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Pattern' is now available to pre-order from the wonderful Assembly Field label. A previously unreleased collection of 7 electronic tracks recorded between 2007-2010, shared only amongst close friends until now. Pattern is released in full as a digital download and very Limited Edition CDR from Sunday 11th April. As today is one of Bandcamp's fee-free Fridays, all proceeds from sales on this day go directly towards Phil and his excellent home-spun label. More info at - https://assemblyfield.bandcamp.com/album/pattern

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Really pleased to have been able to contribute to Leafcutter John's crowdsourced Lockdown Patchwork project, produced in collaboration with Leeds Art Gallery and the HCMF - Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, which is launched tonight. At 7pm John will be in conversation with Stuart Maconie on the Leeds Art Gallery website before hotfooting it over to YouTube at 7:30pm where the piece will be played through in full (https://youtu.be/a6VIPYbP7mw). It's been lovely to get back into the music side of things as life and work have taken their toll - like London buses they all come at ones - so plenty more coming over the next few days, weeks and months. But for now, do tune in tonight to hear how a snippet of crows and lorries echoing around an abandoned quarry on the Shropshire/Powys border ended up in a composition by Leafcutter John. Diolch, Eric

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Really proud to have contributed Ondes Martenot to this really quite wonderful release by Matthew Jennings. All proceeds going to an especially pertinent cause this time of year - the Hackney Winter Night Shelter. Treat yourself, or a significant other. Tis the season after all. https://lnk.to/ChristmasKoto

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Solstice Silhouette at Bromlow Callow

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Today sees the release of another collection from the archives.

Previously unreleased and shared only amongst friends, 'In a Land of Lost Content' stems from a visit to Stella Mitchell's 'Land of Lost Content', a cavernous museum of nostalgia and pop culture located in Craven Arms, Shropshire, by Antony Harding, Rob Glover, Ben Holton and Eric Heath in early November 2009.

Though there have been subsequent visits to these halls of 'a million memories' over many years, my initial reaction to that first tour proved a rich stream from which to draw, joining scribbled notes, half-remembered exhibits piled high with paraphernalia and a handful of sounds captured on location. It is high time these recordings were taken off the shelf.

The Last of Lost Content still stands, albeit reconfigured after attracting the ire of the fire inspectors. Even in these strange times it has adapted and permits tours via online booking, though it appears the cafe (where I once spent over 4 hours with my partner) has sadly had to go.

https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/in-a-land-of-lost-content

Diolch,

Eric

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On a dusk trudge to an abandoned quarry near my home, I decided to pause and record the atmosphere of this curious place, set on the border between Wales and England. It is long abandoned, the rush of traffic on the hidden road punctuated by the warning calls of crows preparing for the night ahead. In these strange and troubling times, I hope they bring a welcome moment of ambiance and calm. https://soundcloud.com/user-122769263/sets/quarry Diolch, Eric

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To mark the re-release of ‘Reflecting’ yesterday evening, I've today given a few insights into the instruments and processes used during production. All good things must come to an end, so it would make sense to do so with the final track on the E.P. - 'epick'. To this day I still haven't got a clue how I came up with that melody. Dez on the site 'Music Musings and Miscellany' referred to it as 'a half-buried bubbling synth loop like Rubycon-era Tangerine Dream beamed in from several light years away.' Quite. He concludes that 'Over this, the ondes Martenot sobs and cries, a haunted remnant from a lost civilization.' High praise indeed. At that time I was fascinated by the story of the drowned village of Llanwddyn, now the huge reservoir of Lake Vyrnwy (Cymraeg: Llyn Effernwy) with its fairytale straining tower, huge gothic dam and extremely unnerving sculpture park. One of these sculptures was of a man inside a birdcage which in place formed the ribcage of a giant bird. I took many photographs of these sculptures and the area, even turning some of them into a point and click website, now long gone. There were never any people in these pictures, I waited until no figure stood in the distance, in my imagination this was a world much like Vyrnwy finds itself now, quiet, still, almost abandoned. These photographs are included with the release. A key part of the recording of 'epick' centred around a much maligned piece of equipment, the Oberheim OB-12. Years ago I picked up this curious analog modelling synth, a digital relic manufactured by the Viscount organ company on licence from Oberheim. Capable of some lovely tones, it is badly let down by some awful programming and presets. One of these is curiously named 'Shropshire', though sadly a cheesy, weedy lead is not becoming of reference to such hill country. A friend of mine, Hubbard, used his to create incredible electronic compositions, many I'm still in awe of. It's fair to say I generally struggled. These days, turning the old beast on and playing around with a proper understanding of detuning oscillators, it's a pretty good synth, but it's quite a behemoth. So when I set it down on my bed nearly 14 years ago, pillows propping it up and the arpeggio which formed the backbone for 'epick' suddenly came out of my headphones, you can imagine my surprise. I still haven't a clue how I came up with much of it, I doubt anyone else does. There's some distant vocals in there, some processed and stuttered acoustic guitar, the Spawn does the bass. My girlfriend at the time very clearly and reasonably asking me stop 'messing about on it'. In the end I'm glad I didn't. So here's to the OB-12, may your odd and cumbersome ways forever be ingrained as some 'Rubycon-era Tangerine Dream beamed in from several light years away.' 'Reflecting’ is available for free/donation on the Plenty Wenlock bandcamp page: https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reflecting

