Late Junction again, twice and a new recording device

This week, late on in the evening and sitting cosy round the wood burner in the truck, I heard Orla Wren played two nights in a row by Verity Sharp on LATE JUNCTION !!! I was pretty chuffed on my last blog but would have to admit to being even more chuffed this time, so much so I burnt the midnight toast !
The shows are still available to listen to if you are quick ... tuesday's show is here and wednesday's show is here
Once again, thank you very much to Verity.


The new Orla Wren album has begun and already has an offer from a great label, so I have been collecting new sounds for a while now but recently I got hold of an incredible new portable recording device ... the SONY PCM-D50 ... aquired, barely used and at 'mates rate' from Rima's brother Jan Staines.
For the last album I used two AKG 3000B mics for most things but also used an M-AUDIO microtrack for field recording and 'quick' sessions. The PCM-D50 blows away anything that I have used before and I reckon that I could happily record most things with it and not bother with the AKG's anymore :)
Cheers Jan !

All the best

Tui

Late Junction and a late album announcement

LATE JUNCTION !!!!
Has been a favorite radio show of mine for many years now over on Radio 3. Hosted by Verity Sharp, Fiona Talkington and Max Reinhardt the show is on at 11.15 and features a whole host of wonderfully varied styles of music from around the world. I would often lie in bed parked somewhere lovely in my van ( there were several before the truck ) and listen to the show and sure enough there would be some really beautiful hidden gem of a tune that I had never heard before coming out of the speakers. This show has meant a great deal to me over the years and on the first of september Orla Wren was played on the show by Verity Sharp !
I am pretty chuffed to say the least :)
Here is the track listing.
So, thank you so very much to Verity for listening to the work and for being touched to play it ...
A circle complete.
Jolly good.


And since the theme of this blog is 'late - ' then please accept my apologies for the delay in writing this 'the album is finally out' blog ... numerous things have been keeping me from the blog world, such as collecting and chopping wood, sanding the sides of the truck bit by bit, doing a FLAU mix for the Arctic Circle chaps, having zero signal here in Dartmoor from the mobile internet, washing our clothes in the river with my missus Rima etc etc ... neo gypsy stuff and all that kind of thing ;)
We did pop up to Somerset in-between the doings to sell Rima's paintings from the back of the truck at a new festival called Sunrise Off-Grid ... had a nice time, sold some pictures and met up with our lovely friends The Jurgens, two little blond ones and two bigger blond ones, fellow truck dwellers and lovely permaculture people. Jolly good.
Anyhoo, to the point !


The album is finally OUT on the Japanese FLAU label and is doing really quite well, selling like mad and getting some lovely press and radio play. My missus Rima did such a beautiful blog about the album release that I will direct you from here to over there to see it.



Next up for Orla Wren is a four track EP with my mate Keiron Phelan from the bands Phelan Sheppard and Smile Down Upon Us, also a new Orla Wren album is to be made whilst being here in Dartmoor over winter using the many varied instruments that people have around these parts ( harps, hurdy gurdy's, dulcimers, flutes ... and there is a lovely church organ in the nearest village that I will go and wiggle my fingers upon ).
I am using the studio of my lovely new friend Terri Windling to write this blog, so thank you to her for being so very kind. We are off for a one and a half mile walk back to the truck in the dark through the woods ... hard life innit ;)
Goodnight Vienna x

Sideways Through Sound

How do ...
As you know, me and the missus Rima live in our lovely old Bedford TK, and on the evenings we often sit around the woodburner and listen to, and I have to say it cos I mean it, one of my favorite radio shows in recent years 'Sideways Through Sound'. The show is broadcast through Sydney's 2SER station and Mark 'thee sonic assassin' is the chap behind this wonderful show. Mark comes from good old rainy Manchester, but prefers these days the warm rain of the Australian east coast.

The show is a fantastic mix of psych/folk, electronica, strumming, droning and general psychedelic reverie all mixed in-between with Marks wandering, witty and insightful banter. We are 'mad for it/ love it' over here in the wren camp and you can imagine our delight when Mark sent a message to say that the new album 'The One Two Bird And The Half Horse' was to be the 'featured' album of this weeks show ! The album isn't really out yet so it is a lovely sneak preview for you folks. I will do a blog here when it is properly out.
The show is wonderfully downloadable every thursday from the website and you can grab the show that we were featured on here.

I am very touched by Mark's enthusiasm for the album and want to thank him here for the support and for listening so deeply whilst sitting in his beanbag with a glass of red.
Anyhoo, for anyone not aware of this brilliant show, I urge you to listen in, it is by far the best radio show that I have heard in quite some time. We usually (very slowly) download the show the next day as streaming on the mobile dongle in the truck is a bit crap !

Thanks again to Mark for the show and for the listening.

