I know, I know, I wasn’t going to buy any more books…
WARREN ELLIS LTD Articles.
Hell of a record. It’s like immersing yourself in a haunting. Depression, anxiety and ghosts – which, to me, are probably all the same thing anyway. The Halloween release was clever, but I suspect that if you played this loud at midnight you’d clear a room pretty fast. But it’s alive with energy, always transforming, poltergeisted by crepitation and parallel voices, constantly surprising. I really like it. It’s right up there with her previous, PASTORAL.
Arrived today, THE FEATHERED THORNS, one half of whom is Polly Wright, who, with Laura Cannell, made one of my favourite records of 2019. (And also wrote this short book of poetry.)
Okay, okay, I have a problem. But I saw this going cheap – Rilke’s only novel, which I’ve never read – and grabbed it. I will honestly probably stop for the year now.
Wasn’t going to buy any more books this year, but I remembered reading the reviews of this and it showed up for 99p so…whoops?
The stack of unread books on the Kindle is now fully absurd.
Oh, I coveted this one.
Experiments In Psychoacoustics, Timbre & Minimalism: 2011-2021
Late Music and Disciples are pleased to present the first and second volumes in an archival series of selected electronic and acoustic works by Sarah Davachi, all previously unreleased in the vinyl format. Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes, and EPs; singles and original film scores; as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
It is marvellously calming and exquisitely, intricately beautiful.
I’ve been on a bit of a “Laura Cannell and associated artists” kick lately, and this new record just arrived.
Internationally acclaimed musician Laura Cannell releases a 30 minute Overbow Violin recording inspired by the 1000 year long composition Longplayer by Jem Finer (Artist, Composer and one of the founders of The Pogues). BOW & CREAK was recorded in a single take at Cannell’s Suffolk studio and the name was inspired by the corner of the Thames where the snaking tidal river meets one of London’s oldest navigational waterways in the country, Bow Creek, this is where Finer’s Longplayer has been installed since 31 December 1999, playing without repetition.
Cannell used a snapshot of Finer’s ever changing Longplayer score to create a longform violin track. Circular bowing motions on her violin are made with a deconstructed bass viol bow to play polyphonic chords, and improvised melodic passages are re-iterated with asymmetric repetitions which are combined with ancient tune fragments and the ghosts medieval and renaissance ornamentation. Captivated by the upturned bell sounds of the Longplayer singing bowls, Cannell used fragments of structure, fragments of note shapes and the circulatory image of Jem Finer’s original score to create a mini violin response to Longplayer.
I’ve had the Longplayer app on my phone for years, so this was interesting serendipity for me. It swirls and skirls and shifts around the eternally transforming shapes of Jem Finer’s Longplayer form. It’s all water and circles, and I find it transporting.
Don’t recall now how I discovered Ruby Colley’s work, but these are marvellous records. Broadly contemporary classical violin, but interpolating field recordings, folk and electronics. Music that wanders and explores.
I don’t know why I didn’t pick this up when it was released in June, but I finally gave it a listen the other day. Laura Cannell is a violinist who composes with and in specific sites and places, chiefly in East Anglia. Here, she collaborates with six other women, living in six other places and working in six other genre spaces, to reimagine some of her compositions. To my ear, only one track out of twelve didn’t really work so well for me personally. The others range from fascinating to immense. I’ve always found Cannell’s work somewhat autumnal, so this might have been the right time to discover this collection of voices and strings and electronics. Misty music.