Album Title: Songs From A Cloud Chamber
Music by: Victoria Bourne and Walt Shaw
Victoria Bourne – Vocals, Korg Kross Workstation.
Walt Shaw – Kit, hand percussion, gongs, home-made instruments
Record Label – Discus Music
Victoria and Walt are both involved in The United Isolation Ensemble, which was created as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. It was due to working in this that they realised that a duo collaboration was going to be a rich creative possibility. Melodies inspired by traditional English Folk Songs floating above the pointillistic abstraction creating a richly atmospheric, melancholic, brooding and beautiful sound. Living in a twisted folk landscape. The threads of percussion, voice and electronics weave together, at times blending, but sometimes colliding, creating a kaleidoscopic , often haunting soundscape.
Walt’s percussion on this album uses conventional instruments and also a range of more unconventional instrumentation that is home-made. The former consists of drums, singing bowls, shakers, woodblocks etc. The latter are made up of the following – A large, beaten steel sheet, suspended by springs; some lengths of taut piano wire with contact microphones; an instrument with fret saw blades, wire brushes, springs, broken music boxes, and other found objects. These are amplified, but without any additional electronics.
Victoria’s vocals used multiple harmonies blending with the sounds created by Walt. She thought of the twisted landscape we’ve all been living in since the first lockdowns. Finding inspiration from traditional English Folk Songs and giving them an unsettling feeling. Adding final texture with created sound in the Korg Kross.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Victoria Bourne
The artwork by Victoria Bourne with a painting, ‘Peak Walk’ by Walt Shaw.
1.Raven’s Kit
2. Shakespring Maid On The Shore
3. Heaven’s Kitchen
4. Ye Mariners All
5. Sorely Failed Honey
6. Suspended By Strings
7. Tension Zeitgeist
www.victoriabourne.com
www.waltshaw.co.uk
www.discus-music.co.uk/