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Limited LP : Army Green Coloured Vinyl. Includes DL
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Released in August 2019, Modern Nature’s debut album - How to Live - crossed the
urban and rural into each other. Plaintive cello strains melted into motorik beats.
Pastoral field recordings drifted through looping guitar figures. Rising melodies
shone with reflective saxophone accents, placing the record somewhere between the
subtle mediations of Talk Talk, the stirring folk of Anne Briggs and the atmospheric
waves of Harmonia.
The album was met with universal acclaim and featured in a number of publication’s
‘Best Of 2019’ lists. As the group took the album out on the road, Modern Nature
became something even more expansive. “It feels like there's scope and room to
grow. I want the group to feel fluid and that whoever's playing with us can express
themselves and interpret what they think this music is” says bandleader Jack Cooper.
Their new mini-album Annual , recorded in December 2019 at Gizzard Studio in
London, is another step towards something more liberated and a world away from
the sound of Jack Cooper's previous bands. Will Young sits this one out,
concentrating on his work with Beak, but How To Live collaborator Jeff Tobias takes a
more central role, alongside percussionist Jim Wallis.
Jack explains how 'Annual' came about:
“Towards the end of 2018, I began filling a new diary with words, observations from
walks, descriptions of events, thoughts...free associative streams of just... stuff.
Reading back, as the year progressed from winter to spring, the tone of the diary
seemed to change as well... optimism crept in, brightness and then things began to
dip as autumn approached... warmth, isolation again and into winter.”
"I split the diary into four seasons and used them as the template for the four main
songs. The shorter instrumental songs on the record are meant to signify specific
events and transitions from one season to the next. I figured it wouldn't be a very
long record, but to me it stands up next to 'How To Live' in every way.”
‘Annual’ opens with ‘Dawn’ which brings to mind the peace and space of Miles Davis'
‘In A Silent Way’; it rises from nothing like shoots reaching for the light. “I wanted
Dawn to feel like the moment you realise spring is coming, when you notice blossom
on the trees or nights getting lighter.”
On lead track ‘Flourish’, it's clear Modern Nature have moved on from the first
album; as muted percussion and double-bass stirs behind Cooper's Slint-like
ambling guitar; the chorus soars into a collaged crescendo. “Flourish is like when my
part of the world coming to life. I live on the edge of London between Leytonstone
and Epping Forest, so the signs of spring are very apparent round here - flowers,
light, people talking in their gardens.”
"Mayday started as an outro to Flourish or ‘Spring’ as it was titled originally. The idea
was a segueway into the summer section to represent the sort of collective
excitement a city gets once it realises summer is here."
The summer of Jack's diary inspired 'Halo'. “Wanstead Flats where I live, change a lot
in the summer; a haze descends on them instead of the spring mist and the city's
proximity is more apparent. Blue bags of empty cans and scorched grass from out of
control barbeques.” Arnulf Lindner on double-bass recalls the playing of Danny
Thompson with Jeff Tobias' wonderfully lyrical saxophone referencing Pharoah
Sanders.
On ‘Harvest’ Jack takes a backseat with Kayla Cohen of Itasca singing. “All these songs
are in the same key but the melody was above my range. I'd been playing the new
Itasca record all the time and just reached out. The economy with which she sings is
perfect.”
“The intention with the record was for it to feel like a circle, so Wynter reflects the
opening. I guess having to get up and flip the record destroys the illusion so it's a
rare occasion where listening with the ability to just loop the album into another
year is closer to our intention.”
‘Annual’ then acts both like a companion piece to the band’s ‘How To Live’ debut but
also a pointer to the paths ahead. Cooper has already started work on the next
album, his speed of output an indication of the excitement and creativity that
surrounds the project. Who will be involved and what the touchstones might be are
yet to be firmly established but then who would have it any other way with this most
Tracklist
2. Flourish
3. Mayday
4. Halo
5. Harvest
6. Ritual
7. Wynter
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