Flotsam, by Richard Fay

Flotsam

by Richard Fay

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Ready for distribution from December 21st 2023.

Comes in an attractive sleeve designed by Sam Gee with an original artwork by Gabrielle Taylor as the cover.

Includes unlimited streaming of Flotsam via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Flotsam Cumulus (Brass) 01:35	info	buy track
2.	Rondo De Pomeleuc 02:38	info	buy track
3.	Yr Hen Lôn 03:27	info	buy track
4.	St Cecilia's Day 04:09	info	buy track
5.	Winter Wedding / Interesting Times 03:38	info	buy track
6.	Flotsam Cumulus (Wind) 01:41	info	buy track
7.	Reubenstein ‘The Magnificent’ 02:19	info	buy track
8.	New Century Stomp 04:54	info	buy track
9.	Croesi’r Swnt i Enlli 05:16	info	buy track
10.	Helix McGough (Revisited) 03:42	info	buy track
11.	Flotsam Cumulus (Strings) 02:05	info	buy track
12.	Equilibrium 02:31	info	buy track
13.	Bowling Along (bonus track) 02:49	info	buy track

about

On a summer’s day in the Rhodope mountains (Bulgaria) - on my back, half-dozing, half-gazing at the ocean above me, the wisps and curlicues of cloud in the blue expanse, elemental flotsam, paused in motion, set against the steady tick of life - here a tune came to me, largely-formed, easily-named: Flotsam Cumulus ... dedicated to my friend of many years and walking companion that day, Milena Katsarska.

Alongside some newer pieces, there are many older pieces in the flotsam of this album, tunes that came to me, and came to be, in a new century burst after life eased in the ‘00s. They share a mood, a palette, a frame, an ethos ... memories distilled through a contented eye. They may sometimes capture the shadows of loss, but, as viewed from here and now, they voice a deep contentment. I remember the birth of each piece: particular places, special people, isolated memories each paused, floating on waves of experience, musical regeneration of the transitory. Flotsam. Fixing memories musically is a habit of mine. Others compose for occasions, commissioned perhaps, or, they write for shows, the dramatic momentum shaping the sonic. I work from occasions, trying to note/notate the experience before it's swamped by the expanse of living.

Frustratingly, I’ve lost a few tunes over the years. These captured, seemingly unforgettably, a specific moment only for it to dissolve into the flow of subsequent moments, the name being all that’s left. But once a tune is established, and has been named and noted down, it’s as if it’d always been, something pre-existent.

We are shaped by what we experience, and my music bears traces of other musics, but not derivative, or appropriative I hope. It gives me pleasure that listeners often have favourites, but it used to niggle me when they’d comment, “This one reminds me of x”. Or y or z. The soundscape I wish to be idiomatic clearly reminds them of other soundworlds. But the ‘other’ which my tunes invoke is also without consensus. I have come to accept the flotsam for what it is: the musical bibs and bobs of those parts of my experience which I manage to remember. Where once I was shy about it, I am now reassured of its potential to touch diverse listeners.

credits

released December 20, 2023

Harry Bennett - euphonium, tenor horn
George Bingham - double bass, percussion
Hannah Bird - viola
Katherine Blumer - clarinet, bass clarinet
Hilary Dennis - cor anglais, oboe
Bob Dinn - flugelhorn, trumpet
Jacqueline Fay - cláirseach, viola
Richard Fay - baritone horn, button box
Pierre Flasse - trombone
Sam Gee - bassoon, saxes
John Gibson - recorders
Rohan Iyer - tuba
Maya Joliffe - fiddle
Idris Jones - fiddle
Mabon Jones - fiddle
Samuel Kane - fiddle, viola
Elana Kenyon-Gewirtz - fiddle
Jo MacMahon - clarinet
Caroline Morris - cello
Gary Motteram - mandola
Sheila Seal - electric bass
Imogen Trinder - alto sax, flute, piccolo
Ali Vennart - viola

Compositions/arrangements by Richard Fay (except Bowling Along, a collaboration with Sam Gee)

Recording, mixing, and mastering by Sam Gee
Graphic design by Sam Gee
Cover artwork by Gabrielle Taylor

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about

Richard Fay Manchester, UK

Manchester-based Richard Fay is a composer, ethno-musicologist, arranger, performer, and a producer (of shows including Amid the Mirk Over the Irk: When Klezmer Meets Irish). His works have been described as ‘ethno-classical’, a label capturing his melding of classical and traditional musical elements. He plays a variety of brass instruments and button accordion. ... more

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