Andrew King & Brown Sierra. Thalassocracy. CD.

Thalassocracy consists of songs that Andrew King usually performs unaccompanied, mainly of a nautical theme. They were initially recorded as unaccompanied performances in late 2006, after which the Art group Brown Sierra constructed suitable arrangements for each song, from which they and King, in close collaboration, devised final arrangements over the subsequent 18 months. This is an unashamedly “difficult” album, an experiment that includes field recordings, Musique concrète, and home made tone generators, the 70 minutes of which (consisting of four instrumentals, six arranged songs and one unaccompanied song) add up to what is probably the most left-field album of traditional songs in existence! The intention behind this release was that it should be an exercise in seeing what could be produced by the happy combi- nation of two conceptual artists – who have a knowledge and understanding of vernacular culture – working in close collaboration with an expert in traditional song, who has a knowledge of, background in, and understanding of experimentation. As such it is a release that avoids such glib categorisations as experimental, improv., traditional, folk, or neofolk. The CD comes with a 12 page lyric booklet. Available October 8th, 2010.<