PIANO MAGIC - Son De Mar/Writers Without Homes

07'02

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PIANO MAGIC
Writers Without Homes
(MAD2209CD) 4AD 2002
11 Tracks. 65mins46secs.
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After six years, Piano Magic finally reach their spiritual home. Proud offspring of Ivo Watt-Russels’s seminal This Mortal Coil, Glen Johnson and his magic orchestra have now been signed to 4AD. Currently, Piano Magic are Johnson, Alasdair Steer, Miguel Martin and Jerome Tcherneyan, with extra contributions from Paul Anderson from Tram, Tarwater, Czars John Grant, ex-Cocteau Twins Simon Raymond and a multitude of others, intervening at different stages of this sixth Piano Magic studio album. Adopting a multi-dimensional form, the only permanent member of the band is actually London-based Glen Jonhson.
If the four central members of Piano Magic all played a role in the writing and performing on this record, things were done on a very informal way, not always all contributing to every single track, giving Writers Without Homes a very fluid and diverse feel. The album opens with (Music Won’t Save You From Anything But) Silence, an almost parodic take on gothic rock, embodying the 4AD sound of the early years, giving a sense of the underlying sense of humour hidden behind some of the compositions presented here. The rest of the album demonstrates a more subdued and delicate approach though, with the poetic Postal being much more in line with things to come. The subtle touch of downhearted romanticism of Suzy Mangion’s singing, almost adopting a type-like style to tell the tale of a temporary postal worker, layered over a toy piano is one of the most interesting moments here. Elsewhere, Czar singer John Grant evokes the melancholic pop of the Divine Comedy, with the full Piano Magic orchestra augmented with Simon Raymonde on piano, while long-retired sixties folk chanteuse Vashti Bunyan graces the beautiful Crown Of The Lost with her first recording for thirty years, and Suzy Mangion and Paul Anderson come close to revive the ghost of This Mortal Coil with the pure and brief It’s The Same Dream That Lasts All Night and the darker Already Ghosts respectively, the later also featuring a guest appearance by Spanish film director Bigas Luna, for whom Jonhson scored the music for his movie Son De Mar. The album concludes on the sombre and evocative Shot Through The Fog, featuring once again Simon Raymonde on piano and regular Piano Magic collaborator Caroline Potter.
For this first proper album recorded for 4AD, Piano Magic present a diverse and intelligent series of gloomy songs supported by subtle arrangements. The band however sticks to the image of the label a bit too much, slightly loosing focus on the personality of their music. Writers Without Homes remain a captivating record that deserves to be heard and appreciated.

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TRACK LISTING

01	(Music Won't Save You From Anything But) Silence	07	Certainty
02	Postal	08	Crown Of The Lost
03	It's The Same Dream That Lasts All Night	09	Dutch Housing
04	Modern Jupiter	10	Already Ghosts
05	1.30	11	Shot Through The Fog
06	The Season Is Long

10'01

PIANO MAGIC
Son De Mar
(MAD2105CD) 4AD 2001
06 Tracks. 37mins44secs.
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Started in London in the summer of 1996 by Glen Johnson and Dick Rance, and inspired by the revolving door policy of bands such as This Mortal Coil or The 6ths, allowing members to come and go as they wish, Piano Magic has known countless incarnations. Since its formation, over thirty members have contributed to the various Piano Magic releases, amongst whom Pete Astor (The Wisdom Of Harry) and Darren Haynes (Hefner). Glen Johnson remains the only guardian of the temple, and the main creative mind behind the band.
When Spanish film director Bigas Luna heard a track from Piano Magic’s 1998 album Low Birth Weight in a record store in Barcelona, he decided to ask Johnson to compose the soundtrack for his latest movie, Son De Mar. Meaning ‘The Sound Of The Sea’ or ‘Born Of The Sea’, the film is a story of love tainted of eroticism and deceit, which was received rather well when presented at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The soundtrack, the first Piano Magic release for 4AD, is a short collection of six untitled tracks. Dense and atmospheric, the compositions are beautiful, restrained, and undisturbed by any vocal incursions. Using electronics wisely, Piano Magic also rely on languorous guitars and striking strings to capture the artistic license of Luna’s movie. It is difficult to isolate one particular moment as each track contributes to the distinctive ambience of this record. There are notions of time passing, with church bells and clocks making up asymmetric rhythmic structures; of seasons changing, going from a warm summer evening on track two, to a cold and damp November day on track four. The only recurrence here being the sound of the sea, which creeps in a little too often, becoming by the end a worn out cliché. This soundtrack is, however, evocative in its own right, and works beautifully without the pictures it was composed to support.
Johnson and his band have created, with Son De Mar, a beautiful, emotional, piece of ambient work, encapsulating the true essence of Bigas Luna’s aesthetic, without negating their own imagery. Son De Mar is a captivating record by all means.

