Describing their sound as landscape pop, Modern Studies utilise “analogue synths, cello, double bass, drums, guitars, a wine-glass orchestra and, at the creaking centre of things, a Victorian pedal harmonium.” This harmonium proves to be paramount for the band, a source of influence not just musically but also aesthetically, the instrument’s storied history and mysterious air diffusing into the songs at a subconscious level. And its not hard to see why. Take, for example, the bands description of this antique:

“Slowly but surely the harmonium gives up its provenance. Cigarette cards of moustachioed soldiers tucked between the keys, a Miss Havisham drape of cobwebs, a selection of foxed and edgeworn song-sheets, and a short hand-written history of a short life.”

Working at Pumpkinfield (Harvey’s studio in rural Perthshire) and developing songs from Scott inspired “largely from the salt and spray of the sea”, the band produced a debut album, Swell to Great, which is being released on Song, by Toad Records.

While we have to wait until September for the full record, the band have unveiled the first single, ‘Father is a Craftsman’. The song fuses the nostalgia of classic folk with sweet and sunny pop melodies all imbued with a sense of narrative and history. I like to think this is a subconscious result of the harmonium, it’s past haunting the songs by it mere presence.

“Father is a craftsman from a long long line
mother swims in the winter time
brother oh my brother is faraway”

Swell to Great is due on the 12th of September and you can pre-order it now via Song, By Toad Records. You can also check out two other tracks from the album there too.

Photo credit: Jannica Honey

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Tracklisting:

1. I Don’t Know – Tina Refnes (+ Lit Links)
2. If I Were a Portal – Evening Hymns
3. Cradle Robber – Tyler Butler and His Handsome Friends
4. Calvander – Mount Moriah
5. The Way It Is, The Way It Could Be – The Weather Station
6. Porch – Long Beard
7. Small Wind Power – Fraternal Twin
8. Mourning Dove – Danielle Fricke
9. 3 – Cat Be Damned
10. Cold Apartment Floors – Vagabon
11. I Used To Be A Bird – Fairweather Currents
12. Drive-Thru – Honeyuck
13. Ghosts – The Washboard Abs
14. Litany – Tyler Key
15. Aviator Shades – Quiet Hollers
16. Book of Right On (Joanna Newsom cover) – Foxtails Brigade (Lit Links)
17. Judy Blume – Mal Devisa
18. So Long – Dot & Logic
19. A Swift Thing – EP
20. Stuck w/ Me – Home Lives
21. Close Call (Adderall Anxiety) – Shaky Shrines
22. Boys – Dicktations
23. Nothing – Strange Friends
24. Careful Creators – Summering
25. Blinding White – Vapour Night
26. Pull – Slow Dancing Society (Hidden Shoal compilation)
27. Calmest – Naps
28. As He Walked Into the Field – Robert Stillman
29. Church Bells – Tommy Perman, Simon Kirby & Rob St. John
30. Seven – Oh, Rose
    31. No Hell – Cloud Cult

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Described as an “LP vinyl set of music, art prints, essays and tide table”, Concrete Antenna sees the artists produce a substantial body of work inspired by their sound installation in the new tower at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop. Full of warm drones, the album is a neo-classical exploration of the environment, using field recordings from the local area and archival sound samples dressed with gentle electronics and minimalist piano. Think somewhere between Lejsovka & Freund and Benjamin Shaw. The result is something rich and evocative, packed with the slow, geological melancholy conjured by time passing over a landscape.

Check out the short documentary on the project below:

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Any project that aims to reconcile art, science and nature will be a project that attempts to capture as big a picture as possible. Rob St. John (who we recently featured as part of Bastard Mountain) is doing just that. As part of the Fixing Broken Rivers project by Thames 21, he is working in and around the East London area, recording what he finds via photographs, field recordings and written word. He recently walked the length of the River Lea in East London, taking field recordings as he went. The result was a collection of clips that capture the life along the river: people chatting, boats passing, aeroplanes flying overhead as swans land in the water. We are probably pushing our remit as a music blog in writing about this, but it makes for an oddly entrancing listen.

Add in the photographs and you begin to get a comprehensive view of the area, my foretold ‘big picture.’ The recording of everyday things, of life, come alive and conjure a newfound sense of wonder in what would normally be considered mundane. Rob St. John proves there is value in the marriage of science and art, and there is no reason why these ideas can’t be taken further. If their are any super-wealthy philanthropists out there whose fortunes are burning a hole in their pockets, might I suggest some grant-based movement that expands on this form, global projects utilising sounds and music and photgraphs, film and literature and oral history? I’m first in line.

The final result will be released sometime in 2015 as sound, photography and writing. Keep an eye on the Rob St. John Twitter page for updates.

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Back in October 2012, Pennycook, Sullivan and St. John each provided three songs (both old and new), one to be sung by themselves, and one each for the other two to sing. They then wrote and recorded the music, and Farewell, Bastard Mountain was born. The collaborative and semi-improvised nature of the writing/recording process (along with the fact the majority of the record was recorded in a live setting, after only hours of rehearsal), lend a natural air to things. It shows what can be achieved when a group of talented artists and friends have even just a short period to create something.

As you might expect, fans of any of the bands mentioned are going to love this. It is packed full of the textured folk slash indie rock that these bands have made their own over the past several years. For me, Pennycook’s trademark vocals take centre stage, but perhaps that is because Meursault are my favourite band of the lot.

The vinyl has been pressed without breaks between tracks, so the entire album plays as one cohesive piece of music.

Farewell, Bastard Mountain is due for release on the 12th of May. You can pre-order it now via Song, By Toad Records. I highly suggest you do so.

There are also two album release shows, one at London’s Shhh! Festival on May the 24th, and another north of the border in Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on May the 29th.

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