Michael Tanner - Vespers / The Blackening (Objects Forever)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Take an improvisational, gently experimental, inward voyaging cosmic folk trip with Michael Tanner for Objects Forever. Recorded whilst sat on a slab atop a family vault in the local graveyard at dusk over several days with the attendant feathered fauna joining in at will. It's a lockdown meditation for all times.

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What The Release Notes Say

Vespers and The Blackening are the latest, and final, two albums by musician Michael Tanner (AKA Plinth, The Cloisters, Thalassing and more). Vespers is a brand new work, recorded in 2020 but only just surfacing now, while the latter has previously only been available in digital form. Objects Forever are pleased to release them as a double set on tape. 

“I made these recordings for Vespers due to the sheer inanity of lockdown - they arrived fully formed and unexpected, like all good improvisational pieces should be I guess. It’s a worn cliche, but they genuinely weren’t meant to be heard by the outside world. In fact, I sat on it a year so as to not get swept up in the deluge of lockdown albums that were already popping up left right and centre. As with any album I put out, if I still want to listen to it after a year then the chances are other people will too. 

“Bar the church organ opening, the album was recorded entirely on a slab atop a family vault in the graveyard at the end of my street. Always at dusk, when the birds in the trees overhead were at their most animated. I’m not a big one for ‘studio trickery’ but this was my first experience with ping-pong delay - borne from the fact that I just really missed playing music with other people, and the call and response nature of it had a somewhat similar sensation; making a sound into the void and it having it bounce back at you, making you then react, think on your feet. 

“You can hear twigs snapping below as I had to shift, mid-recording, as ants bit my ankles. It’s a snapshot of a few days in Spring: no agony, very little tweaking and probably the most honest thing I’ve recorded. 

“The Blackening is a piece of music recorded between 2014 and 2016 in the UK and Italy, mostly as a duo with Alison Cotton. Overdubs were added by my friend and constant inspiration Lino Capra Vaccina in 2016.” 

- Michael

CREDITS

​Vespers: 

Michael Tanner: autoharp 
& harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, church organ, zither, gongs 
with Alison Cotton: viola on Vespers Pt. 2 

Improvised during the hour of dusk in St John Sub Castro graveyard, Lewes during May 2020 
Viola overdubs recorded by Mark Nicholas 
Mixed at Green Witch, Lewes 

The Blackening: 

Michael Tanner: accordion, strohviol, bowed zither 
with Alison Cotton: viola & Lino Capra Vaccina: vibraphone 

Recorded at Green Witch, Lewes 2014 and Elfo Studio, Piacenza 2016 

P&C Michael Tanner 2022 
Vespers image layout by Madeleine Welch 
Design by Matt Ashton 
OBJECT012

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IF YOU LIKE MICHAEL TANNER YOU MIGHT LIKE THE SLOW FOLK PLAYLIST

You can stream the Slow Folk playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube and Soundcloud