Dispatch #12: A Shift In The Land

#12: A Shift In The Land

"A Shift In The Land - that’s all you’re looking for."

- Mike Roberts, Kielder Engineer

On the border of Scotland in the North East of England lies Kielder Water, a vast reservoir and dam completed in 1982. Its original purpose was to supply water for an industrial expansion project. Unfortunately, this never came to pass. After years of research, writing, recording and planning (and with the help of Arts Council England) I have been able to realise a piece of work about this strange and beautiful place. I am delighted to reveal the artwork for my first release - Kielder Water Music.

Designed by my friend Oliver Batho, the artwork centres around the reservoir's Valve Tower. A lot of sounds were created from the tower itself - including a "whistle synthesizer" made from the sound in the main room and a huge twelve-second reverb captured from the access tunnel. If you want to hear what it sounds like inside the tower, here is a link to the original stereo field recording that I made. The colour scheme was lifted directly from public information boards abandoned in the tower. Finally, the background texture was taken from the overflow weir. I'm totally stoked with how it's turned out!

The tower interior, recording setup and abandoned public information boards

As a subscriber, you get first access to pre-order Kielder Water Music directly from Bandcamp. Every pre-order receives the single A Shift In the Land immediately, ahead of the full release on 6th March. More announcements soon - as usual, you'll be the first to know!

Pre-order Kielder Water Music here.

In case you missed it, Mike (also taken from Kielder Water Music) was selected to appear on Ambient Receiver and is available to stream here.

Happy New Year! It has been a very busy January. I've completed several recording projects in the last three weeks. Throughout, a common thread has emerged - an emphasis on using original vintage instruments, like this beautiful Farfisa Compact Duo owned by Ethan Johns. These were used by Rick Wright (of Pink Floyd) and Brian Eno to create a variety of tones, from aggressive lead sounds to atmospheric textures. Not only did this one sound amazing, it smelled wonderful too!