this is a record of an experiment in making music that demonstrates the adventurousness of the players and their ability to wring all manner of sounds from derelict instruments.
DISCUS MUSIC 175CD
CD A – All Three at Once / CD B – Each one, separately
Matthew Bourne, Glen Leach, Nika Ticciati: harpsichords; Nightspots(Adam Martin and Mark Slater): live processing and added electronics
CDA recorded by Chris Sharkey, CDB recorded by Adam Martin and Mark Slater
When Leeds Conservatoire gave Bourne three defunct harpsichords, it was on the understanding that he used these to make music. The album title has the word ‘harpsichords’ crossed out to leave ARIORS (possibly to hint at arias, possibly to denote the broken-down nature of the instruments with various parts removed). The music is unlike much you will have heard previously. In some pieces, the harpsichords are strummed and plucked with plectrums by Bourne, Leach and Ticciati. On others, like ‘Quincy’, track CDA 2, the keyboards are used to stir a hornet’s nest of sounds out the instruments (the hornet’s, released, transform into a careering train that rattles towards you with whistles and bleeps, dragging behind a carriage of disorganised music-boxes). Across the rest of these pieces, the music veers from the bell-like chords and juddering arpeggios to clacks, smacks, knocks, ticks and tocks. The delight in the sounds that the be collectively wrung from these instruments forms the basis of the first CD and was recorded in a single afternoon.
The second CD has each harpsichord played separately. This set opens with ‘Burn all three’, in which a more recognisably baroque approach to layering of sounds from the keyboard. Given the damage suffered by the instrument, the music drifts in and out of tune and Bourne gives the appearance of a sailor single-handedly navigating high seas and strong winds. The following piece, ‘John’, is built from a drum pattern hammered on the casing and strummed chords. The set began as an improvised suite performed by Bourne and Slater. In these pieces the music echoes and reverberates with the processing of Slater, often compelling the sounds towards an ethereal choir. This recording was then deconstructed and rebuilt in the studio with additional layers of electronics and editing.
Across both CDs, this is a record of an experiment in making music that demonstrates the adventurousness of the players and their ability to wring all manner of sounds from derelict instruments. More than that, though, is the celebration of human ingenuity in both its ability to make instruments that can, even on their last legs, function to some extent, and it ability to make music from anything.
