Whether drawing from field recordings, found sound, instrumental improvisations or synthetic processes, Barley’s compositions evoke unfolding sound worlds, as simple ideas or motifs are layered and developed into complex set-pieces that reveal themselves over time.
Marionette showcases the breadth and variety of the Yorkshire-born artist’s sound, weaving together familiar and uncanny moods of rural England and its Victorian architecture, as suggested by the gated garden print of the album’s cover. Unfurling between physical textures – the patina of vinyl crackle or gentle rain – and the hyper-real spaces that his music inhabits, Barley describes the compositions as “landscape or static scene paintings,” with many of the album’s tracks taking nature’s rhythms as their compositional cue.
On ‘Seafarer’, this manifests in the repeated synth swells of a boat on rough waters, while title track ‘Marionette’ imagines an eerie scene, were shadows flicker by an open fire. Similarly, ‘Lake of Gold’ layers plucked strings at different scales and velocities to create what Barley calls the “rain-like quality” of the rhythm.
credits
released November 24, 2023
written, recorded, produced and mixed by Kirk Barley
Drums on tracks Lake Of Gold and The Night performed by Matt Davies
These are just beautiful short pieces by a painter and multi-instrumentalist from London, Realf Heygate. They are comprised of acoustic guitar, piano, and cello, along with some field recordings which draw the mind to eerie pastoral settings. Best listened through in their entirety, the only quarrel I have with this debut is that it is all too short. I hope that we won’t have to wait too long for the next one. Nickie Harte Kelly
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