Singing and playing carillon, in 2017.
One of the songs is dedicated to Mika Vainio.
Reading from his novels Robinson, The Hard Shoulder and The Passenger, and The Museum of Loneliness, with field recordings and bits from the soundtracks of Asylum and Content. Assembled by Mordant Music.
Pure loveliness. Proper music-making,
DIY Classical, but nothing slapdash or posey. Intimate and tentative, seamed with risk, occasional mis-steps, dodgy tuning, minor technical fuck-ups; but driven by gripping, stilled dedication and deep musical understanding.
Double bass, electric guitar, flute, melodica, singing; recorded at home in NYC, on dodgy gear, with snug, woody, shhshh-ing, analogue-style ambience.
The trio hovers between cheerful relish — who’s that giggling at the back — and hushed, humble reverence, basking in the processes of musical communion and learning. They play like they are gingerly passing on a precious, fragile gift; but without prissy conceit.
Luminous selections from the last six hundred years — John of Dunstable meets Friedrich Nietzsche — are lovingly arranged by the group, with a bent for stripped-to-the-bone, emotionally restrained sublimity, steady as she blows.
Very warmly recommended. Soul food.