WOMB

THE LEGENDARY ALBUM BY STEVE PARRY AND COLIN POTTER. RECORDED IN 1981 AND RELEASED IN PHYSICAL FORMAT /LTD EDITION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MARCH 2024

STEVE PARRY + COLIN POTTER

WOMB

Credits:

Recorded: (1981) at Integrated Circuit Studio,  Sutton–on-the-Forest, York & Wern Studio, York.

Field recordings (1981) by Steve Parry on a Sony portable cassette tape recorder. 

• Engineered by: Colin Potter

• All Instruments / sounds – Steve Parry & Colin Potter 

• Produced by Steve Parry & Colin Potter

Notes: Instruments/devices used in the recording included; saw, plastic bucket and plastic tube, water, alarm clock, cotton rags, metal bars, electric drill, drum machine, bongo drums,  analogue synth & sequencer, field recordings, electric, acoustic & bass guitars, flute, keyboards, found sounds, comb &  voice.

All tracks mastered by Colin Potter at ICR, London 2021

Artwork concept: Jason B.Bernard & Steve Parry

Design: Oleg Galay 

© Hwyl Records / ICR

Peripheral Minimal Records 2023.

PM34

p 2023

A History of the Recordings

STEVE PARRY

Steve Parry:- “In 1981 I moved north to York having spent the latter part of the 1970s living in South London. During the time I worked with the likes of Post-Punk bands Matt Johnson/TheThe and Neu Electrikk. Neu Electrikk released two independent 45’s and contributed to The Some Bizzare Album. An album was recorded but not released. Neu Electrikk continued to be a fractious affair, ultimately the band self-combusted and went their separate ways. I had over the years created experimental sounds on an old reel to reel tape recorder – avant-garde, musique concrète – sounds of automata, damaged audiotape, noise, nature, everyday objects, the tape would be edited, looped, layered, played at various speeds. I built various stringed devices and developed a non-standard guitar technique that made use of prepared guitar (e.g. putting a nail file and screws on the strings, playing the guitar with pliers, meat skewers, nail files and a dinner fork) the key features being unconventional tunings, timbres, drone, distortion and noise – often  treating the guitar purely as a sound source rather than a musical instrument. In addition I developed a stringed musical instrument essentially based on the violin which is further linked to a series of effects pedals. The sounds are generally described as experimental / avant-garde music. Around this time I would visit Red Rhino, a local independent record store started by Tony Kostrzewa aka Tony K. Tony gave me the contact details of Colin Potter who had a small recording studio at his home in Sutton-on-the-Forest, north of York. The recording sessions for Womb took place sporadically over a period of a few months. I would enter the studio armed with all manner of traditional instruments and devices including; guitar, flute, Drum machine, home-built glockenspiel, bongo drums, a saw, drill, hammer, bucket, an alarm clock, Casio organ, metal bars, length of hose pipe etc. plus home recordings I’d made of birds and other sounds recorded on a portable cassette player – During this time Colin and I also recorded two tracks “Ssroi’asitjk” and “Later That Same Night” for what was to become Colin s album “The Where House” originally released on cassette in 1981. Womb remained unreleased other than a few cassette tapes given to friends. In 2014 I re-discovered the album master tapes while having a house clear-out. The Ampex 406 master tapes were severely damaged due to natural deterioration, the original tape had to undergo a time-consuming restoration process. Thankfully the project was salvageable and the music was transferred to digital. I must admit listening now to these recordings I am reminded of the creative surge and ebullient enthusiasm for making the music. It was indeed an exciting time. Since 1998 Steve Parry has recorded numerous projects as Hwyl Nofio.

Steve Parry. York 2021 

COLIN POTTER

ColIn Potter:- Back in the early 80s I had built a small studio in an outbuilding at my house in a village just north of the city of York. It was pretty basic, just one room with 4 & 2 track tape machines, a small mixer & a few basic effects units. There was also a Korg MS20 synth & SQ10 sequencer, a crude drum machine, a Casio keyboard & various guitars & microphones. Most of the work I did involved relatively conventional music, whereas I was more interested in something more unconventional. So I was very happy when Steve contacted me & asked if I would be interested in collaborating on an ‘experimental’ project. Over a number of sessions we tried all sorts of odd instrument combinations, sound sources & treatments. As it’s so long ago, my memory is a little hazy, but I think it’s fair to say that improvisation was an important element. I clearly remember that we had a lot of fun. When it was mixed, I don’t think either of us knew what to do with it, as it was unlike any other music that was around at that time. So it languished….

