Behold, the cover artwork for the forthcoming ORE album, Belatedly.
AND, the wonderful folk at Box Records have put the pre-order live on Bandcamp…so if you are super-keen, please click here or on the cover image above.
ORE IS GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
It brings us great pleasure to announce that our latest album Belatedly will be released on Box Records in November.
Yep, that’s a little way off but we just had to let you know now as we are so pleased to have found such a great label to partner with. It will be released as a double LP (and download) to reflect the split between the two sides. The artwork and mastering are underway and we are working hard behind the scenes to bring you something special.
ORE is delighted with the album and believes Box Records is the ideal label partner to deliver it. More information as it arises but for now, check out the preview below.
ALBUM BLURB
Belatedly is a split album featuring five Native (ORE only) tracks on Side One and five Compound (ORE and collaborators) tracks on Side Two. I am delighted to announce that previous ORE collaborator Kazuyuki Kishino (KK NULL) has laid down a typically rich contribution, with other collaborators including oud player Khyam Allami, trombonist Sophie Cooper, contra-bassoonist Thomas Stone and baritone horn player Beck Baker. A heady mix!
The title is derived from the fact that I failed to complete this album the first time around. I started it in late 2014 when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer but failed to complete it before his death 8 months later. I subsequently aimed to complete it but found that too hard…so had to start the whole thing afresh. This is now ready, Belatedly.
Thank you to everyone involved with this album to date, whether as a musician, artist, or just through making suggestions for who might sign it etc.
Your support is greatly appreciated.
A brief update from the land of ORE…
Working title Michael
First and foremost, I have been working hard on the new ORE album, which is to be released later this year. This is proving a fairly lengthy process as it involves a number of collaborators; from other brass players to vocalists and the like. Here is a hint at the sort of thing to expect:
This track was recently played on BBC Radio 3, on Late Junction + cheekily on If Wet Radio, as part of our tuba show.
I was recently asked to take part in an international collaborative piece by composer and lead vocalist/bassist with OBLIVION, Nick Vasallo.
I was delighted to hear / see the results.
I have formed a new trio with turntable-fiddler Graham Dunning and saxophonist Colin Webster, called DunningWebsterUnderwood.
We have our début album “Bleed” in the can and are looking for labels at present.
Here is a taster…
Tarnlavadust by DunningWebsterUnderwood
MORE SOON!
As a follow-up to the Stuart’s post yesterday I just wanted to give my take on the technical aspects of recording our third album…
The session we had over the weekend represents the achievement of a major goal for me. We just sat down in comfortable surroundings and recorded an album, without technology getting in the way. It has been a challenge achieving this; one which has required a substantial investment both financially and in terms of time refining techniques etc. In an odd way it was the fact that my studio downstairs got flooded late last year that drove us to a better solution for recording tubas. The ever knowledgeable David Morton had advised us on how to approach this but being forced upstairs (into a much taller space) led me to sort stuff out much more quickly. Plus the space has a better vibe, even if the soundproofing isn’t as good 😉
For now, my studio downstairs still remains unusable, which just makes the pleasure of what we achieved over the weekend even greater. We look forward to sharing the results with you!
To get ourselves moving we have recorded a version of a short Stockhausen piece, available for your listening and downloading pleasure on the downloads page of this site.
Things are progressing well. As of lunchtime today (26th July) we have a 15′ piece and a 7′(ish) piece in the bag.
We made it! Seven days of intense collaboration and exploration, culminating in a gig at The Cube Cinema in Bristol. We decided to give our lips a rest all day until the evening of our gig, so day seven was all about our final gig with Alex.
Following on from a storming set by Anta was interesting. We have been developing our live sound over recent weeks and had decided to play our gig at The Cube quietly, acoustically + some amplified reinforcement. It’s a small venue and we wanted to keep the sound of our instruments as pure as possible. Anta and the other acts on the night were pretty loud so it was interesting to hear the juxtaposition.
We enjoyed playing very much and appreciated the warm response to our set. As usual we were playing around a structure, according to how Stuart conducted proceedings. This always makes for a fresh experience but I didn’t think he’d actually make us play THAT COVER!?
Despite a mess up on the audio recording, the whole thing was filmed.
Thanks to everyone that made it down to see us.
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Our week with Alex brought a lot of stuff into sharp focus for us. We have plenty to reflect and build on. We are going back into our bunker for a bit now to write and develop some stuff, and to plan the next stage of ORE.
By the sixth day of recording and exploration our lips were practically falling off us.
We wanted to conserve our energy for our gig the next day so went for a fun session up at Gullet Quarry again. David brought along a second furry friend, so we could explore some exciting recording techniques.
At one point we all wondered off around different sides of the quarry and fired notes across the space at each other. Sonic weapons!
And…relax. A whole day off until our gig at the Cube Cinema the following night. One funny from day six was when we contemplated what the reaction might be if we put “large boulders to sit on” put on our gig rider.
What a great day!
Firstly, we headed to Gullet Quarry [PDF] in The Malverns, for a recording session. We had a lot of fun playing within that acoustic landscape. Improvised, sparse drones seemed to be the order of the day. Towards the end of our time there Alex went down to the water to play some solo stuff.
Following on from this we played a gig at short notice in the EC Arts space in The Mailbox shopping centre, Birmingham. We were joined by our guest Alex Sramek and a great group of improvising musicians including Trevor Lines, Lydia Glanville and Simon Gray. We were really pleased with how this went. A few more people in attendance would’ve been great but we did far too little in promotion to expect anything else. It was a great experiment and EC Arts are keen to have us back!
Photo: Simon Riley
A storming day of playing and recording. Everyone thoroughly knackered at the end.
Tomorrow we hope to record some stuff in a quarry and we’ll be performing, with guests, at 8pm in the ground floor Harvey Nichols shop in The Mailbox, the EC Arts space. Free entry, limited capacity. Playing alongside the other great improvising musicians tomorrow will be our primary contrabass collaborator Alex Sramek. Expect sounds like THIS from him!
Hope to see you there.
A day of intense concentration.
Photos by David Morton.