TRACKLISTING :
1. Brook Rotation
2. Nightshift
3. Onirique
4. It’s Been Raining Here All Day
5. The Lonely Sea
6. Flight Arches
7. Some Sort Of Magic
8. Azadeh
9. The Moon On A String
10. Anhedonia
11. Communiqué
Statues In Fog, at least in name, made their debut back in 2020, on ‘Avenue With Trees – A Second Language Cornucopia,’ a multi-artist compilation evoking a very particular European, Kodak romanticism, those familiar with the likes of Les Disques du Crépuscule and él Records might recognise. Always intended to be a loose, informal studio-centric project, as opposed to a band, Statues In Fog, acted as an art therapy drop-in centre, in which Second Language clientry and its associative artists, might while away a few constructive hours.
Curated and produced by label founder, Glen Johnson, the recordings you have here, some conceived over a decade ago but only recently matured, might be admired as electro-acoustic tapestries or perhaps even pastoral vignettes. Drum-machines and synthesizers thread seamlessly with violins, pedal steel, guitars, flutes, piano, melodica, cello, field recordings and voice. As Johnson explains, “I was attempting to create a sort of pastoral plasticity if you like…A synthetic, utopian landscape you’re more likely to encounter in a dream than in reality.”
Johnson’s accomplices in these flights of fancy include Sarah Kemp, violinist with The Declining Winter, Lanterns On The Lake, Brave Timbers and Katie English, flautist/cellist who, as the prolific Isnaj Dui, occupies a space somewhere between neo-impressionism and electronica. David Rothon, musician, composer, Clay Pipe Music recording artist, moonlights on pedal steel, bass and Omnichord. Rothon’s creative partner in the newly-formed Out Of The Valley Fogs, Hilary Robinson, adds a bit of everything – violin, voice, melodica, ukelele – to the mix. Cédric Pin, the French isolationist/industrialist, a frequent collaborator of Johnson’s and fellow former Piano Magic member, contributes stately synths and Francesca La Nave, a London-based, Italian poet, narrates the graceful soaring of gulls. North London ambient musicians, Jonathan S Griff and Aye! lay down the rhythmic foundation of ‘Flight Arches,’ on keyboards and bass, respectively.
This very particular mélange is arrived at more by instinct than composition, each player recording their parts in isolation and then passing them on to Johnson, who threads them into the patchwork. “I became fascinated by the American artist/film-maker, Joseph Cornell, who never left New York City in his lifetime but through his art, travelled the world…Statues In Fog, for me, is a sort of Cornell-esque travelogue of imaginary places and experiences.”
Statues In Fog comes in an audio cassette tape format, designed by Maria Makripoulias and was mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw. This is SL051c.
Buy/listen/stream ‘Statues In Fog’ from the official Second Language Bandcamp page.
