Available to listen to and buy at Bandcamp
Release date: 16 May 2022
Format: digital download. Artwork and typography by Landschaft.
'In the Seven Woods' Tonal variation is very much understated. this work is a suite comprising three pieces evoking the mood of Yeats' 'In the Seven Woods' collection of poetry. Reflective. It is my rebellion against the impatience of the internet age, requiring the listener to slow down and expand into my sonic universe. The greatest compliment a listener could pay to this work is it sends them to sleep.
'In the Seven Woods'. 50+ minutes: The title piece echoes the mood feeling of the opening line of Yeats' poem: "I have heard the pigeons of the Seven Woods make their faint thunder, and the garden bees hum in the lime-tree flowers..."
The second work, 'with golden chains' 50+ minutes: is yet more mind-emptyingly attenuated. "I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round coupled with golden chains, and sing as they fly" from "The Withering of the Boughs"
The closing piece, 'where by water among the trees', borrows a line from the mournful "The Ragged Wood".
I commend you to read the full Yeats collection.
So why the Yeats connection? Well he was one of Philip Larkin's most profound influences. I am reading Larkin's letters and biographies, and the Yeats mood fitted, and my absorption in both marks my present point in time. As does Peter Warlock who via DH Lawrence, was another one of Larkin's favoured authors.
Quoting Peter Warlock (1894-1930): "Music is neither old nor modern: it is either good or bad music... all music was modern once..." The music here is neither 'good' nor 'bad, old nor 'modern'. I have made it like that to escape the vacuum of fashion and fad and stand out as a work on it's own merits with only the listener as judge.