Steve Parry / Colin Potter 'Womb' CD
''When it was mixed, I don’t think either of us knew what to do with it, as it was unlike any other music that was around at that time. So it languished….
Due to various house moves, Steve & I lost touch & I eventually moved away from Yorkshire, my favourite part of the world. Several years ago, on a short holiday in York I wandered into a pub that I’d never visited before & there was Steve, who I hadn’t seen for over 20 years. Full circle. We decided that the lost album should be released & Steve had the original ¼’’ tapes baked & I’ve now remastered the recordings. Listening to it was a strange experience. Many times I had to try to remember what some of the strange sounds were, or why we did this or that. The sound of convention & caution being thrown to the wind.
I’m glad we did it & I hope you like it.
Colin Potter, London 2021
"Womb remained unreleased other than a few cassette tapes given to friends. The Ampex 406 master tapes were severely damaged due to natural deterioration, so the original tape had to undergo a time-consuming restoration process. Thankfully the project was salvageable and the music was transferred to digital. I must admit listening now to these recordings I am reminded of the creative surge and ebullient enthusiasm for making the music. It was indeed an exciting time."Recorded: (1981) at Integrated Circuit Studio, Sutton–on-the-Forest, York & Wern Studio, York. Field recordings (1981) by Steve Parry on a Sony portable cassette tape recorder.
Steve Parry has worked with the likes of Matt Johnson of The The, but is most known for Hwyl Nofio- the project he started in 1997, and has thus far put out seven albums & one EP. Its sound sits between the improvised & composed- combining elements of avant-garde, ambient, noise, musique concrete, contemporary classical and soundtrack elements. Colin Potter has worked with the likes of Nurse With Wound, Current 93, and Organum. He also runs the long-running/ respected post-industrial label ICR label.
The CD release comes presented in a four-panel monochrome digipak- with the front cover taking in a half-in-shadow photo of a weird vase with bat-like wings. Inside we find an eight-page booklet- with write-ups from both Parry & Potter about the recordings. The release is ltd to 500 copies, and considering who is involved I can’t see these hanging around long.
The nine tracks featured have runtimes between around thirty seconds and nearly ten & half minutes. The following elements were used in the recordings: saw, plastic bucket and plastic tube, water, alarm clock, cotton rags, metal bars, electric drill, drum machine, bongo drums, analogue synth & sequencer, field recordings, electric, acoustic & bass guitars, flute, keyboards, found sounds, comb & voice.
We open with the title track- it moves between interlocking/ subtle shifting layers of electro-percussion & uneasy tone drifts/ wails. And drops into sour plucking, and haunting ambient hisses/ whooshes. There’s “Funeral For Clowns” which mixes clip-clop carnival-like electronics with drifting ebbs of moody guitar tones, and a selection of tone strikes/ hits/ whizzes.
Moving onto the second half of the album we have “Isolate, Clothed With a Cloud “ which blends atmospherically scaping-to-tolling guitar work, with rolling bashes, loose percussive peddling, and eerier vibe rolls. The album plays out with the glum purr & shift of “Mind’s Eye” which blends backwards & forwards tone shifts, with sparsely brooding key strikes, and all manner of subtle/ eerier noise detail.
For the most part, Womb has a fairly timeless quality of both disquiet & unease. And it’s certainly great to finally hear this early work from Parry & Potter. This is worth a look if you enjoy either man's other work, or dig general wavering/ eerier sounding scaping utilizing both electronic & acoustic elements. Roger Batty
