Rob St John: Surface Tension
Blackford Hill

First released in 2015 as two limited book-and-CD editions (that quickly sold out), Rob St John's Surface Tension is newly available in a limited-edition vinyl package on the Edinburgh label Blackford Hill. Issued on "eco-mix vinyl” (each copy, pressed using “leftover coloured pellets” from other vinyl pressings, is one-of-a-kind), the package augments the thirty-one-minute album with film photographs, sleeve notes, and an in-depth essay by the work's creator.

Surface Tension came into being when the rural Lancashire-based St John accepted a commission from the Thames21 “Love the Lea” charity to create a project exploring aspects of pollution, life, and biodiversity in East London's Lea Valley. Over the course of a year, he explored the area, took 35mm and 120 film photographs, and collected field recordings. Experimental microphones were used to record underwater and on different surfaces, and the tape loops he developed featuring field recordings and guitar, cello, and piano were submerged in Lea river water baths to add real-world corrosion. Armed with those materials, he crafted two long-form pieces at his home studio that merge environmental details from the site with the activity of human beings within the area.

The two sides differ markedly, with the A the pastoral sibling to the at times rhythmically animated B. The first “Surface Tension” plunges the listener into the natural setting with a lulling piano figure surrounded by a mass of bird chirps and water flow. Cello and acoustic guitar join the piano to deepen the pastoral tone, such that the impression is created of a folk-classical trio performing at the location amidst nature in all its resplendent glory. Segueing from one episode to another, the nature scene shifts to sounds of aggressive voices and a sport of some sort being played; soon after, a panting dog is heard walked by its owner as well as the clickety-clack of a train. In advancing phantasmagorically, the piece suggests the experience of someone moving through the area and encountering a variety of creatures, activities, and places. As the first side nears its close, organ tones and synth whooshes add to the trippy tone of the presentation.

The second side picks up where the first leaves off when a pulsating stream of kosmische organ drones leads the way. The sound design expands with the addition of nature sounds before the material relocates itself to an outdoor rave where a driving club groove couples with proggy flute-like figures to bring a smattering of ecstasy to the project. Like the first “Surface Tension,” the second progresses through multiple parts, with the racket of an outdoors gathering nudging the rhythm element aside before a pastoral episode surfaces to make the connection to the first version all the more explicit. Accompanying the side-long opuses are two short tracks, a four-minute “single edit” teaser, which emphasizes the material's bucolic tone, and “Tracing Static,” which offers a sampling of the rave elements on the second side. Further to that, the digital release includes becalmed reworks by Tommy Perman of a degraded piano loop in fifteen-and fifty-seven-minute versions.

St John's project resonated powerfully with Blackford Hill founder Simon Lewin, who recalled that for him and those close to him “the route north along the river was full of memories of places and family connections … We'd often pinch ourselves when remembering the birdlife we'd encountered while exploring an environment that was so close to home, more or less on our doorstep.” St John brings the location vividly to life for those both familiar with it and those who've never been.

May 2021