Thanks to all that made it over to our album launch party in the depths of December, it was a joy to see so many friendly faces welcoming this music into the world. Also, thanks to all who bought the album on Bandcamp and sent lovely messages – your input means the world to us!
So here we are; the final stages of unleashing our epic project ‘Nearly Human’ into the world.
This Friday 13th January, the album will be released on all streaming platforms.
To celebrate this, we will also be live-streaming a performance of Nearly Human at 20:00 GMT. This instance was shot at the Clapham Grand in March 2020.
Please head over to our Youtube channel at that time to watch. Some band members will also be lurking there if you fancy a digital exchange. We hope to have a little digital soirée with you as we send this video off into the great internet oblivion.
In the meantime, if you’d like to watch some of the videos from the album, you’ll see them below.
Thanks again for all your support with this enormous musical/theatrical feat. We did it for you.
And now, onwards!
We begin to write new music this month. More melodies and brass-fuelled celebrations with you again soon.
Dear friends, we hope everyone is faring well in this difficult time!
Today we released a new short work written by our resident trombonist Mickey and soprano saxer Jin. We were commissioned by Snape Maltings’ Aga Serugo Lugoto create the start of a musical chain, composing an opera aria that would be continued by other composers and singers, a musical game of ‘consequences’!
We were paired with the amazing soprano, workshop leader and festival director Lynsey Docherty. Please check out all her brilliant work at www.lynseydocherty.co.uk.
Our aria delves into the subject of social media and the insatiable need to be desired. In true Perhaps Contraption fashion, Lynsey dives straight into acting the part!
Jin: This has been such an enjoyable distraction from the pandemic. After some deliberation over the topic of the aria, Mickey and myself rehearsed some musical ideas and motifs before composing separately.
Mickey did a fantastic job putting everything together and I thoroughly enjoyed setting his libretto to the solo line and writing the core melody.
There’s an amusing self-referential feeling when writing an aria about the addiction of social media using only social media performance platforms. I love that audiences will feel an awkwardness of “liking” our aria.
Mickey: I can’t say opera has been a big part of my life, but it was enjoyable trying to fit our musical flavours and instrumentation into that world, and an honour to be invited to do so.
It was very difficult to come up with a topic that didn’t feel too direct, but wasn’t ignoring the fact we were going through a worldwide pandemic and massive social change (yes, it feels odd writing that).
Once the topic settled, it was clear that a Reich/Ades/Black Mirror vibe was required and after a fair bit of experimentation (and sonic failures), I hope that some of that social-media-fatigue climate we live in comes across in the music. Jin did a tremendous job building a melody, writing some cheeky woodwind flourishes (I especially like the one at 1.17) and working with Lynsey (who nailed the part perfectly). HEY! I’m not going to pretend it was all easy though… it was tricky-to-the-max working with everyone’s different lockdown situations and varying levels of access to recording equipment.
The drums ended up being digital (boo) and not everyone in the band was able to be involved. That’s pandemic-life… BUT those pandemic-acquired music and video production skills sure came in useful.
We do hope you can come and celebrate this milestone with us. We are so proud of this album!
It was recorded at The Premises (solar-powered) studio, and mastered by the legendary Mandy Parnell (Bjork, Dirty Projectors) at Black Saloon Studios. It’s a beautiful monster.
You can pick up signed copies of it on the night, well in advance of the official release date on June 3rd.
Or if you can’t make it, you can pre-order a signed copy here (and peruse the art work)…
ONWARDS! WE TRUDGE THROUGH THE GLITTERING GLORIOUS MUD!
Here’s an interview I did recently for Cat on the Wall.
Hopefully it’s not a load of old guff, but a piquant and insightful look
into the workings of this device.