Live music on the show today from both Alexander Tucker and Paper Dollhouse.
Alexander Tucker began his musical career as singer in punk and post-hardcore bands and since the early part of this century his solo music has channelled widely varied influences from folk to musique concrète-style tape experimentation to the English psychedelia of the Cardiacs. From his earliest records Old Fog and Furrowed Brow on ATP Recordings to his latest song-cycle Dorwytch on Thrill Jockey, his records are at once brooding and intense, joyful and humourous. Deceptively simple, the harmonies are heavily layered and often use accidental ambient sounds (Victoria Line trains rumbling by are audible on his first two albums). His discography is spiralling out of control, having released at least 9 albums since 2004, often in collaboration, including Stephen O’Malley of Sun O))) and previous guest on this show, Duke Garwood.
Alexander will perform live in the Resonance FM studio today and also talk about his latest record, the second released in collaboration with electronic musician Daniel Beban under the name Imbogodom, out this week on Thrill Jockey. Using vintage analogue equipment and recorded at the BBC’s Bush House, Imbogodom recreates the techniques and textures of those early pioneers of electronic sound at the Radiophonic Workshop.
“… when I got it home to a pair of monolithic 1970s stereo speakers [Dorwytch] transformed into a pool of potential deep listening. A relatively still surface daring you to dive in, its sharp, cold depth containing bindweed, or maybe worse… things that threaten to drag you under, away from surface beauty into a totally different, forbidding world.” – John Doran, The Quietus review of Dorwytch
Paper Dollhouse is the work of Astrud Steehouder; dark minimal gothic folk which comprises haunting vocals, acoustic guitar, effects pedals, found sounds, slide projector and minimal electronic atmospherics. Her debut album ‘A Box Painted Black’ was recently released on Bird Records, the femme-folk off shoot of the Finders Keepers family.
Inspired by early 60s electronic pioneers Delia Derbyshire and Eliane Radigue, bleak British television soundtracks, minimal dark electronica, Arthur Russell, Christine Harwood and France Galle, the music combines simple folk songs with environmental and electronic textural sounds and visuals to create a pared down, beautiful experience.
Named after the 1988 cult horror film Paperhouse “I watched the film when I was about 10 and was really drawn in by it. Something about the quality and tone of it, the psychology and aesthetic has stayed with me ever since. I’m into actual dollhouses and models of things as well. I used to make these little viewfinder boxes containing little scenes in them as a child for fun, I found them magical.”
‘A Box Painted Black’ was recorded entirely in the kitchen and garden of her London home amongst the incidental sounds of trains passing, children playing, door slams and running water, “the album’s like a Pandora’s box of messages. It was kind of a dark solace for me, the slight way the album happened. Almost hidden.”
Tune in between noon and 1.30pm on 104.4 FM in Central London or on-line via: www.resonancefm.com
