The House of Bedlam - Enclosure (2021) Hi-Res

Entirely conceived and recorded independently in lockdown by the musicians of The House of Bedlam, NMCs release Enclosure reflects on what it is to play together and play apart and celebrates the technical achievement of isolated musicians in challenging times. Larry Goves writes in the program booklet liner notes: 'In April 2020, when I started putting together the music for Enclosure, COVID-19 meant that everyone wanted to be together, and the circumstances were really conspiring against it This collection, therefore, includes music played in obsessive unison, played entirely independently, composed after the sounds were recorded, and in one case downplaying the importance of the instrumentalist entirely.' Works by Larry Goves include Distant airports and Music for melody instruments, objects, and electronic sounds which strive for a virtual togetherness with unison melodies weaving their way through electronic clouds, and a new work inspired by the aggressive stabbing chords of a Siouxsie and the Banshees track. Larry's arrangements of Claudia Sessa's (c.1570-c.1619) Occhi io vissi di vol plays on the tension of playing together and playing apart with alternative takes of a saxophone superimposed on itself creating a duet and then wider ensemble, while his piece Nehemiah 2 grows out of an unrecognizably-distorted sample of blues legend Nehemiah Curtis Skip James. Growing Blocks graphic score (by Sarah Hennies) invites the performer to explore listening in a particular space and time. 30-second blocks of music have the musicians behave as though inside a snapshot of a moment in time, if one could move around inside a moment without going forwards or backwards. Matthew Sergeants piece Matters of Matter #4 celebrates the sounds objects or materials make for themselves with two branches bowing a violins open strings - creating a seductive, glitchy, AMSR-like music.