Silver Servants (a pun on 'civil servants') are a 'supergroup' of artists whose point of connection is that they are all signed to the independent label Second Language.
You will know to expect the unexpected when you read on this record label's website that their releases "range from psycho-geographic electronica to psych folk, by way of modern classical composition and baroque pop". Piano Magic, Colleen and Sharron Kraus figure among the better known names on their roster but there are plenty of more obscure artists too.
Musicians from these marginal genres dutifully gathered in London's Soup Studios and set about improvising a bunch of tunes from scratch. Spontaneity was the order of the day so a rule was established whereby they should move on to the next song after one hour's work. A cover of Jerusalem strikes me as cheating a little but we can forgive this as the other eleven tunes can be counted as originals.
These sporadic sessions took place over a two year period until the songs were deemed finished enough to be ready for public consumption.
The record conjures up an atmosphere of remote country lanes, dark woods, derelict houses, lonely commuters and bad weather. It has a musical identity which lies on a similar wavelength to that of Robert Wyatt.
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Spoken word and sung pieces (male and female) are interspersed with analogue hymnal constructs and shades of gothic folk, notably on the menacing A Crow Will Remember Your Face.
Quam Quod Non Currant has a breezy Lemon Jelly mood while a world-weary man's voice on Lopsided reflects grimly on passing (wasting?) our lives constantly "trying to get on the same beat" with other people.
The end results of this experiment in experimentation are, on one level, all over the place but if you can get on the same beat as all these quirkily Wyrd, folky undercurrents you will find some coherency within the twisted logic on offer.
Think of it as the musical equivalent of poking around in a dusty attic and uncovering some long lost treasures.
Second Language label website
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