|
|
|
|
|
|
HOME | ABOUT | BIOS | EMAIL |
|
 |
| |
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
JE N'AIME PAS DORMIR
Danny Norbury
Jean Cocteau
ONO : 2008
LA JOLIE ROUSSE
Black Toothed Grin
Guillaume Apollinaire
ONO : 2008
L'AMOUREUSE
Ikey
Paul Eluard
ONO : 2008
LES AMANTS SEPARES
Andre Hargreaves
Louis Aragon
ONO : 2008
I found out about Manchester's Danny Norbury via the Swedish musician David Wenngren, whose music as Library Tapes I adore. (Norbury played some cello on Library Tapes' superlative Fragment EP.) I quickly sought out Norbury's Dusk EP, a lovely slice of light ambient/chamber music, and have been anxiously awaiting its follow-up ever since. So it was with great delight that I opened my mailbox to discover these four (very) limited edition mini-albums from fledgling label ONO, each of which pairs a different artist with the recordings of a different Surrealist poet, complete with beautiful hand-painted sleeves (see supra). I love stuff like this - little labors of love more concerned with making a precious artifact than with album sales. In fact, these releases reside at the nexus of a number of my interests: Danny Norbury, "out" music in general, Surrealism, poetry, hand-made artifacts, the combination of recorded oration with sound environments. You won't be able to get ahold of these releases unless you can snag one of the 33 copies on sale at Piccadilly Records in Manchester, but the artists and the label have kindly allowed me to post one track from each here. What follows is something a little different I'd like to begin doing at Moistworks from time to time, the mini-interview. We'll call it
NINE-ISH QUESTIONS with DANNY NORBURY
MOISTWORKS: Hi Danny. Can you tell our readers a bit about your musical history, practice, and prior discography?
DANNY NORBURY: I began playing cello when I was nine, and went on to study it at music college, so my background is classical music. I didn't really start writing music until a few years ago. I wrote and recorded some songs at home that were released as Dusk on Static Caravan.
MW: Is this the correct website for ONO Records? Can you tell us about ONO and how you got involved with them?
DN: No! ONO hasn't got a website yet, but the catalogue is here. It's the label of my friend Michael Holland, who originally set it up to put out DJ mixes. Michael has the best record collection of anyone I know. His band is Black Toothed Grin.
MW: How many copies of each release will be made, and will they be formatted the same way the ones I received were formatted: hand-made covers, mini-discs, etc? Where can readers purchase these releases?
DN: They're coming out exactly like the ones you received. There will be 33 copies. They are being sold at Piccadilly Records in Manchester.
MW: Whose idea was it to record sound environments for the works of Surrealist poets? Can you tell us anything about the three other artists who've participated in the project?
DN: The idea came from Michael. He sent us all the sound files to do with whatever we wanted. The only thing he said to me was to not bother spending too much time on it, so I didn't. His band is very exciting - I have no idea what to expect from them. I don't know much about Ikey, except that he's a friend of Michael. Andrew Hargreaves is one half of The Boats. I'm a big fan of their music.
MW: How did you choose which Cocteau poems to use? Do you speak French?
DN: I think Michael sent me nine Cocteau poems in total, and I ended up using eight. I can understand French enough to know what the poems are about on a basic level, but I was more interested in the tone and rhythm of the speaker (the actor, Jean Mercure).
MW: Have you worked with the spoken word in your compositions before, and did doing so here present any particular challenges?
DN: I've never used words in my music before, spoken or sung. I think this is because the addition of words often gives a too precise meaning to what is, by nature, abstract. In any case, the poems suggested in a fairly obvious way the tempo, rhythm, texture and instrumentation of the music. I wrote and recorded the tracks at home over two days, using the instruments I have around me at home.
MW: More than many other 20th century artistic movements, Surrealism seems stubbornly to refuse to become irrelevant. Do you have any thoughts on the ongoing currency of Surrealism, why it never seems to exhaust its interest for us?
DN: I suppose the appeal of dream, and dreamlike states, is universal, and has always existed on either side of Breton's manifesto!
MW: As you began to compose around Cocteau's poems (presuming that this is how the process worked), were there any certain elements or qualities of them that emerged particularly strongly, themes you wanted to musically draw out or complement?
DN: The tone and timbre of the voice was the most important thing. On "Batterie" for instance, the speaker keeps the rhythm and cadence very precise, so I let that rhythmic structure dictate the tempo and length of the piece. So many decisions were taken out of my hands, and that in itself was liberating. On "Muses qui ne songez a plaire..." I felt the poem had the most gravity, so I cut up the phrases of the speaker and extended the silences between the lines. This is the longest of the pieces.
MW: You're working on a proper follow-up to your EP, if I'm not mistaken. Can you tell our readers anything about this new album and when it might be available?
DN: I hope to have it finished at some point this year. It'll be put out on ONO. I also have an ongoing collaboration with Library Tapes called Le Lendemain, and we've almost finished an album, so hopefully that too will see the light of day soon.Labels: brian, interview, surrealism
posted by Brian
LINK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