Due to various house moves, Steve & I lost touch & I eventually moved away from Yorkshire, my favourite part of the world. A few years ago, on a short holiday in York I wandered into a pub that I’d never visited before & there was Steve, who I hadn’t seen for around 20 years. Full circle. We decided that the lost album should be released & Steve had the original ¼’’ tapes baked & I’ve now remastered the original recordings. Listening to it was a strange experience. Many times I had to try to remember what some of the strange sounds were, or why we did this or that. The sound of convention & caution being thrown to the wind.

I’m glad we did it & I hope you like it.

Colin Potter, London 2021

WOMB is available from the following outlets:-

ICR Distribution

https://icrdistribution.com/

Peripheral Minimal Records  

https://www.peripheralminima

Hwyl Nofio - Dark (Book edition Autumn 2012)

 

 

DARK - Hwyl Nofio (Book edition Autumn 2012)



Hwyl Nofio - Dark - Anti-Clock

I have always admired people who think outside the box; mavericks who take risks as a matter of necessity, not journeymen purely playing by the rules.

I recall with great joy discovering the philosophy and music of John Cage, the photography of Man Ray, the painting of Salvador Dali who embraced the science of painting as a way to study the psyche through subconscious images.  I appreciate the disturbing twisted images of the soul created by Francis Bacon.  I find the same zest for the unknown in the Yorkshire born improvisational guitarist Derek Bailey who creates an abstract language all of its own making.  

I am an admirer of Surrealism and other forms of abstract art. The cinema, Luis Buñuel, especially his early films made with Salvador Dali: Un chien andalou (1928), with a perpetually shocking opening shot of the eye being sliced by a razor, and L'Âge d'or (1929), a sacrilegious mix of quasi-scientific documentary, psychoanalytic symbolism and eye-catching visual imagery. In 1929 Man Ray created Le Mystère du château de dés with Duchamp and L'Étoile de mer, centred on a poem by Desnos, relying on improvisation to produce a kind of ‘automatic cinema’.

Some people have even suggested that the basic rhetoric of cinema is Surrealist in essence. I stumbled upon the work of Jane Arden by accident really. Intrigued by the abstract/experimental nature of her films and the fact we both originate from the same town – I wanted to learn more. Jane Arden (née Norah Patricia Morris) was born at 47 Twmpath Road, Pontypool in 1927. Jane Arden was an actress, author, filmmaker and poet whose screenwriting and directorial work of the late 60s and 70s explored themes of social isolation and ‘madness’, sexual politics and radical feminism. The films Arden wrote and directed with director-producer Jack Bond (Dali in New York, It Couldn’t Happen Here) are  a unique and unclassifiable body of work, ranging from Separation’s counter-cultural splendour of swinging 60s London to Anti-Clock’s boundary-pushing psycho-exploration. The 1966 documentary Dalí in New York chiefly consists of the renowned surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and Arden walking the streets of New York discussing Dali’s work. This film was resurrected and shown at the 2007 Tate Gallery Dalí exhibition.

For her last film, ‘Anti-Clock’ (1979) Arden also wrote and performed the soundtrack. Anti-Clock is a complex and fascinating experimental exploration of time and identity. ‘Anti-Clock remains a film of genuine, startling originality utilising both cinema and video techniques, Arden and Bond create a movie that captures the anxiety and sense of danger that has subverted the consciousness of so many people throughout western society. ‘Anti-Clock ‘engages its audience by being mysterious, disturbing, fascinating and exhilarating.

Throughout her life Arden remained interested in other cultures and faiths which in turn took the form of a personal spiritual quest. Jane Arden was clearly an adventurous, complex artist who frequently tackled very challenging subject matter in variable forms of media.

The extraordinary career of British film-director, screenwriter, playwright and actor Jane Arden came to an abrupt end when she committed suicide on Dec. 20, 1982 in North Yorkshire. She was buried in Darlington West Cemetery.  In 2011 her remains were exhumed and moved by her family to Highgate Cemetery in London. Jane Arden remains a unique figure in British post-war culture.

The Hwyl Nofio composition ‘Anti Clock’ as featured on the forthcoming album ‘Dark’ is my tribute to her.