Silent Reflux

The first V Ä L V Ē full album is now finished and at the mixing/mastering stage. Here's a snippet:

Earlier this week John Doran of The Quietus played recent release 'Lights' as guest presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction - you can hear the whole show HERE. What a show - much love to John for including us and do check out his amazing selection. Some treasure there for sure.

Physical copies of EP #1 [The Theosophical Society} are now completely sold out but digital copies are available from HERE.

V Ä L V Ē action is in the pipeline; new instrument building, new songs....further new on this in due course!

Bass reeds for Necro Deathmort

Necro Deathmort - 'Overland' (Profound Lore Records)

Necro Deathmort approached me a while back to arrange 'Vortex', one of their tracks, for deep wind instruments and record it for their new album. It was a fun task, particularly as Contra-Bassoonist, Thomas Stone, arrived equipped with a tube to extend his bell-end to get down to a bottom A! Baritone sax, contra-bassoon and bassoon went down and the finished result is pretty epic. It was an honour to be involved!

You can hear and pre-order the Album HERE.

EP release, Supernormal and London date.....

We finally released the VÄLVĒ EP! It's a snapshot of what we are currently performing live in advance of the actual album - which is unlikely to be performed live more than once due to the ridiculous complexity of the instrumentation! It features 4 tracks - a soundscape, a nod to Hilma af Klimt, a tarot game and a song. You can find it HERE

Last weekend, we had the super lovely experience of playing Supernormal Festival at Brazier's Park in Oxfordshire. What a festival! Such an honour to pay there. John and Luke of The Quietus featured tracks from the festival in their show - you can hear it HERE. We were particularly excited to finally unleash 'the smells'!

Next up is a london date at The Harrison (Kings Cross) on 29.08.17 with Bob Drake, Kamura Obscura and Flying Saucer. Details HERE. Smells will be happening. Obvs.

Knifeworld album teaser

The album is finally finished and will be released 22.04.16.

Here is the album teaser as filmed by Emmett during the recording sessions in the Pyrenees last autumn...

Recent news and forthcoming dates....

Things have been pretty busy on the Knifeworld front - we did a UK tour last month and had the wonderful experience of playing at the Tim Smith benefit Alphabet Business Concern at Salisbury Arts Centre.

Other than that, we have been steadily learning new songs in preparation for recording the next album.

I have also been working on a new V A L V E piece for Tai Shani. I shall post about this in more detail when it is released - it will be in the form of a book!

Knifeworld's summer is revolving around some festivals in July and supporting LITES (Japan) at The Dome in Tufnell Park on August 19th.  

In late August, I will be performing with A Sweet Niche on a track that I co-write with them. This will happen at The Harrison in Kings Cross and will be supporting Prescott. See 'Performance' for all tour dates.

Be, be, the 7 darknesses.

I recently performed at The Moving Museum's 'Open Heart Surgery' as part of Tai Shani's new piece.  It was an interesting collaboration between Tai, actress Gemma Brockis and me and the music was something unlike anything I have done before as it had absolutely no bassoon or sax (other than a pre-recorded fragment) and was scored for clarinet (via harmonist pedal), electric guitar (bowed and looped) and triggered samples.




The piece we made was performed live on 14th November at the launch and was exhibited (recorded form) as an installation or the duration of the show.  Nine of the artists (including Tai) were selected to have their sound pieces released as a limited edition 9-vinyl box set in a perspex box.  You can find it here...

V A L V E live performance

I am rather excited to announce that a V A L V E performance will be happening on Nov 14th at 180 The Strand as part of Tai Shani's new work, 'The 7 Darknesses: A Very Gothic Reading' at Open Heart Surgery, curated by The Moving Museum. Tai asked me to compose and perform a live score to her text, which will be performed at the exhibition. We were delighted to hear that the piece had also been selected to be released on limited edition vinyl.

"TAI SHANI/
Tai Shani will stage a performance that seeks to test the boundary between the solitary and internal experience of read literature and the public and collective experience of performed literature in relation to the imaginary space, taste and tolerance. The 7 Darknesses: A Very Gothic Reading will orchestrate a dramatic reading of Shani’s ‘De Sadian’, explicitly violent and graphic text “Be, be the seven darknesses” originally commissioned by the metal fanzine ‘Buried’, the reading will be accompanied by a live score by Chloe Herington (V A L V E)."

Manning- 'The Root, The Leaf and The Bone'

Guy Manning's new album is now out on Festival Music and I had the pleasure of playing bassoon on track 3, 'Autumn Song'.



You can find a short Q & A about it here

The album is the latest in an impressive discography from Manning and features an array of guests alongside his regular band.