustic guitar, bowed guitars, Moog Prodigy, my voice and a sprinkling of effects where required. It relied on the sounds of the places themselves, the trees, river and Fogou in particular. The mixing process was based on taking these raw ingredients and sculpting them into a finished whole, with the place as the focus.”

The result is a slow tide of strings, ambient vistas, and delirious harmonies that echo, then dissipate into the eponymous landscape. From the inner triumph of “Rosemerrynwood” to the tense and pulse-quickening modern composition “Bo-Lech” and the buoyant, living title track, Lamorna is a remembered call from an ancient place.

Fluid Audio presents Lamorna in a limited edition run of 100 hand made letter pressed CD’s, along with 6 large format (150mm x 150mm) double sided photographic prints taken by the artist on his journey. The package also includes a natural Larch wood slice, pressed Viola flower, rare poem by Ithell Colquhoun, download code and scent. All of the above rests inside hand typed/numbered/sealed Manilla envelopes.

Release Date: 29.03.13

If you’re in Bristol next week, we would love to see you on April 13th for what will be a very special night of music, friendship and, of course, tea and cake…

Not only will a wonderful selection of talented artists be playing heart-warming, live music in a stunning venue, but the night will also support a great cause (all profits will go to the 3rd-stage addiction recovery house, St James).

Details…

Off-Key Sessions: Oceans & Ornaments
Saturday April 13th, 2013
5.pm – 10.pm

As with all Off-Key sessions, each ticket bought will include a limited edition letter-pressed CD containing exclusive unreleased music from artists playing on the night, along with tea and home made cake served free of charge.

PayPal invoices will need to be brought along on the night as proof of ticket purchase.

Buy tickets here

The venue…

St James Priory is the oldest building in Bristol and a monument of immense historical and architectural importance.

Robert Fitzroy, Earl of Gloucester and illegitimate grandson of William the Conqueror, founded the Priory of St James in 1129. It has been used as a place of worship for 900 years.

In the medieval period, St James Priory was home to Benedictine monks. They lived here as a community of brothers, devoting their lives to worshiping God and caring for the poor and the sick. The Priory was dissolved during the reign of Henry VIII, and many of its buildings were demolished. Only the west end survived as a smaller parish church, and is still used for worship today.

Now, St James Priory provides ongoing support for people in recovery from addiction in their Supported Accommodation at St James House.

The Line Up…

The Boats (UK)
Orla Wren (UK)
aus (Japan) & Danny Norbury (UK)
Isnaj Dui (UK)
Cello & Laptop (Spain)
Ruhe (USA)
Pascal Savy (UK)

A killer line up I hope you’ll agree…

If it isn’t enough that Andrew and Craig are playing together live under The Boats umbrella for the first time in over 5 years, did we mention they will be previewing material from the upcoming new album? Also, Danny Norbury will be playing a rare live collaboration with aus! Then we have another extremely rare live performance from Orla Wren, previewing unreleased material from his upcoming Home Normal and Facture albums! Add to the mix Isnaj Dui, Cello & Laptop, Ruhe (coming over from USA) and Pascal Savy and I think you’ll agree it’s going to be a very special night indeed! We even have our good friend Colin Herrick (Time Released Sound) coming over from the States with a bag of goodies to sell on the night, plus loads of cheap merchandise from the above artists.

Address…

St James Priory, Whitson Street, Bristol, BS1 3NZ.
Map

The venue is right next to Bristol Bus Station, on Whitson Street in the centre of Bristol.

By car: At the St James Barton Roundabout take the exit to Clifton, BRI (Bristol Royal Infirmary). The Bus Station will be on your left and then the Magistrates Courts. Immediately after this building, turn left into Earl Street and then left again into Whitson Street. Go past the bus exit and a 3 storey stone building (St James House) and immediately turn left into St James Priory courtyard. There is limited parking but there are public car parks nearby.

By train: Bristol Temple Meads Train Station is about 20 minutes walk. Alternatively, catch one of the buses waiting outside to Bristol Bus Station and get off at The Haymarket.

By bus: Bristol Bus Station is the city’s main bus terminal, so most routes stop here. We’re right next door.

Contact…

If you have any queries, you can reach us via the contact form on this web site or via this mobile number: 07817609883

Here’s hoping that you’re able to share this special evening with us,

Dan & Jess x

“We find the whole world in tiny things.”

