Published 07 May, 2024 by DM
It’s time for another taste of the new Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne album, which you will recall is ‘the first album made entirely on the Dulcitone probably™’. Take a listen to new single ‘Plads’, which follows ‘Machell’ into the rare Victorian keyed instrument record books.
">Dulcitone 1804 by Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne
While Nightports’ rule of restriction remains in place, the process has evolved over the years, and on Dulcitone 1804 they’ve taken a more spontaneous approach. The whole album was made in one day as a live improvised performance between the three. “We sampled and captured Matthew playing tiny fragments of ideas, which we then processed into warped, skewed instruments that we could use as part of our collective improvisation,” Slater explains. “It’s an imprint of us responding to each other – searching for space, making space, vying for space.” It results in a more immediate sound – melodic and free. A beautiful document of a forgotten corner of music history.
Dulcitone 1804 will be released May 24th on limited edition CD and digital. Pre-order now.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
Joseph Dierker (1968-2024)
Published 03 May, 2024 by TM
It was with great sadness that I learned that Joseph Dierker of 310 recently passed away at his home in Seattle, Washington, at the age of just 56. Along with Tim Donovan, Joe was one half of Leaf’s first non-UK-based signing, and released three albums on the label, as well as a series of EPs and a compilation of two earlier albums, all between 1999 and 2003 - which seems to me now like an impossibly short period of time. Their visual aesthetic - using dozens of found photos, many of which included the number 310 - was Instagram ready two decades ahead of its time.
When I started the label I quickly became conscious of the possibilities that the internet opened up to work with artists internationally - suddenly the world had become a lot smaller - and it was something we seized upon over the following years. I don’t remember how we originally made contact, but Joe was an early adopter of the world wide web, and would go on to make a career out of it. He also loved to travel, having spent a peripatetic youth living all around the US as the son of a military family, and shared my enthusiasm for new places and new experiences.
310’s first proper release on the label, the NOD EP, was released exactly 25 years ago today - astonishingly, a quarter of a century ago. The first time I met them in person was in New York in 1999, having only communicated by email until that point. The details are a little sketchy at this remove, but I have a vivid memory of being invited to preview what would be their first album for Leaf, THE DIRTY RoPE, at a high-end studio in Manhattan where Tim worked, which seemed impossibly glamorous to me at the time - I wasn’t used to artists who worked in actual studios. The album blew my mind, although I will admit the experience was somewhat 'enhanced’.
Joe and Tim made several trips to Europe to perform live during the time we worked with them, including memorable trips around the Lowlands in an overloaded hatchback, a slot at 333 in Old Street immediately before DJ Harvey played, and a trip to Barcelona for Sonar, which was probably the last time I saw Joe in person. He moved to Seattle around this time, and our paths sadly never crossed again. 310 continued to make music, making a total of 10 albums, with the most recent, Lighten The Load, released just days before he died. You can find their more recent work on Bandcamp. We will be adding 310's Leaf releases to this page very soon, to bring their entire catalogue together in one place.
Joe was very well read, always intellectually stimulating and appreciative of the finer things in life. He could also be devastatingly funny. 310 were a delight to be around, and I will miss him very much.
Tony Morley
You can read Joe’s full obituary here.
Joseph Dierker - 9 February 1968 - 12 March 2024
Nightports w Matthew Bourne - Dulcitone 1804
Published 18 April, 2024 by DM
It's been a while since we had a new album to announce, but rest assured we have plenty lined up for the rest of 2024 and beyond. Here’s the first - a new album by Nightports, teaming up once again with Matthew Bourne.
Dulcitone 1804 is the fourth collaborative album by musician-producers Adam Martin and Mark Slater, following a trilogy of releases with Bourne, Betamax of The Comet Is Coming and double bassist Tom Herbert. This one is centred around recordings of Bourne playing a scarce Victorian instrument called a Dulcitone - specifically instrument number 1804, hence the album title. Recordings of these instruments are rare, and we’re going to go out on a limb and say this is the first album produced entirely on Dulcitone. It’s not often you get to make these bold claims, so you’d better believe we’re going to take it and run with it.
The album came about almost by accident, when Martin and Slater were at Bourne’s studio working on another project and spotted a small, unassuming instrument against the wall. “As Matthew does with all instruments he plays, the first sounds he made with the dulcitone were immediately beautiful,” Martin explains. “Somewhere between a celeste and a piano, it has a clear, bell-like quality that’s evocative of a strange other world. Something old and distant.”
Get your rare Victorian instrument kicks with first single 'Machell'.
There's also a little video here where Bourne explains a little more about the Dulcitone and recording the album with Nightports.
Dulcitone 1804 will be released May 24th on limited edition CD and digital. Pre-order now.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
Craven Faults - Thwaite Watermill live release
Published 05 April, 2024 by DM
If you weren't at Studio 9294 on February 22nd to witness Craven Faults conquer all of London, you may not be aware there was a cassette of the Thwaite Watermill live show available at the merch desk. Craven Faults is sneaky like that.
The cassettes are long gone now, but you can download the audio on Bandcamp. Think of the positives - no need to dig out the old Walkman or the C-reg Ford Fiesta Popular Plus. Probably for the best.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
LATEST NEWS- Nightports w/ Matthew Bourne - 'Plads' single
- Joseph Dierker (1968-2024)
- Nightports w Matthew Bourne - Dulcitone 1804
- Craven Faults - Thwaite Watermill live release
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- Sarathy Korwar - KALAK (Live in Mumbai)
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- Sarathy Korwar - Songlines Award Winner
- Craven Faults - Thwaite Watermill live debut
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