Artist : Poppy Ackroyd
Album : Feathers
Year : 2014
Genre : Ambient
Quality : 223kbps / 44.1KHz / Joint Stereo
Source : CD
Playtime : 0h 40m
Size : 68.42mb
Label : Denovali Records
Catalognr : DEN214
Tracklist:
01. Strata 4:48
02. Salt 4:29
03. Timeless 5:50
04. Feathers 6:06
05. Roads 5:15
06. Croft 5:30
07. Taskin 3:16
08. Birdwoman 5:35
Releasenotes:
Poppy Ackroyd is a performer and composer from London, currently based in
Brighton. Classically trained on violin and piano from an early age, she studied
piano and composition at Edinburgh University before completing a masters degree
in Piano Performance. A long-term collaborator with Hidden Orchestra (Tru
Thoughts Records, Denovali Records), she also works with other musicians and
artists, creating soundtracks for film, dance, physical theatre and radio. Her
debut album 'Escapement' (Denovali Records, 2012) impressed with its delicate,
intricate and beautifully atmospheric music, created using only piano and violin
(with the exception of a few field recordings). In 2013 Poppy collaborated with
visual artist Lumen to create bespoke films for her live performances. Demand
from audiences led to a DVD of the music and visuals combined - 'Escapement
Visualised' - being released in September 2014. November 2014 sees the release
of her second full-length album 'Feathers', which she will be performing live
across Europe in the months following the release.
Through studying contemporary classical piano works and listening to electronic
music, Poppy began to develop her own compositional style, using conventional
pianistic ideas whilst also inhabiting the world of sound beyond the keyboard,
using unconventional techniques to 'play' other parts of the instruments as
well. Like 'Escapement', her second album 'Feathers' mostly consists of piano
and violin, but the palate of sounds is increased with other acoustic keyboard
instruments - including harmonium, clavichord, harpsichord and spinet û and in
the string sections Poppy's violin lines are augmented by guest cellist Su-a
Lee.
Poppy's beloved, restored Blⁿthner grand piano in her studio is again the
backbone of the album, providing most of the melodies, bass lines and percussive
sounds. Other material originated from improvised recording sessions at the
Russell/Mirrey Collection of keyboard instruments in Edinburgh. Having
previously spent time there dismantling different pianos to understand how their
mechanisms work and make sound, she was given complete freedom on her own in the
museum to experiment with around fifty keyboard instruments from the 16th
century to the 19th century. Selecting a few instruments for 'Feathers' that
produced a variety of different timbres, it was again the other sounds these
instruments could make that interested her, when treating them as sources for
melodic or percussive material. Recordings of unfamiliar sounds, which include
brushing/plucking the strings and tapping/stroking the frames or soundboards,
are combined with accidental 'imperfect' sounds that come from playing the
instrument, such as pedal noise or the sound of harpsichord shutters opening and
closing. There is an intimate feel to the recordings as these older instruments
are not designed to project sound loudly, so the microphones were placed very
close to capture the minutest detail. Field recordings add to the cinematic and
atmospheric quality of the music: chiming wall clocks in Timeless, traffic noise
on Roads, and the wave and pebble sounds from Brighton beach in Birdwoman.
The title of the album was inspired by the line 'Hope is the thing with
feathers' (Emily Dickinson) - it also references the feather quill in the
mechanisms of some of the keyboard instruments, and the recurring themes of
birds and flight. With its delicate textures, rhythmic intricacy and achingly
beautiful melodies, 'Feathers' is the perfect companion for stories of love,
loss, hope and migration.
http://denovali.com/poppyackroyd/