Available to listen to and buy at Bandcamp
Release date: 16 January 2025
Format: digital download. Artwork and typography by Landschaft.
The Ironmasters. Those familiar with my work will have concluded it is referential, intimately woven into my lived experience as an artist.
Reading 'Industrial Archaeology Derbyshire', Nixon, Frank, David & Charles, 1969 ISBN 7153 4351 3 I was reminded of my visits with my grandfather to Rollinson's foundry at Basford, age, I guess eight or nine. The clang and clatter of 'ingredients' being added to the furnace, the sand moulds, the afternoon pouring of the iron still paint a vivid picture in my mind. The Ironmasters is a reflection of that industry, and in particular the massive foundries along the Erewash and Derwent valleys. Those vast works lie silent now, most demolished some [Butterly works for example at Ripley] derelict shells. World Heritage site along the Derwent Valley, but too late to museum-ise the steel industry (thank goodness - I am no fan of the heritage industry of 'experiences' and 'attractions'. So the ruins crumble, those that still exist, in their dignity, and those that have been erased remain in fading memories.
The album is a mix of shorter and long format pieces. 'Glory' is just that 3:37 of loveliness, leading into the murk and grime of three longer works. 'Making pipes and old men' I have heard said of the metal castings works. They did just that. Hard toil taking it's toll on the bodies of the workers. But the fellowship and reward of that toil is evident in most of the recollections I have read. I remember the smoke and the poison laden air driving through Ilkeston as a child. We always wound the car windows up. It stung your throat and eyes that air in the last couple of decades of smokestack industry before most of it was exported abroad. So this is a deeply personal work. All the works are self generative based upon elaborate patch constructions made in VCV Rack 2, recorded in Reaper and mastered in Cubase 12.