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Vespers / The Blackening

by Michael Tanner

supported by
Lars Gotrich
Lars Gotrich thumbnail
Lars Gotrich Michael Tanner captures the hushed awe of nature with spectral and organic sound — somewhere between Jeweled Antler and GY!BE. These tracks were mostly recorded and processed live in a graveyard during quarantine — autoharp, zither and harmonium sent through reverb and delay, communing with snapped twigs and chirping birds. www.vikingschoice.org/archive/japanese-metalcore-numbskull-arena-rock-chinese/ Favorite track: Vespers Pt. 2.
Teedubyabee
Teedubyabee thumbnail
Teedubyabee Try and pick a favourite at your peril. Spiritual, beatific, effortlessly entwined with nature, this is an absolute wonder. A perfect elegy (but I suppose we'll have to wait 20 odd years to see if there's a Bill Fay-esque rebirth...)
Gnome Hats
Gnome Hats thumbnail
Gnome Hats This album is amazing. Thanks for making it!
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 28 Michael Tanner/Plinth releases available on Bandcamp and save 45%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Vespers / The Blackening, The Ocean's Nerve (Jason Molina Cover), Sing The Reverberate Hills, Riverchrist EP, The Blackening, Michael Tanner and Alison Cotton, Suite for Psaltery and Dulcimer, The Sussex Workings Volume 3: Music For Three Hills, and 20 more. , and , .

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  • Limited edition cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    [SOLD OUT - try Norman Records, Monorail or World Of Echo]
    Two albums in one! C105 cassette in cardboard outer sleeve, 100 copies.

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

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  • Limited edition cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Second version with a different tape colour. Two albums in one - C105 cassette in cardboard outer sleeve, 100 copies.

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

    Sold Out

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about

Vespers and The Blackening are the latest, and final, two albums by musician Michael Tanner (AKA Plinth, The Cloisters, Thalassing and more). Vespers is a brand new work, recorded in 2020 but only just surfacing now, while the latter has previously only been available in digital form. Objects Forever are pleased to release them as a double set on tape.

“I made these recordings for Vespers due to the sheer inanity of lockdown - they arrived fully formed and unexpected, like all good improvisational pieces should be I guess. It’s a worn cliche, but they genuinely weren’t meant to be heard by the outside world. In fact, I sat on it a year so as to not get swept up in the deluge of lockdown albums that were already popping up left right and centre. As with any album I put out, if I still want to listen to it after a year then the chances are other people will too.

“Bar the church organ opening, the album was recorded entirely on a slab atop a family vault in the graveyard at the end of my street. Always at dusk, when the birds in the trees overhead were at their most animated. I’m not a big one for ‘studio trickery’ but this was my first experience with ping-pong delay - borne from the fact that I just really missed playing music with other people, and the call and response nature of it had a somewhat similar sensation; making a sound into the void and it having it bounce back at you, making you then react, think on your feet.

“You can hear twigs snapping below as I had to shift, mid-recording, as ants bit my ankles. It’s a snapshot of a few days in Spring: no agony, very little tweaking and probably the most honest thing I’ve recorded.

“The Blackening is a piece of music recorded between 2014 and 2016 in the UK and Italy, mostly as a duo with Alison Cotton. Overdubs were added by my friend and constant inspiration Lino Capra Vaccina in 2016.”

- Michael

credits

released July 1, 2022

Vespers:

Michael Tanner: autoharp
& harmonium, hurdy-gurdy, church organ, zither, gongs
with Alison Cotton: viola on Vespers Pt. 2

Improvised during the hour of dusk in St John Sub Castro graveyard, Lewes during May 2020
Viola overdubs recorded by Mark Nicholas
Mixed at Green Witch, Lewes

The Blackening:

Michael Tanner: accordion, strohviol, bowed zither
with Alison Cotton: viola & Lino Capra Vaccina: vibraphone

Recorded at Green Witch, Lewes 2014 and Elfo Studio, Piacenza 2016

P&C Michael Tanner 2022
Vespers image layout by Madeleine Welch
Design by Matt Ashton
OBJECT012

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about

Michael Tanner/Plinth Lewes, UK

Eschewing teeth, skin and expensive electrical equipment since 1977 - Plinth, The A.Lords, The Cloisters, Thalassing, Bible Student and other silly names.

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