Ian Williams: new album - Soundtracks For Weaving
- 48 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In 1986 Ian made a series of improvisations designed as a utilitarian aid for some tapestry student friends at Edinburgh Art College, hence the title, Soundtracks For Weaving. Obviously, this was wishful thinking and they carried on listening to Radio 1 while working, but he liked the music anyway, and kept it on a cassette to listen to.
He digitised it a few years ago and although it was just for his own personal listening, he thought it might be of interest to the wider world. There were some problems with the mixes, but thanks to technological advances and the fact that he found the original four-track cassette masters, he managed to have a crack at unmixing and re-assembling the tracks.
The instrumentation was very basic - a Roland SH-101 doing all the synth parts, with drums from a Roland TR-707, and a bit of guitar on a couple of pieces. He resisted the urge to add anything modern, and just mixed everything as simply as possible, so it still sounds like it is from 1986, only now it is properly finished.
At that time, he was in a band called Beautiful Pea Green Boat, and the first track here, 'The Vase', was actually used as the backing track for a BPGB song of the same name, which was released on a Third Mind Records compilation album called 'Future Tense' back in 1986. 'The Vase' was then re-worked on the BPGB album 'Get Religion', which is have included on the BPGB Bandcamp page: https://beautifulpeagreenboat.bandcamp.com
Tapestry by Clio Padovani
Photography by Harcourt de Bergerac and The Earl of Mothville
Design by Lionel Avignon at Hartland Villa