ERLAND COOPER has announced the release of new LP Hether Blether on Phases. The completing element to the triptych of works shaped by the islands where he grew up, the archipelago of Orkney in Scotland. Hether Blether is a beautiful composition of sourced soundscapes, field recordings, overlayed with evocative melodic keys and strings and samples of conversation from the inhabitants of one of the most bracing and beautiful places on the planet. The music and spoken word combinations are engaging and conjure imagery that dances in the minds eye bouyed by the flow of gorgeous waves of sound.
Whilst digital, standard and limited edition CD and vinyl issues are out on29 May 2020 via Phases. The beauty of the contemporary composers music and the resonance of the beauty of his homelands emanates in the physical releases of the new LP. Especially so in the limited dinked vinyl release.
Hether Blether is available on alternative green album art in reverse board outer sleeve, pressed on recycled vinyl and comes with an A4 matt print a foldable map of Orkney and is hand-numbered in a limited Edition of 500 pieces. As the LP is pressed on recycled vinyl which will often result in a ‘dark’ appearance with variations on each individual record. It will neither be black or any other colour specifically.
Spoken word, ambient tape and modular synth tell of a timeless landscape, community, myth and mythology. The album looks to the past through the stories of the island and to the present and future through its people. The song titles are taken from local dialect and nod to the places and stories of the island (‘Noup Head’, ‘Rousay’, ‘Longhope’) as well as the people themselves (‘Peedie Breeks’, which translates as ‘children’). Hether Blether’s opening track, ‘Noup Head’, introduces the listener to the story of the title track’s hidden island via a young girl that went missing one day. Her family found her in a storm, on an island emerging from the fog. On the new island, she was grown-up, with children of her own. She gives her family a stake to enable them to return to see her, but it was lost in the sea, forever. “A cold sting on her skin/that takes her back/to something she forgot/ in childhood,” reads Kathryn Joseph, deep longing in her delivery of Burnside’s words.
In addition, Erland has announced a UK tour for the autumn, preceded by a several dates including a performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra that will bring the Orkney Trilogy to the Barbican on 13 June – full dates below.
FFO: The Utopia Strong | Cinematic Orchestra | Zero 7
Check out the video for ‘Longhope’ and the full tour dates below
TOUR DATES
6 May – Belfast, First Presbyterian Church
13 June – London, Barbican – with support from the author Amy Liptrot
25 July – Topcliffe, Deer Shed Festival
24 Sep – Manchester, Hallé St Peter’s
25 Sep – Leeds, Leeds College of Music
26 Sep – Birmingham, St. Paul’s Church
27 Sep – Stroud, St. Laurence’s Church – Hidden Notes Festival
28 Sep – Edinburgh, Summerhall
29 Sep – Edinburgh, Summerhall
30 Sep – Bristol, St. George’s Bristol
1 Oct – Brighton, St. George’s Church
2 Oct – Canterbury, Gulbenkian Theatre
Pre-sale for autumn dates starts today via Erland Cooper’s mailing list general sale is from 9am on Fri 6 March: ERLANDCOOPER.COM
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