GOATHERDER - THE HAYTON TAPES

 

TOR082. Released December 2021.

01 Goatherder & Asha Nicholson - Solo Wanderings #1

02 Goatherder - The Hayton Tapes Part 1

03 Goatherder & Asha Nicholson - Turn

04 Goatherder - The Hayton Tapes Part 2

05 Goatherder & Asha Nicholson - Solo Wanderings #2

'Solo Wandering' and 'Turn' performed by:

Stephen Benson - Effects & Piano.

Asha Nicholson - Piano, Voice & Effects.

Recorded live August 1st 2021. Mixed November 2021.

'The Hayton Tapes' live improvisation performed by:

Stephen Benson, Felicity Cromack, Emily Ford, Stephanie Gardner,

Gareth Hodgson, Ricardo Marzo, Camille Matton, Asha Nicholson,

Nick Taylor & Samantha Staniforth.

Recorded July 31st 2021. Mixed October 2021.

Cover illustration by Emily Ford, Photography by Stephen Benson.

Inbetween the lockdowns of 2020, I became a frequent visitor to Hayton Castle. The castle is a 14th or 15th century tower house; this was extended in the 16th and 17th centuries. It's occupants were artists, professionals and hippy types. 

The following year, an idea was formed about an evening of music performance, to be recorded, in one of the many rooms of the castle.

On the evening of July 31st 2021, several hours of jams and improvisations were recorded. Some were structured; to create a collage, contributors were given instruments (radio with effects, electric guitar with effects and trumpet and saxophone) and asked to make what sounds they could. These would be played alongside each other, but parts performed in isolation.

The majority of the evening was a series of live improvisations. I played electric guitar and effects with the rest of the performers used various drums, percussion and horns.

These recordings have been cut up and mixed together as 'The Hayton Tapes'.

The next morning was set aside for the second purpose of this weekend; to record myself and musical pal Asha Nicholson. In the same room, improvised piano and vocals were processed and effected live, with editing and mixing taking place in November.

Front cover llustration of Slag Bank by Emily Ford, from unused book cover. - Ste.

Download, streaming and cassette version available from Bandcamp.

NIGHTJRRS / HEARTWOOD / GOATHERDER - DE-CADERE

 

TOR081. Released October 2021.

01 De-Cadere Part One

02 De-Cadere Part Two

03 De-Cadere Part Three

04 De-Cadere Part Four

The Proseed art group in Carlisle ran an Autumn exhibition entitled 'De-Cadere'. The exhibition opened at the Intro gallery and the after party was held at Cakes and Ale cafe. The cafe displayed selected art works and live music. 

Heartwood is the slight pseudonym of The Heartwood Institute when improvising more experimental modular sets. 

Nightjrrs performed music from their new album 'Interregnum'.

Heartwood joined Nightjrrs, along with Goatherder for a 45 minute improvisation to end the evening and the recording of that improvisation is presented here.

Nightjrrs:

John Chambers - Guitars and vocals.

Andy Hopkins - Guitars and vocals.

Nicci Reed - Keyboards and vocals.

Heartwood:

Jonathan Sharp - Buchla Music Easel Command, Soma Labs Lyra 8 and Eowave Quadrantid Swarm.

Goatherder:

Stephen Benson - Guitars and drones.

Recorded live at Cakes and Ale, Carlisle, October 4th 2021.

Mastered by Jonathan Sharp.

Cover art by Stephen Benson.

nightjrrs.bandcamp.com

theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com

THE NIGHTOWL SINGS - SLOW DAZE

 

TOR080. Released August 2021.

01 Percy

02 Weather Systems

03 I'll Take You to the Meadow, It's Nice There

04 Grow My Dears

05 Lighthouse

06 Lakes Ahoy

07 Close To Me

All tracks written by Marc Gillen, performed and arranged by Marc Gillen & Alastair Popple. 

Stephen Benson - Guitar on 'Weather Systems' and bass on 'Weather Systems', 'Lighthouse' and 'Close To Me'. Jacqueline Kumar - additional voice on 'I'll Take You to the Meadow, It's Nice There'.

Recorded at home by Marc Gillen October 2020 - April 2021.

Mixed and mastered by Alastair Popple at The Kitchen Sync October 2020 - April 2021.

Photography by Marc and design by Al.

Download also includes the promotional video for 'Close to Me' by Stephen Benson.

"Right about now, we’re gonna get to the old school beat of things. In an unexpected change of direction, Nightowl Sings has gone a bit techno trousers on us – at least for some of Slow Daze. Yes, he’s broken out the synth and drum machine on previous releases, but never to extent that he does on opening track “Percy”. With its undulating synth lines and pounding kick drum, this is Nightowl revealing the influence of Underworld on his work for probably the first time (if he’s doffed the cap before, he’s been a lot more subtle about it). If you’re going for a shift in direction, you may as well leap in with both feet and that’s exactly what happens with “Percy”. Expectations swept away, new scene set, all is well.

Although the direction is new, the approach to recording is as old school as you get. The Nightowl plays synths in the old analogue tradition of one finger at a time. No fancy sequencers were utilised here, just a bit of technical expertise from regular Nightowl collaborator Alastair Popple. For example, he takes the main bulk of “Percy”, whips out the digital razor blade and sticky tape and gives it an extra couple of minutes. Like the original recording techniques, you won’t notice, but it is worth acknowledging. There’s a counterpart to the opener in the shape of the gently lush ambient excursion, “Lakes Ahoy”, on the second side. That’s right, Slow Daze is the first TOR music to get a vinyl release, although it is an incredibly limited pressing. Hopefully, it will double as a pension fund when people realise what a musical treasure trove is buried in north Cumbria.

