"Baptise me with the courage that has seen you Through great fire doodlebug and bombscare The Courage of the Immigrant Canonize the blacks dogs and irish Who led me to be born to your bells Raised me to not sink in you suffer Nor perish in our plague of demolition London, goodnight Sundark and Riverlight"
This project started when I realized I had reached a ten year jubilee as a recording artist, my first EP came out when I was 19 and in that time my voice has grown with me.
I started out playing with just one instrument and singing with no microphones in folk clubs, on the streets and galleries, I missed that raw communication so much and the spontaneous energy of that live situation, which I am bringing back on this world tour ahead. When I went in to the studio I thought I was going to record a one man solo album, but I started to dream and heard bassoons and bodhrans, this is my first totally acoustic album and so I made sure that we were working with analogue tape and mixing desk.
I went on a mission to find a grand piano with the best bass response still full of character and I was told about Real World studios but the piano there was too new, so Peter Gabriel lent me his Bosendorfer Grand and later his Bodhran and Hammer Dulcimer, the album and I are very grateful.
At the beginning of the Lupercalia tour I bought myself a Celtic harp, I stopped playing concert harp just before my first full orchestra solo performance of Cesar Francks A Sharp minor aged 16 as I ran away from home and couldn't take the harp with me and had nowhere to practice, at 28 with a lot of water under the bridge I felt old enough to be reunited with the instrument again, I think having the harp back in my music has been a big inspiration for making this album.
Recording in Real World was what I desired so much for 'Sundark & Riverlight' to be as alone as I could by a river. I put the string Quartet up on the balcony of the wood room studio to have them suspended as if the sound for the listener was coming from the sun, then I recorded the woodwind quartet in the Pool Studio which is like an empty swimming pool in Bermondsey as if the sound was as a reflection on water.
A couple of years ago I met one of my heroes John Cale after he asked me to support him at the Royal Festival Hall and after our discussion, I suddenly felt allergic to the way music is being produced at the moment, so I knew I was going to start experimenting with acoustic recordings again, my ambition was not to open up my laptop but to retune the Benchside Spinet that had been gathering dust under my bed and open the lid and dream hammers and strings. There was a conscious rebellion on this album against the digital age of auto-tune and mass produced electronic landfill music. I want to present at my 10 year anniversary a musical biography.
I grew up with a love of medieval, minimalist and renaissance classical music as well as listening to Atari Teenage Riot and obsessed with labels like Planet Mu and Tigerbeat 6. My degree studying composition was aborted quickly as it was the same year I had the opportunity to release my debut album Lycanthropy and go on a world tour, I just felt at this point I wanted to revisit a minimalist medieval sound that's very dear to me. I would say this album was influenced by Stephen Micus, Shirley and Dolly Collins, His Name is Alive, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Rachels, Meredith Monk, Johnny Cash, Henry Purcell and John Blow. I chose to shoot the artwork at Hilles House in Gloucester a country mansion looking over the River Severn. rich in the heritage of family members such as the baroque composer John Blow and the rebel fashion visionary Isabella Blow.
Instead of compiling the highlights of my recordings from the last ten years I thought I would highlight the songwriting I felt relevant today to me first of all. As singer and songwriter I notice that some songs take on a life of their own once released, for instance I never knew that 'Paris' from 'Lycanthropy' would become such an important song for my crowd, often when I perform the songs after they are recorded, new words or meanings come to mind and then i start to improvise as to how I am feeling that night. I thought It was time after a decade to take a moment to document what these songs have grown up to be while I've been travelling them around the world.
I made my first album with whatever I had around me, a ton of passion and guts, a 4 track, then a laptop, I had little knowledge of audio engineering so a lot of soldering wires happened and microphones purchased that I didn't know whether suited my voice or instruments, this album is a chance to re record with better knowledge of how to record and produce my work.
Listening to all the songs of the last ten years I have written to choose what was to be re recorded for Sundark & Riverlight was enough to drive me insane, I found many recurring patterns, hope out of anger, sadness out of joy, The title comes from the song "London" two words I made up when I was a teenager that i feel describe my body of work to date. Its been a wonderful self assessment to make this album, extremely cathartic, Its left me a clear slate, head and heart to be able to move forward with the next 10 years. I would like to thank Buffy St Marie who co-wrote the new version of Hard Times with me. This is the only cowrite on the album, we met in Barcelona during the recording session and after some amazing discussions about war, peace and revolution she channelled a new message and edition of the song for me. Vulture is now back to the original composition before the co-written Alec Empire version on The Bachelor.
I can't wait to embark on the forthcoming tour to share these songs and re-compose other songs that didn't make it on this album, I will be taking requests every night so get in contact through twitter and facebook in advance.. all songs considered.
Now all the work is done and artwork ready to be printed (which will be unveiled shortly), I write this letter to you from a beautiful Greek island which I took a slow night boat to get to, Im resting my voice which i began to lose at the end of the album. Yesterday I met one of the three pelicans of the island on the beach they are only seen rarely and when you meet one you are blessed with good luck.. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to be able to make this album, to have such a wonderful world wide wolfpack. I made this record as much for you as I did for myself.
With love, luck, sundark and riverlight xx Patrick Wolf
Release date, Tracklist and Pre-order info TBA soon, keep checking PatrickWolf.com for updates.
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