Music For The Home Vol. 2 by Rob Ellis
Formats: CD (BAY 29CD) Digital (BAY 29E)
Release Date: 5 April 2004
Three years since the release of the first volume of Music For The Home, Rob Ellis returns with his second solo album.
Ellis’s solo work is intensely personal in nature. A companion piece to Vol. 1, the album opens a treasure chest of archive recordings from the last decade, documenting a turbulent period in his domestic life.
Where the first Music For The Home consisted almost entirely of pieces created and edited inside a computer, this album includes many piano pieces recorded ‘live’. A self-taught pianist, Ellis’s idiosyncratic approach to composition has drawn comparisons to the work of Messaien, Reich and Cage among others. The album also utilises domestic recordings and concrète techniques, notably on the remarkable ‘Church Opposite’, which uses the sounds of church bells to startling effect.
Better known for his collaborative work as both performer and producer, Rob has been involved with a wide range of creatively rewarding projects since the release of his last solo record. Perhaps his most widely acknowledged work is that with PJ Harvey, with whom he has worked since 1991.
In 2004 alone, Rob worked as both producer and musician on Marianne Faithfull's Before the Poison; played drums on Charlotte Hatherley from Ash’s solo album Grey Will Fade; acted as musical director for Martina Topley-Bird; produced the first solo album by David Holmes’ Free Association vocalist Petra Jean Philippson; and produced and performed on albums by Marlene Kuntz (Italy), Kitty Wu (Denmark) and Madrugada (Norway).
Rob’s own band, Spleen, recorded two well-regarded albums for the Swarfinger label, and also recording as Christmas with Tim and Roo Farthing. He has worked with Laika, Placebo, Pooka and Swell.
1. No.1 60 Francs
2. No.2 Tom & Jerry & Claude
3. No.3 Paris NY
4. No.4 La Fille Aux Cheveux Boucles
5. No.5 Triminufakeinsymph
6. No.1 Figlio di Venezia
7. No.2 Short & Curly
8. No.3 Son of 'Out of it'
9. Slightly Exotic Little Fake Alarm Clock Piece
10. No.1 The Wimp's Trial By Fairground
11. No.2 The Rank Outsider Triumphs
12. No.3 Talk Show Melancholia
13. No.1 At 2 b.p.m
14. No.2 Jerky
15. No.3 Fast Forward
16. No.4 Dreaming
17. No.5 Round
18. No.6 Starry Sky
19. If You Were The Only Girl In The World
20. And I Was The Only Boy
21. L.A.G
22. Music For The Home No.4 - Church Opposite
23. Music For The Home No.5 - The Climbing Frame
24. Music For The Home No.6 - Things Around The House I'm Not Familiar With
25. Music For The Home No.7 - Anniversary Bed
26. Music For The Home No.8 - 2 / 10 / 02
27. Music For The Home No.9 - The Empty House