Articles
Caleb Burhans
Causa Sui's Euporie Tide
Mary Halvorson

Albums
14KT
34423
Atiq & EnK
Simon Bainton
Caleb Burhans
Aisha Burns
Causa Sui
Cristal
Current Value
Deepchord
Marcel Dettmann
Diamat
Federico Durand
Benjamin Finger
FiRES WERE SHOT
Free Babyronia
M. Geddes Gengras
Ghost Station
The Green Kingdom
The Green Man
Mary Halvorson Septet
Camilla Hannan
Marek Hemmann
K11
Lawrence
James McVinnie
Alexandre Navarro
Oh, Yoko
Sebastian Plano
Severence
Snow Ghosts
The Stargazer Lilies
Telonius
Tigerskin
Orla Wren
Zinovia

Compilations / Mixes
Air Texture III
Balance Presents Guy J
Cassy
Compost Black Label 5
Enter.Ibiza 2013
Isla Blanca 2013
Loco Dice
Ultrasoft! Anthems 33
Till Von Sein

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Campbell and Cutler
Coal
dBridge
Desert Heat
Fields
Floex
Jim Fox
High Aura'd / B. Bright Star
Simon Hinter
Moon Ate the Dark
Northern Lights EP
Terrence Parker
Seba
Stephen Whittington
Xtrah

Chris Campbell and Grant Cutler: Schooldays Over
Innova

Inspiration for this fascinating collaboration by Chris Campbell and Grant Cutler came from Ewan MacColl's Irish folk ballad “Schooldays Over” (part of the larger work The Big Hewer, which was broadcast by the BBC in 1961). While the song's subject matter—the story concerns a life that moves from the schoolhouse to the mines—can't help but resonate powerfully with anyone who's endured struggle of one kind or another (everyone, in other words), even more universal is its melancholy tone, the aspect that Campbell and Cutler use as an impetus for their own artistic pursuits. Incidentally, the two are both Innova vets, with Campbell having issued Sound the All-Clear in 2010 and Cutler his Innova debut, 2012, in 2011 (Campbell's upcoming Things You Already Know is scheduled for an early 2014 release). They're joined by Michelle Kinney, Jacqueline Ultan, and Joey Van Phillips for the recording, though the specific contributions they make aren't clarified.

The titles themselves allude to the conceptual approach the duo bring to the suite, with the song-based variations titled“Song 1,” “Song 2,” and “Song 3,” and the four instrumental meditations given descriptive titles such as “Marimba, synths, piano.” “Piano, cellos, glockenspiel” opens the recording with a series of delicate strokes by the titular instruments that instate a wondrous mood, before the first song treatment arrives on a soft bed of synthetic tones followed by Cutler's haunted rendering of the lyrics. The connection between the vocal and instrumental tracks is made explicit when the repeating line “Time you were on your way” is mirrored in the metronomic marimba rhythm that gently animates the piano and synthesizer musings in the subsequent instrumental.

“Pump organ, gongs, balloon bassoons” opens side B with a bold flourish before “Song 2” resurrects the synthetic tones that introduce the first song treatment, with this time a koto augmenting the singing. Vocal phrases build into an hallucinatory swirl, strengthening the incantatory dimension of MacColl's ballad as they do so, after which “Cello bath, koto” lays out a melancholic array of strings, piano, glockenspiel, and koto and “Song 3” closes the work dramatically. In their own quiet way, Campbell and Cutler perform a surgical procedure of sorts on the original by opening it up and dissecting it from multiple angles, and in this way the song assumes fresh, new life. On a final note, Innova has given the release a deluxe, twelve-inch 45 RPM vinyl presentation, which is unusual for a release of twenty-minute duration, but the presentation clearly enhances the strong impression the release makes on musical terms.

October 2013