Philip Corner

After a very long hiatus following various accidents, injuries and illnesses Quiet World is finally back in the game with our newest release by the incomparable Philip Corner.

'Gong/Ear:Natura' is a set of recordings dating from 1995 of Philip interacting with two locations (an orchard and a courtyard) with gong and assorted other less immediately identifiable sound sources (there's definitely a drink being slurped during 'Courtyard').

The recordings were made using a Sony Walkman and a Sennheiser microphone and so are quite noisy in places.  They've been cleaned up a little but we kept it light so as not to lose the spontaneity and the very nature of the recordings.

The album has been released on CDr and as a download and can be found here...

Phoebe, Rhodri, Philip, David, Ian, Jenn (photo by Daryl Feehely)

 Philip and his partner Phoebe Neville recently visited Swansea as part of Nawr at the Swansea International Festival and performed two concerts in the town. I was honoured to have been asked to perform with them at the first of these, 'Metal Meditations', alongside Rhodri Davies, Jenn Kirby and David Pitt.

When I first moved to Swansea in 1994 one of the first places I visited was The Mission Gallery and immediately fell in love with the place (in particular it's acoustics) so to finally get to play there - especially playing Philip's fabulous score on David's fantastic gong collection with five amazing musicians in front of an appreciative audience - was a dream come true and they were fantastic hosts.

We were hoping to have the new album available for the concert but a series of broken promises by the printers meant the discs didn't arrive in time.  Instead I spent the afternoon hand making copies of the album using blank discs, card and coloured cases that I had around the house; I managed to make 16 (8 purple and 8 blue) before my printer ran out of ink.  Each disc was signed by Philip with 6 being shared with the performers and the rest offered for sale.  We still have a few of the blue left - purple proved very popular - and these will be put up for sale at a future date

The second concert was at the Swansea Studios and featured a selection of Philip's works performed by the trio of Philip, Phoebe and Rhodri.  Each piece was wonderful but for me it was the physicality of opener 'Piano Movement' and the delicate and beautiful 'Petali Pianissimo' that stole the show.

Huge kudos must go to Rhodri for organising these concerts (and the other two in the series) and a massive thanks to Philip and Phoebe for making the journey.