It’s not all epic electronic vistas, though. “Weather Systems” layers the jittery drum patterns into a ghost of a song. ‘Loving you is sweet,’ the Nightowl softly sings, and the trap is sprung. You’re hooked. The next two tracks have similarly haunting qualities: on “I’ll Take You To The Meadow, It’s Nice There”, it’s the overlaying of multiple voices flying across the stereo spectrum. The music that underpins it is frantic, busy, almost anxious. It’s curtailed before things get too out of hand: you won’t be sure if the invitation to the meadow is friendly or if there’s a shallow grave in the field with your name on it. Closing side one is the even more spectral “Grow My Dears”, which sounds as if it could float away on the breeze at any second.

The sequence of spookily, supernatural songs is completed by “Lighthouse”, a compelling instrumental that has more heft than initially apparent. Acting as a prelude to “Lakes Ahoy”, it’s the track that ties everything together, easing us from the vocal tracks back to the Nightowl not singing. That’s not the end of the story though, for “Close To Me” – ‘Don’t sell at any price,’ he croons, perhaps a warning to the handful that own the vinyl. It’s a positive way to end, listing the joys of discovering new things and casting out the old. This is a message that sums up the album as a whole: a new sound, a new life, and a new love to chase out the ghosts that have gone before. As the saying goes – there’s no school like the old school. Sometimes a moment to look back provides a fresh impetus to go forward. With Slow Daze, the Nightowl succeeds." - Jeremy Bye

GOATHERDER - VOICES / OTHER VOICES

 

TOR079. Released March 2021.

01 Live Intro

02 Heavy Bangs #1 - The Chapel in the Woods

03 Grune Point (Soundtrack)

04 Heavy Bangs #2

05 Aira Force 3:33 (Soundtrack)

06 Pica Mast (Live)

07 Bells #1

08 Heavy Bangs #3 - Voices

09 Keyboard 6 (Soundtrack)

10 Open/Winter (Live)

11 SCOTCH 180 (Soundtrack)

12 Piece 238

13 Other Voices (Live)

14 Bells #2

15 Calm (Soundtrack)

A collection of soundtracks, live performances and improvisations.

Tracks 1, 6, 10 & 13 recorded live at Warwick Bazaar Life Drawing, December 13th 2019.

Tracks 2, 4, 8 & 13 performed by Stephen Benson and Jill Wallace. Recorded at Kirriemuir Way, 2016.

Tracks 3, 5, 9 & 11 recorded at Gilnockie Holly Moor House, 2020.

Tracks 7, 12 & 14 recorded 2017-2018 at various locations.

Track 15 recorded at Warwick Bazaar, 2017.

'Other Voices (Live)' contains elements of 'The Drone of the Forest', performed by

Federico Falletti, Jessica Lowes, Lucy Matthews, David Thompson and Jill Wallace.

BROCKEN SPECTRE - LIVE BOOTLEG CASSETTE

 

TOR078. Released January 2021.

01 Drive-by Election

02 Beyond Nostalgia

03 Corkscrew

04 Stockholm Cancelled

05 We Vs. The Bastards

06 Art Defacer

07 Out Of Range

08 Unwound

09 UYA

10 Terror

11 Feature Length

12 Downtown Abstractions

13 Moscow

14 I Am Your Fuel

15 Colour Fucker

16 Ended Here

17 Fireworks Thrower

When Brocken Spectre reformed in April 2017 with Steve Orchiton on drums, we began rehearsing for live gigs immediately. In its previous incarnation, the band had only rehearsed to record, not once venturing out to play in front of a crowd.

We made our live debut a few months later, at a party for my birthday. Shortly after this, we were offered our first gig in front of a paying audience. Those first few gigs were nerve wracking affairs; getting used to a crowd, the variable on stage sound and the obligatory stage fright.

By mid 2018, we had several live performances under our collective belt and we received more offers on a regular basis, including festival appearances.

Our sound had really begun to develop too, songs with psychedelic touches or with melody at the forefront were swapped out for newer material featuring the live sound we now had; a band driven, violent, brutal sound. All members were contributing to the compositions and the dynamics and it was this sound that became our identity.

We enjoyed playing live and we were surprised to find how comfortable we had became on stage. It now felt like the natural home for the band.

We played our final gig (to date) on the 7th of December 2019, before the pandemic quashed our plans for more festival appearances and the offer of gigs around the country.

During the various lockdown periods of 2020, we managed a few rehearsals and even recorded a single ('Interference Overhead/Fireworks Thrower', which can be found here). However, we look forward to a time when we can play live again.

The concept behind this release was a stop gap until live music can resume again. It also provides a home to songs that have went unrecorded and other songs that rarely got an outing. It documents a period of the band that we all got a lot out of and hopefully gets across some of our visceral live sound. 

The material was recorded on a variety of devices and is of a distinctly lo-fi quality, this is reflected in the artwork, which is a homage to the live bootlegs so loved by myself and Marc. We would purchase bootlegs of our favourite artists from record fairs, markets and from the back pages of music publications. - Ste.

The line up for this album was Stephen Benson (Guitars, Vocals), Marc Gillen (Vocals, Guitars), Steve Orchiton (Drums) and Jill Wallace (Bass). The locations for the recordings were; The Brickyard, The Source, Warwick Bazaar, Fell Bar Penrith, Fell Bar Kendal, Solfest, Wild on the Wall Festival, Kendal Calling and The Fisher Street Festival.