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  • "Illuminations"

    featuring EMMA BUTLER

    written by George Moorey, Shane Young & Emma Butler

    recorded on Friday 23 February 2018 at Blackfriars, Ladybellegate Street

    recording engineer: Josh Petkovic-Short

    film-maker: Barney Witts, Fluxx Films

  • left to right: Lee Phillips, Emma Butler, Josh Petkovic-Short, George Moorey, Tomáš Kašpar, Barney Witts, Alice White, Tim Beck

    The starting point for this one was Blackfriars and one of its historic purposes.

     

    Within the Dominican Friary there is a scriptorium room where the Dominicans would spend their time illuminating religious manuscripts. I wanted to convey a picture of this in song somehow. I talked with Eloise and she got excited asking me if I knew the story of Pangur Ban. It was a favourite story of hers as a child. A 9th century Irish monk engaged as transcribing a text took a break and wrote a poem about his white cat in the margins of the parchment he was working on. The parchment survived and the poem about his cat has been translated many times and been the inspiration for the character of Pangur Ban in modern fiction.

     

    I had invited my friend Emma to sing on this session. She is also quite a handy songwriter so I briefly told her the story of Pangur Ban and provided her with the translation by Robin Flower and a musical sketch I had recorded using the piano.

     

    Emma set about using the poem and my music to create lyrics that scan based on the translated poem. She got as far as the first two verses and sent her efforts back and I was very pleased. I sent this to Shane and he finished things off writing the words and melody for the middle section of our song. I was able to structure both sets of lyrics and put together a team of musicians that included Lee playing bass on his analog synthesiser, myself on piano, Alice on cello, Tomas on guitar with Emma singing lead vocal and Tim singing backing vocal. I kept Shane’s backing vocals from the demo and my original piano part on the final recording.

     

  • I and Pangur Ban my feline friend

    Busy through the night

    Hunting words I write

    While he hunts mice

     

    Try to make amends with book and pen

    Plying with our skills

    Bearing no ill will

    Till all is still

     

    What a sight to see

    How glad we are

    When we sit and find

    Something for our minds

     

    Through corridors of stained glass light

    The echoes of the fight

    Come what may

    The prayer

    Defines the way

     

    Through darkness to the cold stone day

    I’ll bring the beast down,

    Come what may

    The prey

    Defines the way

     

    The beautiful and dutiful

    Through walls the blameless seekers dig

    To plumb the shadows

    For a crumb to feed them

     

    Try to make amends with book and pen

    Plying with our skills

    Bearing no ill will

    Till all is still

     

  • Credits

    Emma Butler

    Emma collaborated in the writing of this song as well as bringing her beautiful singing to the project.

    I first heard Emma sing at Gloucester Guildhall's Musiclab open stage. I've heard many talented folk at Musiclab over the years that I pondered getting involved in making music with, but I've never acted on that impulse - I normally reason it's because I don't have the capacity time wise and I don't want to over commit. Emma is the first performer that overruled that excuse. I got her email and we made arrangements to meet up and discuss making music. I'm so glad I did. I discovered that Emma is brilliant. Her mind is sharp, she is very clever and creative and she has that voice. I set her the challenge of re-interpreting Pangur Ban and provided a simple musical sketch to write to. This task came at a point where she was wrestling with her music making and musical identity and was a big ask. It's testament to her ability that she contributed half of the lyrical content and melody and sung it so beautifully. I really hope she comes good with her own music and she knows I'm there to support her if she needs help. Selfishly I don't want to miss out hearing more from a young Gloucester based artist this good!

    Alice White

    Once again Alice created a harmonious additional voice on her cello that lies underneath the singing and alongside the bass, piano and guitar and finishes with a wonderful sequence of plucked notes at the end of the track.

    Alice has what I consider to be a solid range of musical skills and I am so pleased that she enjoys making music on my projects. We have been friends for a long time. She is married to one of my childhood best friends from school days. I know I can depend on Alice to improvise using her cello which is more or less what she did on this track. More often than not having Alice play cello on one of my productions is like the cherry on top of the cake.

    Lee Phillips

    Lee (aka The Mountain Howl) brought his Moog synthesiser to play the bass part, providing a solid foundation, played tenderly with the utmost sensitivity.

    Lee used to be a drummer and our paths first crossed when he participated in the WIRED project over a decade ago. I used to run this project to provide recording and performance opportunities for young local bands. I vaguely remember him to favour complex drumming patterns and that he was the creative leader of the band. These days he has a penchant for creating lush textural music using analogue synthesisers under the name The Mountain Howl. It was good to invite Lee to join the team for this session. I'm sure Lee and I will make music again together in the near future. Until then check some of his music here.

    Tomáš Kašpar

    Tomáš created the rich textural guitar part that is threaded carefully through the arrangement.

    Tomáš, like Lee, is another "WIRED kid". He was a one of the most diligent and respectful teenagers I had the pleasure of working with on music when he was just 13 or 14 and his band (which also featured Jo, his younger brother who played double bass on Aethelflaed) back then blew all the other young bands out of the water. He's now in his 20s and is a popular music graduate from Goldsmiths College, London. In addition to being a jobbing musician and having toured with artists such as Laucan, is also one of the recording engineers at Goldsmiths' Studio facilities. I love spending time with Tomáš. It's rare we get to these days, but I know that when I do it'll be quality time. He brought such positive energy and complementary music experience to the session and enjoyed talking artistry and technical stuff with others in the team. His guitar playing is full of character, just like the very best players, and he made great choices from his unique tonal palette for this track.

    Tim Beck

    Backing vocals.

    Tim had a supporting role on this track. He features in others, but it was good just to have him alongside several other of my favourite artists to work with.

    George Moorey

    George created the pre-recorded piano on his upright piano at home then carefully added choice notes and intervals during the session performance.

    The film opens with a shot of the insides of my Petrof upright piano at my home. It was too much to ask to bring it to the venue - it's way too cumbersome and heavy.

  • Visit the next location

    St. Nicholas

© George Moorey 2018. Photography (unless noted otherwise) by Shane Young

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