I wish I’d get off my arse and do stuff sometimes. It’s taken me several months to get around to sending out demos, and of course now I’m faced with a bunch of releases due out at the same time, a la Treatments/Canal Seven, rather than spreading them over the several months we’ve had since 60° South in May. Ah well. Here’s what’s happening:
Dungeness is one of a series of dark ambient/drone releases I’ve been working on since the success of Treatments. The pieces are in a different style. The eagle-eyed old fans from before Purlieu might recognise Qualia in some form. A very, very old track from 1999/2000 called Platinum appears in drastically remixed form, plus three recent compositions of synthesised electronic drones. Bump Foot, the long running Japanese netlabel, are releasing it very soon. I’ll hopefully have the release date sooner!
1. Carpetless Floor
2. Platinum
3. Hulme
4. Two Colours
5. Qualia
Small Black Box is a more experimental work from earlier in the year, mostly recorded in March and April. The focus here is on texture, and although some of the pieces contain what could be described as traditional melody and structure, they are not the focus of the record. Some pieces are 30 second snippets of sound, while others are positively epic. It’s a bit noisey and a bit disjointed, but I like that about it. That should be appearing on Tavern Eightieth very soon too (see what I mean about multiple releases?)
Last up (if you ignore the long-announced release of The Curse of Kevin Carter in October) is a record which may need a little more in the way of introduction. An idea long in the works and finally happening is a series of 3″ CDr releases on Jerky Oats Records called Lemony Nougat. The name is an anagram of La Monte Young, which should give you an idea of what the theme is. If all goes to plan, ten artists will each release a disc as part of the series, an contribute up to 20 minutes of ambient/drone music. The material on each release will be new and exclusive, and the releases are very strictly limited to 20 copies, each handmade in special minimalist artwork on black card. I’ve been incredibly lucky to get some amazing artists involved in this, some I’ve worked with before and some not. Already confirmed are Jack Anderton, Off Land, Cubus, Perfect Writing and Noisesurfer, plus my own project with my girlfriend, Merganser. I’m really excited about the whole project as it should be a lot of fun, and should get me to work with a range of great musicians.
And, of course, to get the ball rolling, is a release from Second Thought. Torn Vision is an experimental drone piece by music, seventeen minutes of a flute loop which is morphed and shaped into a drastically different form.
As previously mentioned, I’ve sent out some CD demos to labels recently, and part of me is hoping if they get picked up, there’s a backlog of releases so nothing else comes out before the end of the year. I don’t want the releases to get too overwhelming!
All in all, it’s a very exciting and productive time. Although I’ve now set up a list of things to do that don’t involve making more music, as I’m still about 15 releases behind… Anyway, you’ll read about them in the future, as and when they’re ready.
Safernoc is on its way at some point, I promise!
enofa 