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The First Tuesday of every month we spotlight a classic progressive rock album from the 1970s in the first half of the show.
Tarkus is the second studio album by English progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, released on 14 June 1971 on Island Records. Following their debut tour across Europe during the second half of 1970, the group paused touring commitments in January 1971 to record a new album at Advision Studios in London. Greg Lake produced the album with Eddy Offord as engineer.
Side one features the 20-minute conceptual title track written by keyboardist Keith Emerson, the opening of which created friction between Lake and himself that almost split the group, but Lake agreed to pursue it and contributed musical ideas for it and wrote the lyrics. Side two features a collection of unrelated tracks of different styles. The artwork was designed by William Neal.
Tarkus went to number one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the only album by the band to do so. It was a top 10 album worldwide, including the US, where it peaked at number 9. The album reached gold certification in the UK and US, the latter for 500,000 copies sold. It has been reissued and remastered several times, including a new stereo and 5.1 surround sound edition by Steven Wilson, with bonus and previously unreleased tracks from the original sessions, released in 2012.
You will be hearing the 2012 Steven Wilson stereo mix tonight.
Seabuckthorn - this warm, this late
So pleased to announce that next to give us their interpretation of
quiet details is the supremely talented multi-instrumentalist, Andy
Cartwright, here as his widely-loved alias, Seabuckthorn.
Exploring
all manner of experimental techniques and genres, Seabuckthorn has a
string of wonderful releases, on top-tier labels such as LAAPS/IIKKI,
Eilean Rec, Fluid Audio, Lost Tribe Sound and more.
This, combined
with regular international live shows and music for film, art shows and
other media, makes him stand out as one of the most intriguing and
forward-thinking artists of recent years.
With ‘this warm, this late’ he’s taken all this experience and deep understanding of music to create something truly stunning.
Working
with double bassist and trombonist Phil Cassel, he’s crafted an album
that stands unique in the quiet details series - extended guitar
techniques and incredible melodic intuition leading to twelve tracks
that traverse emotions in the most beautiful way.
The playing is
virtuosic while retaining so much soul and feeling it’s both a
breathtaking and hypnotic listen - delicate tones mix with sounds that
are pushed to the edge of gorgeous harmonic distortion, guitars mixed
with Andy’s ukulele, banjo, clarinet and field recordings - affected and
processed into what could well be felt as transcendental experience.
Phil’s
double bass and brass complements it perfectly - two musicians clearly
in lock-step with each other - responding and improvising sections to
become something that’s far more than the sum of its parts.
Deep
drones and distant, hard to recognise shadows appear and dissolve as we
move through the album - the first time I heard this I was immediately
in love - hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
The artwork was made
as always influenced by the music and idea behind the album - this time
originating from a picture Andy sent over, which was then captured with
analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios. I
dearly love this one - a wonderful juxtaposition to some of our other
releases.
A very special album in every regard - huge thanks to Seabuckthorn for everything.
As usual, the album is presented on the physical edition, a custom 6-panel digipack with a separate fine art print too.
The CD also has a special long-form continuous mix of the album, representing the music in its purest form.
As a label we support the incredible Cancer Centre - Milton Keynes University Hospital and all their wonderful NHS staff.
Our thanks to Alex at quietdetails for providing us with a copy of this excellent release.
Produced and mastered by Pete Swinton 2024
Photo by Yani Vandenbranden on Unsplash
Tinting and graphic design by Pete Swinton
Copyright 2024 Pete Swinton
All Rights Reserved Pete Swinton 2024
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