Release date: July 25th – CD in digipack + Bandcamp downloads and streaming services
I first came across the phrase Patience And Shuffle The Cards in the diaries of Sir Walter Scott, although I later learned that it originates in Don Quixote. It is a sort of resigned ‘well, let’s see what happens’ where the outcome is uncertain and possibly not totally under your control.
But unlike my previous releases, Saint-Ex and The Halls Of Piranesi, this collection is not based on a work of literature, but springs from my further exploration of synths and sequencers. The opening track Black Water Whitewater involves layers of cascading sequences of differing lengths, like the mountain stream that inspired it.
Living as I do in the East Anglian Fens, the track Fenlandia was inspired by the landscape and I put together a photo montage of Fenland views and wildlife, being also a keen photographer of insects in particular. Top and tailing this are Big Skies, parts one and two, floaty ambient cloudscapes which are a feature of the fens.
Stone Soup – often tracks begin with a simple sequence which only gradually takes form with the addition of other elements – the title refers to the folk tale where a traveller arrives in a village with no food but just a cooking pot and a stone. Villages intrigued as to what dish he would produce simply boiling a stone, start to offer other ingredients until a hearty dish is produced.
We Are On This Earth . . . sometimes it feels a little strange to be tucked away in my room surrounded by synths indulging myself in music production when there is so much awful stuff going on in the world. I have therefore to hold to the wise words of Kurt Vonnegut ‘I tell you, we are on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anyone tell you many different’.
Creeping Thanatos – I don’t like this ‘getting old’ business . . . when mortality comes into sharper focus and you realise that things that you remember clearly, actually happened decades ago, which often leads to . . .
Sleepless – 3am – these days I often wake up at 3am and sometimes have musical ideas and sequences running round my head, but also lots of other unwanted stuff!
What The Moon Brings (Instrumental) – this is an instrumental version of a track from my H.P.L.E P. (see my Bandcamp) – I liked the spookiness of the track and felt it fitted in nicely to close this project.
For synth nerds: Eurorack modular, Korg ARP 2600, Moog Subharmonicon, Syntrx II Sequencers: Klee, Erica Synths Black Sequencer, Arturia Keystep 37. FX include Wellspring Delay/Reverb, Nightverb & many plugins.
