Fur moon over Whitestone pond

Fur Power!

We, Grumbling Fur, are releasing our second full length album 'Glynnaestra' through Thrill Jockey records on July 22nd. Here's the bumph...
  
Daniel O’Sullivan of Ulver and Guapo and Alexander Tucker (Imbogodom) have announced that they'll be joining forces again as Grumbling Fur for a new album of psychedelic sonic explorations, Glynnaestra. The duo "have crafted an avant-pop album assembled as one would a collage," reads the text accompanying the album's release. "This structural foundation is built up via an eclectic array of instruments, both acoustic and modified, to pulsating electronic sounds. ... As their history attests, this is a group unbound from the restrictions of traditionalism and unafraid to shed the pretence of pure abstraction. There's a tradition of subterranean Englishness at play, harking back to This Heat's Deceit and Eno's Another Green World. In their first fully realised album as a duo, the process and texture ripple with a kind of electro-gnosis. Glynnaestra herself (an archaic goddess divined by Tucker and O'Sullivan) presides over the record, transcendent and sphinx like: an apt muse for an album of such lovely and powerful music." 

We're also featured in Serena Korda's film 'The Transmitters' currently showing at Camden Arts Centre as part of her new solo show 'Aping The Beast'. More details here. We're performing live third eye soundtracks to coincide with three ritual dance pieces around a 15ft green latex dinosaur puppet.

Some dates for your diaries...

27.03.13 - Camden Arts Centre, London
17.04.13 - Camden Arts Centre, London
27.04.13 - St. Pauls Church, Birmingham w/ Barn Owl and Ex Easter Island Head
04.05.13 - Camden Arts Centre, London
08.06.13 - The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool

We'll be playing some European dates in September which will be announced shortly.

W.A.M.A

I wrote a piece of music that was sung by 70 or so primary school children in Bristol. It's something I had been wanting to do for a while. Working with my friend Serena Korda seems to make dreams come true. Here's a documentary about what we did. GALAGU!


 
W.A.M.A. from Paul Gilbert on Vimeo.

Laid To Rest Vinyl Landing

Laid To Rest vinyl now available from Neuropa. This is music I wrote for a commission with my friend and collaborator Serena Korda. The record features amazing performances by Steve Noble (Æthenor), Alex Ward, Chlöe Herington (Chrome Hoof), The Medieval Baebes, Stephen O'Malley (Æthenor / Sunn O))) and Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver). This is mythical marching band music. Probably the closest thing to Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses that I've written for a while.

Laid To Rest: The Brick Keepers by Mothlite

Laid To Rest: The Procession

Please join us for the finale of LAID TO REST. A project by Serena Korda for the Wellcome Collection. Witness the procession and burial of 500 commemorative bricks containing people's dust. Follow Daniel O'Sullivan's mythical marching band, dancers and heavy horses as they travel from Wellcome Collection to Brunswick Square Gardens, Bloomsbury, where a layer of bricks will be ceremoniously buried.

There will be 300 limited edition commemorative publications, including the LAID TO REST soundtrack 12" vinyl, to give away. 

All music composed by Daniel O'Sullivan featuring The Medieval Baebes, Alex Ward, Steve Noble (Æthenor), Chloe Herington (Chrome Hoof), Matthew Parry, Francois Testory (Coil), Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) & Kristoffer Rygg (Ulver).

The Carillon of Loughborough

Next O'Sullivan / Korda collaboration will feature a piece of music written for the Carillon of Loughborough. Kept in a tower 153 metres high, the carillon is an instrument that consists of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. A carillon is played by striking a keyboard the keys of which are sometimes called "batons" with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the bells, allowing the performer, the carillonneur, to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.

Viva megalomania.

Laid To Rest

I am currently composing music for the next visual colossus by Serena Korda. It's sounding a bit like the Omen.

The band will be as follows:

Daniel O'Sullivan: Piano & Voice
Alex Ward: Clarinet
Chloe Herington: Bassoon
Matthew Parry: Trombone
Steve Noble: Percussion
Katharine Blake: Voice
Bev Lee Harling: Voice
Esther Dee: Voice
Sarah Kayte Foster: Voice
Melpomeni Kermanidou: Voice

Korda's work is inspired by the commercialisation of waste in Victorian London, in particular the vast dust heaps which dominated the skylines at the top of Gray’s Inn Road.  Immortalised by Charles Dickens in 'Our Mutual Friend', the dust heaps supported a wide range of industries including the making of bricks.  Mud from the brick fields of Somers Town was mixed with the ash, cinders and rubbish from the dust heaps, recycling the discarded detritus and dirt of London into the material from which the expanding city was built.

The piece has been commissioned by the Wellcome Collection and is entitled "Laid To Rest". Serena has been collecting dust from various sources (from the organ at the Royal Albert Hall to Neapolitan catacombs). The dust is then poured into a clay mixture and fired into bricks, each brick is independently letter-pressed with a number and place of origin. The bricks will be the centre of a live ritual involving musick (courtesy of yours truly) and dance. There will be two performances at the Wellcome Collection (dates to be published soon) and a funeral procession through London concluding in the burial of these 500 bricks in Regents Park.

Serena's blog is here.

A miscellaneous list of contents:

Cow fur cuttings
Cheddar from Iceland
Moon dust
Two Ladybirds
Bobby hair grip
Almost like soot
Old leather
Petals
Matchstick used ends that smell nice
Red carpet fibers
Fly carcass
Persian wool, (from Shiraz)
Saw dust made by children cutting wood to make moving toys
Lace wings
Spiders
Bone
Orangutan hair
Anaconda skeleton
Flakes of bone
Bent rusty nail
Daddy long legs and cobwebs
Fluff
Biscotti crumbs
Cinema ticket
Coffee grinds
Decaying titles to slides
Rose petals from Cinderella
Twiglets
Perspex
Cake crumbs
Human remains from the Fontanelle Cemetery
Whippet hair
Pickled skin
Nostril trimmings
Astroturf
Jigsaw pieces
Finger nails
Paperclip
Gold Dust
Tailors chalk
Dust Bunny
Pigeon faeces
4500 upholstered chairs
Fake nails
Bits of ribbon
Leaves
Iron filings
Woofle dust
Gorilla
Tiger