Stagdale part 3is available from the Clay Pipe Greedbag shop and The Hardy Tree Bandcamp.
Frances
Castle presents the third part of her graphic novel Stagdale,
accompanied by a new soundtrack EP from her musical alter ego The
Hardy Tree.
Stagdale Part 3, drawn and written by
Clay Pipe Music founder Frances Castle, continues the story of Kathy
and Max—two strangers, a generation apart, who both unexpectedly
find themselves living in the isolated village of Stagdale. When twelve-year-old Kathy discovers a wartime
diary hidden behind the skirting board of the old cottage she and her
mother are renting, she is instantly captivated. As she delves into
its pages, she begins to suspect that the tale of the missing Stag
Jewel - told to her by her new friend Joe - isn't quite what it
seems. Could the diary hold the key to unravelling a mystery that's
been buried for 30 years?
A special edition of the book will include a Flexi
Disc featuring the title track “September 1975.” There will also
be a limited reissue of the original Flexi Disc editions from Books
1 & 2. Additionally, Book 2 has been reprinted with
a matt cover, so all three books in the series now have a more
cohesive look.
Also available from Greedbag on the 29th November will be coaster sets based on the artwork for Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman's Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On and Risograph prints of The Hardy Tree's All the Hours.
Clay Pipe will be at Jonny Trunks Groovy Record Fayre on the 2nd November at The Mildmay Club, London, N16. Lots of hard to find back stock, as well as new releases, badges etc. Free entry from 10am. Hope to see you there.
The
Hardy Tree,
the musical project of Frances Castle, founder of the acclaimed Clay
Pipe Music label, is pleased to announce the release of All
the Hours as
part of the Clay Pipe Mini CD series. This 20-minute composition
beautifully captures the passage of a day, from dawn to dusk.
All the Hours
was initially composed for a live performance at The Betsey Trotwood
pub in London last February. The piece serves as the soundtrack to a
slow-moving animation inspired by the cover art of The Hardy Tree’s
previous album, Common Grounds.
It takes listeners on a journey from night to day and back again,
unfolding through delicate looped woodwinds and melodic soundscapes.
The music was created using an Elektron Syntakt and an Elektron
Digitakt, and the limitations and constraints of the instruments helped define the
sound of the music.
Frances will be
performing “All the Hours”
on September
14th, 2024 at The
Lexington on Pentonville Road in London, supporting Andrew Wasylyk
and Tommy Perman. There will be CDs for sale at the event. Tickets.
If you preordered the second pressing of David Boulters St Ann's or Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman's Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On there has been a delay in the records reaching us. We now hope to start shipping them in the second week of September.
If you are attending any of Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman's shows in the next month they will have a small amount of records with them. They are all we have right now.
If you ordered a CD, they will ship in time for release.
Wednesday, 7 August 2024
Andrew Wasylyk | Tommy Perman tour dates. On 12/09 they will be joined by Clay Pipe artists Zyggurat in Birmingham and by The Hardy Tree in London on the 14/09 Tickets: thegullglideson.co.uk
‘Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On’ is the new album by Scottish composers Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman. The pair have orbited each others worlds for a number of years through audio-visual collaborations spanning record releases, films and sound installations. Wasylyk’s cinematic compositions have been nominatedfor the Scottish Album of the Year Award and been awarded BBC Radio 6 Music’s Gideon Coe’s Album of the Year. He has collaborated with former National Poet for Scotland, Liz Lochhead, and written soundtracks for Radio 4. Perman’s work as a musician and DJ has taken him across the world, with numerous record releases under his own name and with experimental group/arts collective FOUND, alongside visual works at the Sydney Opera House and National Museum of Scotland.
‘Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On’ is the pair’s first collaborative album as a duo. The record is rooted in Perman's ambient-acid-house grooves and multi-textural percussion built from sampling the knocks, clangs and creaks of Wasylyk’s upright piano. These are woven through a palette of drum machines, rolling transcendental piano motifs, fluttering synthesisers, saxophones swells and hymnal choral vocals.
Approaching the meditative ten-song collection, Tommy posted Andrew three envelopes containing ‘Recording Instructions’, ‘Tempo Cards’ and ‘Chord Cards’. Nodding towards the Fluxus instructions of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit and the environmental cues of Perman and Wasylyk’s collaboration on Sing the Gloaming (‘If it’s wet outside: 100bpm. If it’s dry outside: 70bpm’) the cards inspired exploration and improvisations which were then cut up and collaged.
The spirit of this project channels through ‘Communal Imagination’ as Wasylyk’s trademark airy piano chords float above Perman’s juddering rhythms, conjuring a Balaeric abstraction of Basil Kirchin. The group brass and stuttering echoes of ‘Root Grow Emerge’ are accompanied by field recordings of Tommy’s children playing and reciting cyclical chants. ‘Blessing Of The Banners’ slowly unspools through spiritual cinematic jazz patterns into a hymn of hope, whilst ‘Spec Of Dust Becomes A Beam’ ignites into an expansive, kosmiche four-to-the-floor crescendo.