TRACK LISTING

01	Son De Mar Part 1	04	Son De Mar Part 4
02	Son De Mar Part 2	05	Son De Mar Part 5
03	Son De Mar Part 3	06	Son De Mar Part 6

ALSO CHECK

POPULAR MECHANICS Che 1997 Buy it on line now _	Metal Coffee Wintersport / Cross-Country Everything Works Beautifully Untitled Amongst Russian Lathes And Metal Curls Birth Of An Object Revolving Moth Cage To Be Swished / Dream Of The UPS Driver Freckled Robot Soft Magnets Wrong French You've Lost Your Footing In This World _
LOW BIRTH WEIGHT Rocket Girl Records 1998 Buy it on line now _	Snowfall Soon Crown Estate Bad Patient The Fun Of The Century Birdy Machine Not Fair Dark Secrets Look For Light Snow Drums Shepherds Are Needed I Am the Sub-Libarian Waking Up _
A TRICK OF THE SEA Darla Records 1999 Buy it on line now _	A Trick Of The Sea Halloween Boat _
ARTISTS RIFLES Rocket Girl Records 2001 Buy it on line now _	(1.16) No Closure A Return To The Sea (1.22) You & John Are Birds The Index (1.50) Century Schoolbook Pasword Artists' Rifles _
SON DE MAR 4AD 2001 Buy it on line now _	Son De Mar Part 1 Son De Mar Part 2 Son De Mar Part 3 Son De Mar Part 4 Son De Mar Part 5 Son De Mar Part 6 _
SEASONALLY AFFECTIVE 1996-2000 Rocket Girl 2001 Buy it on line now _	Wrong French Non-fiction General Electric With Fairy Lights Wintersport/Cross Country Angel Pie/Magic Tree Magnetic North For Engineers A For Engineers AA The Fun Of The Century The Sharpest Knife In The Drawer Industrial Cutie I Am The Sub-Librarian Music for Rolex Music For Annahbird Music For Wasps Me At 19 How Does It Feel? French Mittens The Biggest Lie Amongst The Books, An Angel C’est Un Mauvais Presage Lorsque Ton Aureole A Tombe There’s No Need For Us To Be Alone The Canadian Brought Us Snow Sketch for Joanne My Password Is A Dead Aunt’s Name _
WRITERS WITHOUT HOMES 4AD 2002 Buy it on line now	(Music Won't Save You From Anything But) Silence Postal It's The Same Dream That Lasts All Night Modern Jupiter 1.30 The Season Is Long Certainty Crown Of The Lost Dutch Housing Already Ghosts Shot Through The Fog

THE SURFER'S GUIDE TO PIANO MAGIC

PIANO MAGIC
The Piano Magic site is a curiously designed mine of information about the band, including an almost exhaustive biography

4AD
The legendary label of the eighties has survived well. More active than ever, the label also knows who its best artists from the past are.

ROCKET GIRL RECORDS
Rocket Girl has released a few Piano Magic albums and singles, and is also home to a host of more or less well known bands and atists.