JAMES BREWSTER

'Crumbling spires / The great dominions' (free download single)

Make Mine Music (MMM069)

Release: Monday 7th February 2011

2 tracks : 7:59

Available from Bandcamp as MP3, FLAC, etc.

This single is a companion release to James Brewster's fourth album 'As a hovering insect mass breaks your fall' (also on Make Mine Music). It consists of a reworked version of 'Crumbling spires' from the album, plus a cover of 'The great dominions' by The Teardrop Explodes (from their second album 'Wilder').

'Crumbling spires' features vocals from fellow Malmö-based Englishman Daniel Goody (of the band Steel Island) as well as spoken passages from James himself. However this new reworking of the track also incorporates an excerpt of the W. H. Auden poem 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats', read by regular collaborator Falko Teichmann (Berlin-based promoter, DJ and founder of the legendary Goldmund Festival). This reading is taken from the recording of a gig at HBC in Berlin in December 2010, where James performed together with Daniel and Falko. The latter chose this Auden poem as his contribution to the performance, inspiring the eventual inclusion of a verse in this reworking of 'Crumbling spires'.

While James himself takes on the main vocals of 'The great dominions', the track is elevated by contributions from Swedish singer Lotta Allard. The track opens with her naked vocal tones, which are then are digitally fragmented and swathed in a wall of surging noise, before the main body of the song bursts through all at once with the opening line "Suddenly, I came to my senses…". Elsewhere, the song is seamlessly interwoven with field recordings and rich processed layers.

The artwork for the single is a photograph by Cecilia Ek