Ouvala - Psychology of Colour
The Ouvala project has been in gestation since late 2009. Initially the work involved reels and reels of old synth and re-worked sampling I made and promptly left in storage for around a year. This storage suffered from severe damp and after trashing most of the reels due to decay I decided to try and listen to what could be salvaged. I ended up using a variety of very old smaller reel to reels, and notably found myself mixing down ideas from these decayed tapes onto my faithful Popular 400.
During the time Tim and I worked on the material for one of our other projects (Black Elk), we started working on these rather haunted evaporating tones and melodies, and something just clicked for us. Over the next couple of years we layered and re-edited the tracks, again placing them through the process of quite random mixing back onto master reels. After a lot of love and care, we handed over the live mixed final work to our dear friend Antony Ryan (ISAN) to clean up and master.
The resulting work is a labour of love, and also one of the most unique and natural ways a project could come about. It is with great pride that we will be releasing this with another dear friends' label in Fluid Audio. The packaging Dan is working on/designing will include strips of the miles of recording tape that were stored away and eventually used over all these years. These reels will include original recordings, samples, and mix-downs from the various stages of development that we used to construct this album. The video here is just one of the many reels which contain samples used in the very first recording and storage session before they were housed away. I hope you enjoy the work we have all spent so much time on, as this really has been a labour of love for all those involved. - Ian Hawgood
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This is a limited CD edition, presented in kraft letter-pressed covers, glass mastered (not CD-R) CD, 7 x oversized prints/collages commissioned by Nieves Mingueza, vintage (1910 -1960's) photographs that have been hand etched with a scalpel to reveal hidden messages when held up to the light. The photos rest inside vintage (1940s) typed glassine bags that also include original strips of the miles of recording tape that were stored away and eventually used. The package rests inside stitched brown wax bags that are scented/tagged/typed/hand numbered.
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Ouvala is Ian Hawgood and Tim Martin
All pieces written and performed by Ian Hawgood and Tim Martin
Mastered by Antony Ryan (ISAN)
Prints/Collages commissioned by Nieves Mingueza