This split 7" single, released by Edinburgh's Song, by Toad records, is the first, but hopefully not the last, tangible product of a personal and creative friendship between Dublin-based Ian Humberstone and Lancastrian Rob St. John.
The raw, wintry mood of the two songs is explained by the fact that the two short songs were recorded in a frozen Cambridge kitchen on an old Tascam reel-to-reel recorder.
The Phantom in the title of Rob's song is, I suspect, a reference to Phantom Productions Museum which houses a collection vintage analogue recorders, and can be interpreted as snub to the soulless precision of digital technology.
The song has the haunted and enigmatic word imagery familiar from Rob's outstanding EPs and will be the opening track of his debut LP ,Weald, scheduled for release in November 2011.
Ian Humberstone's song is his first release under his own name.
|
Between 2005 and 2009 Ian released three records as Tissø Lake.
The House on the Hill is inspired by an abandoned farmstead in Exeter an the building is described in bleak terms as "sheltering no one at all - it stands alone and unregarded and unregarding".
Both these introspective songs are well described as sharing a "somnambulant analogue glow" ; they are too brief to generate enough heat to warm the body but they offer the consolation of comfort for the soul.
Artist websites:
Rob St.John
Ian Humberstone
|
