Posts tagged Soundscapes

Another stalwart of UK improvised music (and more) is Sheffield’s Martin Archer. Electro-acoustic music, improvisation, cut-up experiments, ensemble playing – who knows what we can expect from his next project? Apart from honesty, invention and high-quality music, that is. On Ghosts of Gold (DISCUS 37CD), he collaborates once again with Julie Tippetts, herself no less important a figure in the world of jazz and improvised music. Her songs and poems – half sung, half-recited – are set against strange musical backdrops provided by Archer, producing a total effect that’s as close as we’ll come to a 21st century Façade (William Walton and Edith Sitwell). Tippett’s dense verbiage may appear heavy going at first, but I sense that it’s laced with the same basic semi-supernatural pastoral and pagan imagery as you’ll find on many an example of classic UK revivalist folk (Shirley Collins, The Young Tradition). If only the numerous listeners in the audience who profess their allegiance to contemporary “dark folk” would bend an ear to this CD, they might be pleasantly surprised. As to the overall sound of this weirdster, “uncanny” would not be too strong a word to describe the inventive and mysterious combinations Archer has pulled from his panoply of keyboards, woodwinds, electronics and percussion. As Ms Tippetts puts it, this is “the magic of the unexpected”.

The Sound Projector

Notes

Working with Martin always gives an inspiring kind of freedom within his extraordinary soundscapes. His structures on this album provide perfect settings for this selection of texts, drawn from an anthology of poetry written between 1994 – 2004, opening wide all doors with his particular flavour combinations, and yet indicating to me, almost instantly, the precise choice of poems for each piece. To use track 8 as an example, Martin brought this wonderful ingredient to the pot as an after-thought on our last day of recording. I went straight to the text, and within minutes was in front of the mic, and Rainsong was born. No rehearsal, no prior thought or decisions, and yet it gives the impression of being a structured composition. That’s what I love about working in this way. The magic of the unexpected. – Julie Tippetts.

Most of the music for this collection was written and recorded by myself between mid 2007 – mid 2008. Julie matched texts to the music and recorded the vocal parts at my studio in the final part of 2008. I tried to write music for this CD which I believed would have some personal relevance for Julie rather than to write in the abstract and hope for the best. Looking back, I’ve been aware of Julie’s music just as long as I’ve been aware of creative music. I distinctly remember borrowing a copy (on the original Neon label) of Septober Energy from someone’s hip older brother while still at school, not registering that many of the players involved in this incredibly ambitious and joyful work were in reality not a whole lot older than I was. Then before very long I’d also heard the diametrically opposite Blueprint and Ovary Lodge albums, which helped me to learn that there was room for space and melody inside total improvisation, as well as jazz informed “chops” and extended technique playing. It was not until the 1980’s that I first met Julie while I was promoting free improv concerts in Sheffield, and not until the 2000s did we make records together – Julie sang on both of my albums with Geraldine Monk, and also on my latest solo release In Stereo Gravity. One memorable aspect of this recording for me is that despite this being the first record of Julie’s whose method is based substantially on software processing and editing (her previous Shadow Puppeteer was, amazingly, a virtuoso product of traditional tape editing!), she immediately “got” the possibilities of working in a virtual studio and seconds after completing each take behind the mic was seated next to me in front of the screen enthusiastically directing the editing and processing choices. Julie really is the best and most detailed editor of her own work I’ve ever worked with. I’m sure there will be more to come. – Martin Archer

Julie Tippetts – voice, percussion
Martin Archer – laptop, woodwind, keyboards etc

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