Scottish composer Erland Cooper has shared his new album ‘Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence’ in full.
The album has a unique back story, stretching back over a lengthy period of time. The material for ‘Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence’ was actually written some three years ago, with Erland working alongside chamber string group Studio Collective and violinist Daniel Pioro.
Finishing the album, he then deleted all digital recordings, retaining but one ¼ inch magnetic tape – which he then ‘planted’ deep into the ground, with the sheet music, near Erland’s childhood home in Orkney.
Eventually recovered by intrigued fans, the results were then mastered – all while retaining the impact of the weather, the tide, and the Orcadian winds.
It’s part of an ongoing vein in Erland Cooper’s work, allowing his imagination to intersect with the world around us.
“For me, my music, and certainly the field I’m ploughing, it’s really just a celebration of the natural world,” he told CLASH last year. “I ask myself, what are the other elements to help tell the story? Whether it’s collaborating with the soil, the air, the sea, the land… or making a sculpture and standing beside it for 16 hours until it melts. There’s a poetic narrative, of course, and it’s kind of like a slow protest.”
Out now, the full album incorporates a myriad of themes and ideas, and represents some of Erland’s fullest work to date.
Listen to it now.