Arbouse Recordings

A while ago, my dear friend Keiron Phelan wrote to me with a very interesting idea. Alongside David Sheppard, Keiron records as Phelan Sheppard on The Leaf Label and they had been invited to contribute a piece to an intriguing project curated by Cyril Caucat, who runs the Arbouse Recordings label in France. The project is based on the menhir statues in the Fenaille Museum, an archeological museum in Rodez, France. The premise for the project was that the 'artists be invited to create a musical universe in 2008 around the collection of statues-menhirs of the museum' ... Dave from the aforementioned Phelan Sheppard is a busy chap doing his numerous wordsmitheries for various magazines and such, so this is where I come in :)



Keiron suggested that the two of us do it instead as Orla Wren. Great idea ! Cyril approves and off we go ... Keiron then sent me various lovely sounds he had made using glockenspiel, recorder, flute and ukulele. I chucked them all in my laptop and fiddled about and constructed an arrangement and then added all manner of little sounds, clarinet, melodica and some sad, yearning, melancholic things, as is my wont and the result is 'The Climbing Rope'.
The album includes some other 'luminary' figures in the genre, including Fennesz, Mira Calix, Greg Davis, Serafina Steer, Jasper TX and Sylvain Chauvaux ... The double album is a very beautiful thing and is out now and you can buy it here ...

I am thrilled to have been a part of this lovely thing.
My respect to Arbouse for doing it.
Cheers to Dave Shep for being too busy ;)
Jolly good.

KESH Recordings

Recently, I was kindly invited to contribute to a 'remix' project 88 TAPES for the KESH label, which is run by Simon Scott, ex drummer of Slowdive and a musician who records under his own name and also as Televise. This is a first for me into the idea of remixing, but the project was devised when Simon came across some old tape recordings of his improvised guitar from 1988, the idea was for various musicians to be invited to rework the hissy, clicky and quite odd sounds into something of their own. I liked this idea, so got to work after Simon had sent me a few very wonky and hissy tape manipulations, the result from Orla Wren is '33 fainting spells' ... which includes the amazing vocal of Russudan Meipariani, ( who also sings on four tracks on the new album 'The One Two Bird And The Half Horse' ) and has already received radio play from the brilliant Australian radio station Sideways Through Sound and also a very nice review by Mark from The Sunday Experience ...

"The bowed chimes of the mysteriously and eerie though strangely mesmerising '33 fainting spells' by Orla Wren indeed provides a strangely unsettling meditative calm, its tranquil though ostensibly reverent allure ominously manifesting into what can only be described as an enchanting centuries old Tibetan incantation".

The compilation was mastered by Taylor Dupree ( 12K ) and is due to be released in January as 500 copies on CD, 88 copies on 'C88' cassette ( geddit ? ) and FLAC download ... available from BOOMKAT, SMALLFISH, NORMAN RECORDS and P*DIS in Japan ...

Highly recommended ...

Jolly good :)

Old film footage wanted

I have just finished my first film for the track 'the first born daughter of water' which will be the last track on the new album. Here are a few stills from the film and I have enjoyed so much the process of this film making that I wish to ask if anyone has some old family footage that they may have and be happy for me to turn into a film for the album ? The older the footage the better and preferably transfered onto digital format. Please email me here if you can help ... fumbtack@googlemail.com :)
Thank you much

x tui x

New Album Finished !

I am really happy to finally announce that the new album is complete and now being packaged in various ways for the selected labels that I have chosen to submit this new work to :)
Ten tracks in total make up the album and there is my film for the last track and Rima's beautiful stop motion animation for the track 'the fish and the doll'
I will announce which label this music will be released on as soon as I know :)
It is really quite strange and exciting to finish and to now be making steps to make this album available
It is made up of two years of collecting tender sounds
and wrapping them around this music that I have called
Orla Wren 'the one two bird and the half horse'

I hope that you like it

x tui x

Six Paintings Born

I have spent the last many some weeks being curled around in this music ... the album that will become the follow up to my debut 'butterfly wings make' on Expanding Records in 2006 ... two pieces with Keiron Phelan ( phelan sheppard ) on guitar are now completely finished and mastered ... two more with the wonderful Jessica Constable are now finished and another two are musically complete and waiting only for Moomlooo to add some wonderful vocals ... I now have only the beginning piece and the gentle ending to complete the new album ... Rima is making a beautiful move/click animation for the beginning piece and I am busy with my first film for the last track and also with this track I am happy to announce that a wonderful lullaby will be added by Russudan Meipariani ...
One more track was selected for the album, but I may just keep that one in my back pocket ... we will see ...
back to work then :)

x tui x

My nine children around the fire

So, it is time to write some words here as the website is almost fully ready ...
Scotland provides snow and much rain at these times and I am happily sitting weaving these nine chosen tracks for the new Orla Wren album ... like nine children around the fire, warming my days and evenings, and as each piece reveals itself to me slowly, the melodies and beautiful contributions find themselves being gently woven and taken in unexpected directions. I will post new updates here as the album is nearer and ready to be heard :) The pictures to the left are stills from a film that I am making for one track on the album ... also Rima has begun her beautiful animation for the first track on the album and after many weeks of gentle pencil drawing and 'move, click' 'move,click' ... it will be a very beautiful beginning to the album ...

Tools for the beautiful work

A wee pic of a few instruments that I use to make sounds ...
a prize if you can name them all ;)
I use these for all my projects and have been busy in the last few days on two new 'nootk' tracks and also on the website for that project
( thank you again to Rima for coffee and monumental code-geekery )
Feel free to have a looksee ...

x tui x