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To mark the re-release of ‘Reflecting’ yesterday evening, I'm spending today giving a few insights into the instruments and processes used during production. For the 4th track on 'Reflecting', I went back to basics.  I'd become quite fond of looping the 'Martenot' using an Akai Headrush (later Boss Loop Station) pedal, treating it with digital delay and some analogue reverb. I could spend hours coming up with these loops, overdubbing and seeing where the melody would go, using all the octaves the 'Martenot' could lend me. One of the benefits of the 'Spawn' module was the sub-oscillator function - it could add a second octave to the sound, either one or two below the original, this was incredibly useful when adding deep bass melodies, a certain thickness to the mix. I took this setup to various gigs including an 'unplugged' night at the 'Belmont Arts Centre' (now Hive Shrewsbury) and carted it around with Strap the Button through various fields, pubs and rygbi clwb gigs. The tape recorder that had so harshly treated me only months before earned a second chance and I recorded a number of these looping pieces over the days - the recording which became 'dragons chasing their tails' seemed to have a certain mixture of saturation and otherworldliness, a melody which seemed ever descending, a literal 'Roboroos'; it could go or forever. I found the tape recorder today, made by 'Murphy' in Korea and buried deep in a cupboard. It is coming apart, a previous attempt to cure its penchant for munching magnetic tape one of life's many failures. Intriguingly a tape remains inside, a professional C45 from some stock donated from a recording suite. I wonder what is on it? We'll have to have a listen. I’ll post up my final set  of pictures and musings before bedtime. 'Reflecting’ is available for free/donation on the Plenty Wenlock bandcamp page: https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reflecting

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To mark the re-release of ‘Reflecting’ yesterday evening, I'm spending today giving a few insights into the instruments and processes used during production. The Ondes Martenot is an instrument which has fascinated me since childhood. Well, more truthfully, the sound of this instrument captivated me well before I became aware of its name, swooping through episodes of Captain Scarlet and the incidental score to Ghostbusters (listen to the original Elmer Bernstein arrangements and it's everywhere). So the story goes, Maurice Martenot, a cellist from France, wanted to encapsulate the entire strings section of an orchestra in a single electronic instrument. So he designed his Ondes (Waves) Martenot to cover the low rumbling basses to the higher trills of the violins. Vibrato was controlled either through the rocking motion of the keyboard from side to side, or by playing the instrument via a volume button and ribbon controller. Through an intricate system of speakers called 'diffuseurs' (including one in a palm shape fronted with resonant strings and another with a metal plate for reverberation to create a glissando effect), it ended up sounding like nothing else on earth...well...not quite. Around that time Léon Theremin, a radio engineer from Russia, was with trying to boost the signal of a standard radio when he noticed he was controlling the frequency of the tone his device was emitting, calling his new creation, unsurprisingly, the 'Theremin'. It may be myth or legend that they both went to the same science fair in America, unknowing that they had each created a different way of getting to the same place, musically at least. What I have isn't quite an Ondes Martenot, they are as rare as hen's teeth. I gathered my earnings of a few years of graft in a local recycling facility and purchased this 'French Connection' CV controller from 'Analog Systems', paired with the now discontinued 'Spawn' monosynth module. Bob from A.S. passed away a short while ago sadly. My 'Martenot' appears for the first time on the E.P. in the third track 'macau'. I've always had a penchant for a good espionage soundtrack and was particularly taken by John Barry's dulcimer-heavy score for 'The Ipcress File'. I remember recording the guitar part hunched over my SM58, this strange swaying melody dancing in my headphones. The Martenot line is one of my favourites, even now after numerous songs and arrangements featuring the old girl. I’ll post up a few more pictures and musings through this evening. 'Reflecting’ is available for free/donation on the Plenty Wenlock bandcamp page: https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reflecting

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To mark the re-release of 'Reflecting' yesterday evening, I thought I'd spend today giving a few insights into the instruments and processes used during production. 'Reflecting' came after a fairly intense period of writing and recording solo piano pieces. After leaving the band I'd been involved with for a number of years, I took to recording using only the piano and an ancient and quite decrepit tape recorder as a break from the past. As a rule, everything had to be recorded via this tape recorder and often it was so cold I had to run to the radiator to warm my hands up in between takes. The idea then was to record Martenot over these recordings and release them in some way. Each track bore a French title. Of course, one of the risks of recording with knackered equipment is the very fact that it does not work properly. After chewing up a tape with a recording of a track I was pretty proud of, I'd lost everything other than the recordings I'd managed to transfer to my computer. As a result I settled down over the course of 3 days over a week in autumn 2006 to complete something less reliant on chance. I unearthed this bontempi chord organ, which currently reads about a quarter tone off concert pitch, and promptly recorded a number of ideas into my computer with an SM58. A small amount of treatment and reverb and this stream of consciousness nestled safely on my hard drive. The French title was a nod to the previous piano recordings - ' ambiance d'organe de corde'. I'll post up a few more pictures and musings into the evening. 'Reflecting' is available for free/donation on the Plenty Wenlock bandcamp page: https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reflecting

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Reflecting' is now available for free/pay what you like on our Plenty Wenlock​  bandcamp page. A collection of ambient and loop tracks created during a hive of activity over a week in autumn 2006, forming the debut release for E.L. Heath​. 

