Requiem Maternus

Running Time: 7:22

Released On: "Two Halves (Volume 9)" - Various Artists (14 tracks)

Label: Charlie Dog Records

Release Date: 15th July 2023

Format: Download

Buy Link: Bandcamp

For my birth mother, Sally Chennelle, 1942 - 2023

This one really wasn't planned, as I guess is quite obvious from the title. When {AN} Eel announced another volume of his Two Halves collaboration compilation series a few months back, we were naturally keen to get our name in the hat. Normally, Mr. Eel would allocate partners randomly, you could end up doing a track with virtually anybody, so it was kind of interesting, drew you out of your comfort zone, as it were. First time out on Volume 7, we got paired with French underground legend M. Nomized, with whom we produced Du Ciel À La Terre; second time we participated, Volume 8, we got young Canadian improvisational percussionist, Emjay Wright, aka GMPSCKT, with whom we did Duelling Fanjos; and on the most recent, we were teamed up with prolific Greek electro-experimentalist, Mean Flow, producing Εννέα Πυλώνες Σοφίας (Nine Pillars Of Wisdom), though that volume of Two Halves was cancelled and it ended up on the Anniversary compilation of Mr. Eel's other label, Bromtol Largesse. This time, Mr. Eel changed the rules, allowing you to pick your own partner, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for myself and El Zombie Espacial to finally do the track together that seemed to have been floating around the ether for the best part of a year.

Circa the end of May, this glorious selection of stems arrives from Buenos Aires; some great electronic sounds topped with some excellent percussion, almost a kind of avant garde jazz feel, I was really looking forward to seeing what I could add to it and just hoped I could do it justice. Ten days later, my birth mother died. Suddenly, any attempt at doing something upbeat just wasn't coming together. Thus I offer my eternal gratitude to Sr. Espacial for his patience, and for giving me the exceptional latitude to find the darkness in his sounds and create this more sombre realisation of my feelings from them, must be a very long way from what he imagined. His tolerance and kind words will not be forgotten.

TAKING THE PISS