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JOHN HAYCOCK - 'WHAT REMAINS'

Formats

RR003 - LP
5061041822360

Details

‘What Remains’ is the new album from John Haycock featuring Daniel Bridgwood Hill and produced by resonance founders Matthew Williams and Adam Kahan, mastered in Berlin by Arnold Kasar. It’s a long way from its West African origins, but John Haycock’s relationship with the 24 stringed Kora began by hearing it on Market Street - Manchester city centre’s bustling/chaotic heaven/hell. ‘You couldn’t miss it bouncing across the buildings. It had a Pied Piper effect. It drew people in, creating this bubble of tranquillity and somehow separating you from the consumerist chaos of the city centre’. The busker (if we can rather reductively call him that) crafting this compelling quietude was Gambian griot and kora master, Jali Nyonkoling Kuyateh - playing a near 100 year-old instrument handed down through his family. Transfixed, John struck up a conversation and persuaded an initially sceptical Jali that this late teen was serious in wanting to learn the instrument. John immersed himself in the doubled bridged harp/lute hybrid. Jali’s mesmeric Mancunian street corner masterclass made him see its potential. During 15 years of practice, he dreamed of combining the instrument with electronic and woodwind elements. Informed also by Kora masters like Toumani Diabaté and Ballaké Sissoko (‘they're just on another level’) he has integrated the sound into his own hybrid ambient, minimalist and spiritual jazz fusion. ‘I'm influenced by people outside of the West African tradition of the instrument too. Tony Scott, Wacław Zimpel, Alice Coltrane, Alabaster DePlume, Nico Georis - people working with tone, repetition, and a kind of meditative quality. Also Domenique Dumont. Nils Frahm’s approach is entirely different but has had an equally great impact on me'. It’s a contemplative and ethereal sound with added dub-inflections which is enhanced in live performance - where the mix is always fresh and fluid. There are no computers involved and any emerging sequences are either hand played or are effects generated analog loops. There’s a feeling of the ancient and mysterious Popol Vuh of In Den Garten Pharaos. Perhaps Tangerine Dream at their most serene, but an otherworldliness emerges from the combination of light, sound and setting which has its own dimension. ‘What Remains’ features Daniel Bridgwood Hill and was produced by resonance founders Matthew Williams and Adam Kahan. It was recorded live at Hope Baptist Chapel in Hebden Bridge in 2023, and alongside the kora itself, features clarinet, violin, guitar and electronics. The recording was then ‘worldized’ at Todmorden Unitarian Church. This is a a term coined by acclaimed cinematic sound designer, Walter Murch - meaning to play a previously recorded sound through loudspeakers in a second real world setting, re-recording the output though multiple carefully placed microphones in order to capture the natural reverberation and acoustic architecture of secondary live spaces. The release also incorporates ‘worldized’ performance elements from Wainsgate Chapel, Hebden Bridge, The Portico Library in Manchester and the former Post Office sorting house in Todmorden. It’s an ongoing exploration which will always evolve. The album is the culmination of 3 years of events and experimentation - folding in John’s live musical reactions to the refracted light and natural reverb within the spaces themselves. Everything is in flux. Gates are always open. John’s debut release was "Honey Mango // In a Bloopy Mood" a digital EP with an accompanying 7 inch. This was supported by the Steve Reid Foundation and crafted in collaboration with Emanative and Sarathy Korwar. Next came "Didymus" , a collaboration with former Cinematic Orchestra member John Ellis, released on Limefield Records. His first solo LP, "Dorian Portrait” was released on Second Thoughts Records in March 2023. ‘For me it’s about reacting to what's happening around me. When I was developing the music, it was very much in response to early shows where light and the refractions in particular spaces got me thinking: what happens if you refract sound in the same way? The idea became about splitting and spreading the music itself - letting it move across the stereo field in a way which mirrors the visual. It's less about imposing something and more about reacting to the space, the people in it and what's already there’. Thinking about the power of particular places and their impact on the music, John adds, ‘I was born in Manchester but found my home in the Calder Valley where many of the recordings were made. I’d like to think the music somehow reflects a particular mindset here. 'This record really comes out of being in this area. It's about moving here and just being receptive to what I'm feeling around me - the people, the ideas, the environment’. Central to the project are Matthew and Adam - founders of the resonance live shows and resonance recordings label. Matthew studied music from a young age at school and college, attending the same Popular Music and Recording degree in Salford as did John Haycock, although in its inaugural year. He has worked as a composer, sound engineer and producer, writing TV, film and theatre music. On the other hand, Adam has dived in and out of the rave scene from the early noughties, originally working for a dnb promoter at university. He lived in Berlin and then in London before settling in West Yorkshire, working in theatrical institutions as an Art Director and Designer, such as the Old Vic and National Theatre. He plays the guitar, and hosted radio shows over the past decade, dj’s his unique sound journeys mostly at ambient music gatherings. John Haycock's last album, Dorian Portrait, garnered praise and support from BBC 6 Music’s Maryanne Hobbs, Manchester DJ’s Luke Una and Ruf Dug - along with open-minded NTS Radio adventurer, Ross Allen. Luke himself describes it as ‘an extraordinary moment of astral perfection’. What Remains is a culmination of 3 years of live performances and re-recording in some of the most interesting acoustic spaces in West Yorkshire. As a nod to the 1970s concept album, it is a heartfelt journey through acoustic performance, aural architecture, analog electronics and innovative recording techniques blended into a continuous sonic story. An album both highly contemporary and deeply rooted in the history and mysticism of the Calder Valley.