Mercury KX
News: Erland Cooper releases his chorally collaborative ‘Egilsay’ EP: see a making-of film and find out more about his debuting silent movie score performance
MAGISTERIAL Orcadian composer Erland Cooper has released his second choral collaboration with the Shards ensemble, an EP focussing on one of Orkney’s northern islands, Egilsay, featuring four tracks of and about the island with a population of 14. Here at Backseat Mafia we featured a track, the moving, almost holy “Glimro”, at the beginning of …
Album review: Sebastian Plano – ‘Save Me Not’: a portal to a more ecstatic, more ethereal sonic safe space
ARGENTINIAN composer, cellist, and producer Sebastian Plano is set to release his sixth album and his second for one of the blue-chip labels of modern composition, Mercury KX, this Friday; it’s entitled Save Me Not and it’s an incredibly pretty place of aural safety. His most recent album for the label, 2019’s Verve, was (and …
News: Erland Cooper signs for Mercury KX, buries his latest album in the soil of Orkney as a three-year time capsule with a treasure hunt ensuing; watch a short film
SIGNING today with one of the leading modern compositional imprints, Decca/Mercury KX, Orcadian composer Erland Cooper has marked the occasion in a fascinating if not entirely expected way. He already has his first album recorded; it’s entitled Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence, and is a new work written and recorded for solo …
Meet: LYR on their new music, post-pandemic life, working with Simon Armitage, and more
THE genre-splicing LYR, comprised of Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, musician and vocalist Richard Walters, and producer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Pearson, fuse their three distinct but complimentary musical selves into an even more distinct project combining galvanic spoken word with textured ambient canopies and soaring, melodic vocals. The trio released their debut album, Call In …
See: Ólafur Arnalds and Benjamin Hardman’s short film for the cyclical beauty of ‘New Grass’, capturing the macro wonder of moss
Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds has collaborated visually with the photographer and film-maker Benjamin Hardman to produce a short film full of natural wonder to accompany the track “New Grass”, taken from his beautiful and contemplative album from last year, Some Kind Of Peace; and you can glory in that collaboration below. Using a macro lens, …
Track: LYR share ‘Redwings’: unique and profound
LYR, an acronym of Land Yacht Regatta, have recently shared their latest emotionally evocative musical amalgamation Redwings, following the recent release of their collaborative track with Prefab Sprout’s Wendy Smith, “Winter Solstice”. The unique triumvirate – comprised of Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, musician and singer-songwriter Richard Walters, and producer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Pearson – …
Track: LYR share ‘Winter Solstice’ featuring Prefab Sprout’s Wendy Smith, and announce UK tour dates
Formed through a passionate creative drive and mutual appreciation of each other’s work, LYR is a musical machine that reverberates an incredibly singular effusion; the triumvirate of Sigur Rós-like ambient decorations, blissfully gilded and emotionally wrought piano and evocative vocals, and masterfully moving poetry delivered a truly unique, collaborative project. The group – comprised of …