ORCADIAN soundscaper and composer Erland Cooper has today released one final digitally streamed companion piece to accompany his beautiful Orkney Triptych. Take a listen below.
Its a seven-track, 35-minute ambient accompaniment to his most recent album, Hether Blether with the tracks entitled “Cairn I” to “Cairn VII”, for which he collaborated with artist, producer and recording engineer, Marta Salogni.
Together, they used the taphonomic process (one also espoused in interview by land artist Richard Skelton) to bring the chance texturing of decay and disintegration to the compositions: tape loops were drowned in the North Sea, dried in gales and sunshine, then buried in Orkney soil during lockdown.
They were exhumed to finish the album – unearthed tones reborn.
Landform follows in the tradition of Seachange (2019), the companion piece to Sule Skerry. created withartist and guitarist Leo Abrahams; and 2018’s Murmuration, the collaboration with William Doyle that accompanied Erland’s debut solo album, Solan Goose.
The triptych seeks to breathe a beauteous evocation into three aspects of the Orkney archipelago over the course of its triptych of albums: its birdlife on Solan Goose; the sea on last year’s Sule Skerry; and on this year’s Hether Blether, the land and its people. And yes, it is damn essential.
The final few T-shirts in Erland Cooper’s limited collaboration with 1 of 100, inspired by experimental filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait with proceeds going to Help Musicians Scotland are still available here; and his amazing, emotional performance from this autumn’s Live at the Barbican series, which we reviewed here, is now available on demand.
With a return to normality thankfully more than just an abstract notion, Erland has also some British tour dates for next year, which are as follows. Click through on the venue hypertext link for further details and tickets:
May 6th, 2021, Belfast, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival;
May 26th and 27th, Edinburgh, Summerhall;
May 28th, Birmingham, St. Paul’s Church;
May 29th, Manchester, Hallé St Peter’s;
June 1st, Bristol, St George’s;
June 2nd, Canterbury, Gulbenkian Theatre;
June 3rd, Brighton, St. George’s Church, and
September 26th, Stroud, Hidden Notes.
Tickets are on sale now from: https://www.erlandcooper.com/
Hether Blether is now available on digital, CD and vinyl here; you can also follow Erland on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