With Spoicke, United Bible Studies continues its examination of textured improvised stillness, or what Simon Cummings referred to as a “loose weave tapestry, where broad gestures sit comfortably beside more intricate, filigree passages.” Recorded for the 2009 VPRO festival in Amsterdam, Spoicke introduces baritone Scarborough-Fair minstrelsy and whirling electronic dervishes in the same breath. Billowing curtains of harp and voice are incised with guitar, percussion and lyrical aphorisms. Not so much inventive as it is self-inventing, and not so much electroacoustic as it is dreamscaped and CTRL+Shifted, this deceptively complex composing ethic will reach out to the acoustic purists and the electron snipers in almost equal measures. And don’t even say the word genre out loud.

If it occurred to us, we could assemble the ghosts-nay, the magicians-of acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar, piano, harp, harmonica, electronics and drum, then stir in some Amsterdam mythology to taste, and our results might come close to Spoicke. But that is what makes United Bible Studies so extraordinary: it would never have occurred to us. Fluid Audio presents Spoicke in a limited edition CD run of 77 for the world, with letter-pressed CD cover, homemade sewn fabric pouch, 300gsm double sided luxury postcard, handmade Larch Elder Futhark rune that has had the symbol burnt into it and finished with natural beeswax, mini card, printed insert with download code, black envelope, all stamped, numbered and sealed. Oh yes and of course some fire resin incense.

The cover design…

The design is variants of the same composition, but the details are different – the idea is that they represent alchemical concepts of the unity of opposites. Day and night (front and back cover) scenery also represent life and death of the magician, who’s ghost Doppelgänger haunted the city after his death.

The symbols represent Three Principles, Four Elements, planets and metals. The fact that the title hero was from Amsterdam was truly helpful and inspiring, allowing us to include all four elements/representations in the scenery: air (sky), earth (ground and buildings), fire (sun) and water (river).

Credits…

David Colohan: Voice, Acoustic & Lap Steel Guitars, Tin Whistle
Richard Moult: Piano
Áine O’Dwyer: Harp, Voice
Gavin Prior: Acoustic & Lap Steel Guitars, Electronics
Oscar Strik: Percussion
Michael Tanner: Guitar, Bowed loops, Voice, Sampled Glass Harmonica
Recorded and mixed by Berry Kramer and VPRO in Amsterdam on the 22nd/23rd May 2009. Additional mixing by Michael Tanner at Greenwitch Studios, Dorset.
Artwork: Madame Bricolage

Physical sold out. Digital available here

Splintered Instruments is not an empty claim. It is the sound of acoustic components on the verge of collapse, as if spitting out something articulate with their dying breath. It is real-world, analog, dusty and broken, but still forward-looking.

Matthew Collings – the Edinburg-based composer and producer – makes his solo debut with this Fluid Audio release. He says, “Emotionally this record comes out of reckoning with the destructive forces in my life. I’ve felt my whole life as if there is an immense, violent force ready to come out of me. I wanted to finally reach it and reckon with it. Here it rears its head, filtered through melody.”

“I was completely sick of ambient. I wanted something direct, to look you straight in the eye, to involve and shake your entire body. If I could somehow take the electric guitar and melt the sound of it and play it with my body I would.”

Of the album’s spilling percussion, exquisite spans of silence and its almost petroleum viscidity, Collings writes, “Very few thing in nature are truly repetitive. There is always subtle variation and imprecision. It’s a revolt against machines: precision doesn’t express anything and is pretty unnatural. Everything I play is messy, but on the border of being out of place. I use the computer for convenience, not as a principle. It is electronic only because I don’t have the hands or people to do it all at once. If I could, then I would.”  Nearly all of Splintered Instruments is organic, played on acoustic instruments or sourced from physical objects and then manipulated, often considerably.

The album was produced by Ben Frost, who also performed synthesizer and piano on “Vasilia.” Collings says, “If anything is influenced by Ben it’s the physicality and size of the sound. That’s something that really speaks to me in his music, this force of nature through noise and volume. I wanted to reach into the deepest part of me and pull out the true nature of things, or at least a faithful side to them: admitting you are violent, you are a beast of nature as much as a romantic, civilised human being.”

Splintered Instruments acknowledges ferocity as much as it does beauty, and the result is something candid, universal, and unforgettable. Fluid Audio is proud to offer this stunning debut in a limited edition run of 200 hand made letter pressed CD’s, along with photo prints stored in archival paper, guitar pick, cards/download code all packed neatly into hand typed/numbered sealed envelopes.

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