Monday, 7 February 2022

Palimpsest EP

I have been cogitating over this EP for about 6 months.

There were 4 complete iterations that were scrapped before I decided upon the tracks that eventually made the cut.  Hampered by my own disbelief and self doubt.... crippled by my own frailties.  Possibly 9 hours worth of material were recorded in total - and some of it may see the light of day in the future elsewhere - who knows...

In a previous post I said this should appear at some point this year... well, 2 weeks later, here it is....

Palimpsest EP

1. Clapper Bridge 06m23s

2. Longhouses 03m55s

3. The Maiden Sea 04m19s

4. Bearacleave 04m10s

5. Grimspound 02m49s

A palimpsest is something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

These sounds are inspired by the landscapes and lore of Dartmoor, UK.

Original artwork by www.dansmonsters.co.uk

I knew that I wanted to record some sounds that reflected my new home of Devon (specifically Dartmoor), and after some background reading on local folklore and various trips out into the wilderness... I returned to my shed with a clutch of photographs, field recordings and found detritus.

But I found distilling the wonder and magick of Dartmoor down to a maximum 22 minute EP extremely challenging.  We are talking about 368 square miles of national park with thousands of years of history and countless legends.... the enormity of the task I had taken on soon hit me like a ton of bricks.

Many tons of bricks (Rippon Tor rifle range)

So I feel this EP is the first chapter in my discovery of Dartmoor - an opening into its world.  Maybe there will be more precise excursions into it in the future.  This collection of sounds is typically chaotic in the "Tump" style - loose rhythms, noisy textures and an overall low fidelity feel.  But this time I think perhaps maybe a little bit more refined than previous Tump EP's... I would be interested to know what you think?


I made a small batch of these 3" CDr's (and amazingly only have 3 left - so snap them up quick if you want one) - and I love how the labels came out.  "ST" print stamp courtesy of Mrs. Tump.

LINKY

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