It's always cause for celebration when a new Trunk album comes in from the wide world of musical oddness. For some reason Johnny Trunk has managed to get a passage into the land of library music, soundtrack music and other such strangeness and just because of the lovely feller he is, he packages it all up for us, the humble consumer. This time around he's managed to dig up something truly special - Basil Kirchin's final masterpiece, the epic 'Particles'. Apparently buoyed by the new interest in his work thanks to Trunk's re-issue of 'Quantum', Kirchin started recording again and even though he was incredibly ill with cancer (which would eventually take his life) he managed to put together this incredible album. Fusing older unreleased 60s recordings with newer sessions and blending this in with secretly recorded conversations he had been collecting over the years, the resulting album is like a garment woven from many different beautiful materials and colours. 'Concept Suite featuring the "Atonals". "Secret Conversations Between Instruments"' is probably the best example of this, as Kirchin re-interprets these secret recordings as the chatter of horns. This track is both stunningly inventive and hugely enjoyable, and while being atonal never breaches into 'unlistenable', rather Kirchin's wry humour is captured in one deceptively simple moment. Elsewhere fluttering tape-saturated flutes are turned into something resembling the experimental electronics of Delia Derbyshire or her Radiophonic contemporaries, but at the same time this sounds effortlessly modern. A daring blend of old and new, Kirchin absolutely excels here on his swansong and what better way to remember a great British composer than with an album that stuns from beginning to end. Highly recommended!
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It's always cause for celebration when a new Trunk album comes in from the wide world of musical oddness. For some reason Johnny Trunk has managed to get a passage into the land of library music, soundtrack music and other such strangeness and just because of the lovely feller he is, he packages it all up for us, the humble consumer. This time around he's managed to dig up something truly special - Basil Kirchin's final masterpiece, the epic 'Particles'. Apparently buoyed by the new interest in his work thanks to Trunk's re-issue of 'Quantum', Kirchin started recording again and even though he was incredibly ill with cancer (which would eventually take his life) he managed to put together this incredible album. Fusing older unreleased 60s recordings with newer sessions and blending this in with secretly recorded conversations he had been collecting over the years, the resulting album is like a garment woven from many different beautiful materials and colours. 'Concept Suite featuring the "Atonals". "Secret Conversations Between Instruments"' is probably the best example of this, as Kirchin re-interprets these secret recordings as the chatter of horns. This track is both stunningly inventive and hugely enjoyable, and while being atonal never breaches into 'unlistenable', rather Kirchin's wry humour is captured in one deceptively simple moment. Elsewhere fluttering tape-saturated flutes are turned into something resembling the experimental electronics of Delia Derbyshire or her Radiophonic contemporaries, but at the same time this sounds effortlessly modern. A daring blend of old and new, Kirchin absolutely excels here on his swansong and what better way to remember a great British composer than with an album that stuns from beginning to end. Highly recommended!
It's always cause for celebration when a new Trunk album comes in from the wide world of musical oddness. For some reason Johnny Trunk has managed to get a passage into the land of library music, soundtrack music and other such strangeness and just because of the lovely feller he is, he packages it all up for us, the humble consumer. This time around he's managed to dig up something truly special - Basil Kirchin's final masterpiece, the epic 'Particles'. Apparently buoyed by the new interest in his work thanks to Trunk's re-issue of 'Quantum', Kirchin started recording again and even though he was incredibly ill with cancer (which would eventually take his life) he managed to put together this incredible album. Fusing older unreleased 60s recordings with newer sessions and blending this in with secretly recorded conversations he had been collecting over the years, the resulting album is like a garment woven from many different beautiful materials and colours. 'Concept Suite featuring the "Atonals". "Secret Conversations Between Instruments"' is probably the best example of this, as Kirchin re-interprets these secret recordings as the chatter of horns. This track is both stunningly inventive and hugely enjoyable, and while being atonal never breaches into 'unlistenable', rather Kirchin's wry humour is captured in one deceptively simple moment. Elsewhere fluttering tape-saturated flutes are turned into something resembling the experimental electronics of Delia Derbyshire or her Radiophonic contemporaries, but at the same time this sounds effortlessly modern. A daring blend of old and new, Kirchin absolutely excels here on his swansong and what better way to remember a great British composer than with an album that stuns from beginning to end. Highly recommended!