'Reflecting' was once described as Basinksi's decomposing symphonies laced with the expansive nature of Vangelis' 'Bladerunner' score. A number of photographs of locations which inspired the recordings are included as part of the release.

Do spread the word.

https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/album/reflecting

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All my E.L. Heath releases on Wayside & Woodland Recordings alongside those of my labelmates epic45, P.Manasseh, Component#4, Field Harmonics and My Autumn Empire are now free or pay what you like on our Bandcamp page for the next week.

Thank you to all who have donated and please enjoy the music. There are some fascinating rare and out of print releases in our back catalogue. https://digital.waysideandwoodland.com/

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I'm sure you've all had enough of the weather. As we close out February some parts of the UK have had double their usual rainfall at this time of year. From my home on the Shropshire/Powys border I've watched the floods encroach across the fields, roads have been submerged, rail lines washed away. Friends have had their houses and businesses flooded. It's been a hideous time of year, a cold inevitability merged with a feeling of sheer helplessness.

As a small gesture I'm donating any profits made in the foreseeable future from my music to the Shropshire Floods Appeal. Profits from digital downloads will be collected and donated to the appeal. If anyone wishes to purchase a physical CD copy of any of my releases, contact me, donate whatever you can spare to the appeal directly and I'll see what I can do. You can find links to our bandcamp, the Plenty Wenlock Records page and the JustGiving page for the Shropshire Floods Appeal below.

https://www.plentywenlock.co.uk/plentywenlockmusic

https://plentywenlockrecords.bandcamp.com/

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/shropshirefloods

Huge thanks to Shrewsbury Photographer Richard Hammerton for the kind use of his photograph of the submerged Frankwell Car Park in Shrewsbury.

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Today, good friends and contemporaries Junkboy release ‘Trains, Trees and Topophilia’ on Fretsore Records. Before summer bust on a flying visit to Brighton, their adopted home, I penned the following thoughts on their upcoming release. Now seems a time as pertinent as any to allow them to breathe. Though nominally 5 years have passed, it could feel like another decade. In this time I feel I have observed a state of almost constant flux, a time uncomfortable with how it should take form. Back in 2014, as my work started taking me far across the country with views snatched from train windows as the landscape was hurried by, I was often accompanied by the enchantingly titled ‘Sovereign Sky’, an album which appeared so fully and confidently formed I felt I had known it for years. I now find myself no less far from home, in the city of Brighton on the south coast, just down for the day with Junkboy's new offering as my companion. Though much around us has changed, the brothers Hanscomb are still channelling the same rich stream, their ideas distilled with particular clarity and economy. These are arrangements which seem in evident peace with their surroundings, expressions of warmth and familiarity. The chimes of the titular ‘Trains, Trees and Topophilia’ peal as if from a spire overhead whilst string arrangements appear crisp and clear like bursts of sunlight on stark chalk headland. A journey well rehearsed where familiar sights and formations show hidden details if caught in focus. This is music which feels entirely unforced, flecked with fine detail and influence. The serpentine Kirby-esq strings wander like Brighton's very own ‘Lanes’, paired here with some brass and there, left to drift slowly on the tide. As we traverse our land, we look out for waypoints, singular marks from which to know where we are and how close to where we are going. In what feels like a world of constant change, it is heartening to find something so appreciably and instantly familiar, leaving me with a real sense of well-being as I turn northwards and home. Eric Heath, May 2019. Trains, Trees and Topophilia is out today, Friday 2nd August 2019, on Fretsore Records and Selected Retailers.

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Lovely to see Georgia Ruth last night with Gareth Bonello and Toby Hay at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. A beautiful collection of music and songs inspired by the people and the land.

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Last week we made our annual pilgrimage to the Clun Green Man Festival willing the Green Man to defeat the Ice Queen which would ensure there would be summer once again in the Clun Valley. Thankfully he did so without much incident and a grand day was spent by all in notably cooler climes than we find ourselves enjoying currently.

Here are just a few sights from the day.

Diolch,

Eric

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Many thanks to Crawford Blair aka ‘ The Unreliable Narrator’ for featuring ‘Out of the Unknown’ on his debut show on Norfolk-based Radio Wymondham. ‘The Unreliable Narrator’ appears weekly from 9-10 pm on Sunday nights and I’ll certainly continue to tune in over the coming weeks. https://radiowymondham.com/timetable/event/the-unreliable-narrator Thanks again Crawford. Diolch,

Eric