Erland Cooper releases album ‘Sule Skerry’

It follows up last year’s solo debut album, Solan Goose, and is the second in a triptych inspired by his childhood home, Orkney – although COoper already has five full-length recordings under his belt, under the monikers of The Magnetic North, and Erland and the Carnival.

Where the first instalment celebrated the air, the new, nine-track effort looks to the North Sea for inspiration. (Next up, we’re advised is the land…)

Among the local myths and stories covered are the Selkie, a creature who assumes the form of a seal in the water and a woman on the land, brought to life by voices recorded on the island. Cooper returned to Orkney to capture his own field recordings and interviews within the community, and also to record impulse responses – recordings of the reverberations of real spaces, from beneath the lifeboat pier, to his local town hall and inside a Neolithic cairn.

The album was completed, using these “sonic postcards”, at his studio in London.

“I like to take almost an etching of the landscape away with me in my books, boxes, digital and analogue machines,” says Cooper. “When you listen to something out of context, that’s when you learn exactly what to keep and what to discard.”

‘Sule Skerry’ features several collaborations – Kathryn Joseph contribute a spoken word narrative, using poetry written for the album by Will Burns, while also on the record are Kris Drever, Benge, Hiroshi Ebina, Astra Forward, and Leo Abrahams.

Available on on recycled vinyl, CD and download via Phases, the album was mixed with Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers, SOAK) in Donegal.

More at www.erlandcooper.com.