A sense of warmth, openness and curiosity floods through ‘Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On’. A document of forward-thinking artistic union from a pair at the height of their imaginations, perched over the Tay estuary.
“So leave us as you found us, walk with us or around us, you might find nothing to see here, but come tomorrow we’ll still be here,” warmly warns Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) over ascending chords on the album’s closing track ‘Be the Hammer’: a mantra of quiet defiance from idiosyncratic composers in full flight. Liminal, illuminating ideas landing where melody meets rhythm: ‘Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On’ is a place where community, love and goodness prevail.
The orange vinyl is available directly from Clay Pipe through Greedbag & Bandcamp and also from all good record shops. If you order through Greedbag you will get a free print by Frances Castle. There are enamel badges and our usual CD/LP/Badge bundle through both Greedbag and Bandcamp. CDs available across the board.
Monorail in Glasgow and Assai in Dundee have limited signed 'Ash Grey' editions that each come with a different booklet of Tommy Permans artwork. Monorail's book showcases stills from the videos Tommy has done for this project, and Assai's displays his graphics for the tour posters.
All vinyl copies come with a Bandcamp download code in the sleeve.
Clay Pipe is pleased to welcome back the Tinderstick’s keyboard player David Boulter to the label.
Since his Yarmouth LP in 2020, and the spoken word-based Lovers Walk the following year, Boulter has concentrated on his soundtrack work. He has produced scores for documentary maker Volkan Üce’s Displaced – and Tinnitus, a visually striking film by Brazilian director Gregorio Graziosi. He has also released a series of lathe-cuts featuring his soundtrack work, and the Factory Mini CD and Twelve Bells for Libuše flexi-disc single on Clay Pipe.
St Ann’s, is a tribute to the council estate, on the edge of Nottingham city centre that defined Boulter’s formative years:
“I was born in the old St Ann’s. Famously documented in the late 60s as some of the poorest social housing in England. Crumbling, cramped, and full of damp. We had a shared toilet in the backyard and no bathroom, some of the houses were without hot water, it was freezing cold in winter. Everything seemed black and white.”
By the late 1960s, St. Ann's, like many other city centre areas, had become run down and was earmarked by the council for slum clearance. 340 acres were bulldozed and 30,000 people including David's family were compulsorily uprooted. In 1970 the Victorian streets were replaced with a Radburn-style estate.
“We moved to the new St Ann’s when I was six. There were two indoor toilets! A bathroom with a shiny white ceramic bath that you could fill whenever you wanted. Central heating, and a small garden at the front and back of the house. We had our own shed, and a cherry blossom tree just over the fence. Everything came into colour.”
Subtle use of guitar, double bass, vibraphone, tenor recorder and field recordings conjure up the old streets of cobble and slate, damp brickwork and grey skies, juxtaposing the newer post-1960s world of pebble dash and green grass, fresh air and a brighter future.
“After we moved to the new house, I still went to the old Victorian school, until it was demolished about a year later. It was very strange to walk to school through all the old houses and streets while they were being torn apart.”
This is a record full of personal memories, but it also tells the tale of Britain’s inner cities and their renewal in the 60s and 70s.
“At the end of 2022, my Mum could no longer live alone in our house. I spent Christmas packing belongings and emptying it, what to keep, what not to keep? The emotions and memories were intense. There was still the same carpet on the stairs that my Dad had put down when we’d moved in.
I’d already started to make some music that I knew had something to do with Nottingham, and the streets I’d spent my childhood wandering. When I arrived back home in Prague, the feelings poured into the music.
I grew up in St Ann’s and lived around the area until I left for London when I was 25. This LP is a celebration of a community, streets that still hold a special place in my heart. I will always be from St Ann’s and St Ann’s will always be a part of me.“
A 'Corporation Oaks' enamel badge will be available to buy, and included with the CD/LP bundle.
'Communal
Imagination’ is the new single by Scottish composers Andrew Wasylyk and
Tommy Perman. The pair have orbited each other's worlds for a number of
years through audio-visual collaborations spanning record releases,
films and sound installations. With their first collaborative album as a
duo expected later in the year on Clay Pipe Music, the spirit of the
project channels through on ‘Communal Imagination’. Wasylyk’s trademark
searching piano chords float above Perman’s distinct juddering rhythms,
conjuring a Balaeric abstraction of Basil Kirchin. Elsewhere, saxophones
and choral vocals climb above fluttering Juno synths in a unifying chorus.
04 Aug - Fringe By The Sea, North Berwick 29 Aug - Playhouse, Montrose 06 Sept - The Glad Cafe, Glasgow 07 Sept - Chaplaincy Centre, Dundee 08 Sept - The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen 10 Sept - Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds 11 Sept - Gullivers, Manchester 12 Sept - Hare & Hounds, Birmingham 13 Sept - The Crofter's Rights, Bristol 14 Sept - The Lexington, London 15 Sept - Real Magic Books, Wendover 17 Sept - The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle 18 Sept - Kazimiere Stockroom, Liverpool 19 Sept - Ilkley Vaults, Ilkley, West Yorkshire 20 Sept - Summerhall, Edinburgh
