We’re extremely excited to announce a new collaboration. Back in 2008, our second ever release was The Leisure Society‘s debut album and it was a run-away success and the start of a long and diverse career. Now they’ve come back to us and they’ve brought the Godfather of ambient music, Brian Eno, along for the ride!
It’s out this Thursday on all digital platforms. Head to our instagram for a sneak preview.
The Leisure Society play the following live shows this November, click the venue for tickets and further information:
We’ve organised two shows for the legendary Nadine Shah at The Hope & Ruin in Brighton. They are tiny shows for an artist of her status, luckily she needed two do a warm-up show before heading off on tour supporting Suede the next day, and then the first show sold out so quickly we added a second.
James Holden, Marcus Hamblett and Mark Holub met for the first time on the 19th June, 2015. BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction show’s producer’s invited them to come to the legendary Maida Vale studios as part of a series where musicians collaborate with other musicians they’ve never met before.
Despite coming from quite different musical backgrounds – electronic, folk and jazz – the musicians quickly found a lot of common ground and the music quickly flowed effortlessly. Saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman died just a few days before the session and all three were big fans, so they quickly decided to rework his signature tune, ‘Lonely Woman’, into a somewhat funereal, somewhat joyous ambient drone, (slightly stylistically reminiscent of ‘He Loved Him Madly’, Miles Davis’s tribute to Duke Ellington).
Holden brought a piece in progress, which for reasons unremembered became known on the day as ‘Brain Helmet’. Using Holden’s own ‘group humaniser’ software, Holub’s drumming didn’t have to slavishly follow the synthesizer’s tempo, his playing fed back into the master clock so the modular synth and drummer have a symbiotic relationship. Hamblett improvised on his cornet and the results could be seen as a precursor to Holden’s album The Animal Spirits.
The EP is closed by a frenzied version of Hamblett’s Vibraphone Piece. The album version of this piece begins very smoothly, hinting at the influence of Harry Lyman’s kitsch exotica or Ennio Morricone’s lounge numbers, but appearing here without vibraphone the track is freed up for wild flurries of thunderous drums, fleet fingered distorted guitar and animal wails from Holden’s modular synth. Holden went on to contribute synthesizer to the album version of this track.
Willkommen Records have made the two albums ‘Waltz For Grimaldi’ and ‘Venison Night’, written by the much missed Steve Aston, available via Spotify, iTunes and all good digital music platforms. The two albums were recorded by his band Grimaldi Cinématique then mixed and signed off before he died. They are exceptionally beautiful and you should give them a listen on Spotify then head over to Bandcamp to buy the limited double vinyl.
