Katy Jay (Radio Presenter, Skylab Radio)
This gorgeous release has been set aside for playout of a chosen track on the new programme showcasing longform & slow music, beginning February 2024.
Favorite track: These Scalding Tears.
wodwowodwo
Such masterful looping. The illusion of simplicity results in tracks of belly-deep rawness, both tender and moving. For fans of the cello, the whole album is an endlessly rewarding listen.
Ann-Margreth Bohl
‘These scalding tears’ Simon McCorry goes to places of intense emotions.
Edge and discomfort becomes a felt experience to me whilst listening. It is like looking into a mirror of sorts. The ‘image’ is tangible as the cello moves on into the next place.
Limited edition high quality cassette version of 'I the Storm' in cases with clear front and white back, and cassettes in classic solid white shells with paper labels printed on matt stock. Initial run of 30 copies.
Includes unlimited streaming of I the Storm
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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See Blue Audio: ambient / electronic / beatless / cinematic / downtempo / eclectic / introspective… Shade rather than light...
'I the Storm' – Simon McCorry (SBA #045)
As summer fades and the nights draw in, our collective consciousness can take a turn towards the melancholic. We may feel this cyclical change at both a micro, individual level and as part of a greater cosmic dimension, but its presence is undeniable. We can find ourselves in the eye of a storm, and that storm could well be within us. This is the theme of the forty-fifth release on See Blue Audio: ‘I the Storm’ by Simon McCorry.
Mixed ethnicity, part-British, part-Indian, and “cellist sound-sculptor of ambiguous environments”, this is Simon’s third release on See Blue Audio. It follows a prolific couple of years of releases on respected labels on the ambient music scene like Oscarson, Shimmering Moods, Whitelabrecs, Hidden Vibes, Rusted Tone Recordings and Polar Seas. As with his first release on See Blue Audio, the ‘Nature in Nature’ EP from 2021, where the title track was created for a short film featuring Japanese contemporary dance artist Satoko Fukuda, so ‘I the Storm’ began its life in the theatre. All four compositions were written while collaborating with choreographer Travis Clausen-Knight on ‘I the Storm’, part of the Fabula Collective production ‘Momentum’. Although not originally intended for the show, they ended up using ‘These Scalding Tears’ in its entirety alongside other original music from Simon, with ‘Momentum’ receiving its premiere at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London in September 2022.
Another important component in the backstory to ‘I the Storm’ is the serious health issues and periods in hospital Simon experienced at the end of 2021. As disharmony in the body can also lead to disharmony in the mind, this became a time of deep personal confusion for the artist. Seeking spiritual answers, ‘I the Storm’ is largely influenced and indebted to the sacred music of the 12th century Benedictine writer and visionary Hildegard von Bingen, even though it has a veneer of contemporary sonic landscapes.
‘I the Storm’ consists of four beatless compositions of varying length based around asynchronous live looping with the cello, a method Simon has been experimenting with for a number of years. This new work takes the process in another direction as all the loops remain ‘open’ in overdub mode. Five loops of five different lengths always recording and adding new material as the older material slowly fades away on each repeat. Sounds cascade and circle around each other in a network of loop and delay; sometimes like a call and response, sometimes like reverb or an audio smudge, or a choir of cellos, or dense string orchestration and harmonisation. There are moments where the music is on the edge of going out of control and tipping into chaos; a tightrope is being walked.
All the tracks on ‘I the Storm’ were played and recorded in one sitting. The chaotic nature of the method means this is the only way, but each piece also exists as its own dramatic whole, while contained within are smaller sections or movements travelling through different emotional states and spaces.
‘I the Storm’ was not conceived or executed as background ambience; this is not linear or gentle listening. Nothing is hidden, all emotions are raw, and it was designed to be experienced by the listener as such. As the track titles show, ours is a world of tumult and turmoil, of agitation and upheaval, and where the storm that's within us all ebbs and flows throughout life.
‘I the Storm’ is also available in a limited edition cassette version.
Mastered by Taylor Deupree at 12k Mastering.
Image: the Sound Camp.
credits
released September 22, 2023
All tracks written, produced and mixed by Simon McCorry.
