Simon Fisher Turner surveys his lengthy career on 'Under the Arches', deconstructing his soundtrack to Derek Jarman's 'Blue', reworking DJ Sprinkles' remix of 'Shishapangma' and digging up touching personal remnants.
There's an intimate quality to this performance that immediately draws you in. It was captured last year at Spanners in London, as 'Blue Now' - a series of events celebrating Derek Jarman's enduring masterpiece 'Blue - drew to a close. Turner used the opportunity not just to revisit his 1993 soundtrack, but to consider the sights and sounds that have changed his perception over the years. Of course, it's not just a playback of familiar elements - on 'Bluenow1, Out-Of-Tune Piano, St. Mary's Hospital Basement, Electriksnippets', he interfaces with the philosophy of 'Blue', collaging field recordings and electro-acoustic segments in much the same way as he did back in 1993. Monastic voices blur into tense, minimal glitches and chilling underwater ambience, and Turner's piano is charmingly matched with chattering hospital recordings that flicker in-and-out of view, assisted by noisy, stuttering edits.
'Bluenow2, Virus, Hurricane Bomber' hovers around a single synth drone that builds in intensity before crossfading into a private recording of Jarman reading from 'White Lies'. It's at this point where Turner's gentle nostalgia is fully centered; not self-consciously melancholy, it's a touching memorial that leaves a real lump in the throat. And Turner follows it with an even more heartfelt moment, extracting a recording of his brother James rehearsing on the organ at a church in Great Rissington to prepare for their father's funeral. Pitch-altering the sounds as they develop and folding in a spoken word section from Bertrand Russell, Turner seems to meditate on the concept of memory itself. It only makes the sort final piece, a cacophonous, digitally mangled live remix of Terre Thaemlitz's 2016 remix of 'Shishapangma', a track from Jarman's 'The Epic of Everest' OST, even more startling, and more resonant.
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- Format: Vinyl
- Released: 2025
- Genre: Electronic, Classical
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Track Listing:
A1 Bluenow1, Out-Of-Tune Piano, St Mary's Hospital Basement, Electriksnippets 8:23
A2 Bluenow2, Virus, Hurricane Bomber 9:29
A3 Derek Jarman Reads White Lies 4:11
B1 Brother James Plays J.S. Bach's Erbarm Dich Mein, O Herre Gott On The Great Rissington Organ, Bertrand Russell Gives Sound Advice 3:11
B2 Brother James Plays J.S. Bach's Erbarm dich mein, o Herre Gott on the Great Rissington Organ 6:49
B3 Electriksnippets 2:32
B4 Terre Thaemlitz's Remix Of Shishapangma, Remixed By Simon Fisher Turner