Vigilantia: Artists respond to Mogwai

I am really proud to have joined a massive range of artists in writers on responding to the music of Mogwai in a fantastic collection VIGILANTIA: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTISTS AND WRITERS PAY ATTENTION TO MOGWAI . The collection was produced by David Banning at the wonderful Chroma Edition who continue to release a wide range of really interesting books as well as supporting a number of exhibitions. This collection is wide as it is deep, with each artist or writer taking a song title and responding to it in some way. Some pieces are directly linked to lyrics or title while other work is much more abstract. I was really pleased to produce an art work and a poem responding to the the song “The Precipice” and feel I captured the building momentum of the music somewhere in the art I created. There is also a gripping story by my good friend and sometime collaborator Lee Ashworth (his blog is a bit quiet at the moment but you can find him out there if you so desire). The book is available now and it is not only a beautifully produced object but also sits in a real sweet spot between art, music and writing. You can also listen along to a playlist of tracks responded to in the book on Spotify.

Out of sorrow…something new.

a4250049049_16Where are we now?

Where are we going?

It was in this thoughtful frame of mind that I recorded and released a new EP called “Kummerspeck/Sowrrow Fat” which brouhgt togetther songs I had been working on for a while and new pieces written in lockdown. A lot fo the songs featire samples or found sounds which I have recorded and which take on a different life when embedded in these tracks. Yoko Ono imploring the crowd to breathe captured as part of Bells for Peace at Manchester International Festival   become a medativie mantra sitting behind the story of Breathe while sounds recorded as part of Not Quite Light Festival dawn walk in 2018 bubble up between the sound of guitar and vocals in Not quite light.  Using garageband, I created and produced all the trakcs and (for once) had the time to complete them in a way I was really happy with. I still need to skill up on some aspects of this but I think this captures well songs written and produced in a unique moment.

Album available here

Kummerspeck EP

with a great bio written by Lee Ashworth

Lee Ashworth Site