SL020 – Directorsound – I Hunt Alone/SL020x -Directorsound – Sins Of The Leopard Suite

TRACKLISTING :

1. Pan in Paradise
2. Serpent In The Jaws Of October
3. I Hunt Alone
4. Sun Dazed and Dancing
5. Daggers
6. Nocturne for Grace
7. La Strega E Lo Stolto
8. Turnal Cu Ceas

Directorsound is the recording and performance alias of Nicholas Palmer, last seen in a Second Language context as a member of The A. Lords, as a key multi-instrumentalist protagonist on Mark Fry’s I Lived in Trees opus (and a major constituent of Mark’s stellar live band).

‘I Hunt Alone’ is the first Directorsound longplayer on 2L (Nick has previously recorded for Domino/Geographic and Tona Serenad). It was recorded over an intense period during the summer of 2011 as an attempt to produce “a cohesive, narrative-driven folk horror symphony”; the sounds and tone of the album inspired by a holiday in Transylvania the previous year. Unused to being abroad without a suitcase full of instruments, Nick instead captured the sounds of the locality to later feed off and incorporate into the album. Thus, field recordings of a rattling train journey across the plains into the heart of Transylvania and the bells of several church towers in the walled citadel of Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, find their way into the music.

Recorded in the marginally less Gothic environs of Nick’s native Dorset (and partly in Mark Fry’s rural Normandy home), the album title refers not only to the folk-horror theme but also reflects upon the sense of aloneness Nick felt as a ‘one-man-band’ touring musician “on the road with my suitcase of accordion and bells. This is where the album was born.”

I Hunt Alone features an all acoustic instrument line up, including guitar, piano, accordion, harmonium, clarinet, trumpet, recorders, bouzouki, balalaika, banjo, ukulele, autoharp, bass, belldalabra, percussion/drums and a vast collection of bells collected from around the world. Guest musicians include Chris Cole of Third Eye Foundation, Matt Elliott’s ensemble and Many Fingers, and Ian Holford of the Nectarine no.9 and The Sexual Objects.

‘I Hunt Alone’ is number No.1 in the 2L Library Series – a highly collectible catalogue of hardback CD albums designed to be stored in your bookcase.
Art direction, photography, design by Martin Masai Andersen and Line Lunnemann Andersen of Andersen M Studio.

An accompanying bonus disc, ‘Sins Of The Leopard Suite’, (SL020x) was available only to Second Language subscribers with this release.

Buy/listen to ‘I Hunt Alone’ here

Nick Palmer (Directorsound) photo portrait by John Barrett.