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Artist: Erland Cooper
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Erland Cooper:

Carve the Runes, Then Be Content With Silence

Scottish composer Erland Cooper – who merges music with evocative storytelling and conceptual art – will hear the mastertape he buried in the earth three years ago for the very first time. The only recording of his new work, ‘Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence’, was left underground to be nurtured and manipulated by the soil with all digital copies permanently deleted. This totally unique album is now set for release on 20th September (in line with Autumn Equinox on 22nd Sep) on Mercury KX. Also announced today is a full UK and European tour, including London’s Barbican and Orkney’s prestigious St Magnus Festival.

Hailed as “Nature’s Songwriter” (Guardian), in May 2021 Erland “planted” the sole recording of the work (on ¼ inch magnetic tape, with digital files permanently deleted), along with the sheet music, near his childhood home in Orkney. In an unprecedented move Erland’s record label, Mercury KX/Decca, agreed to release the album that, instead of going to be mixed, was going under the ground. The Times stated, “In an act that is either admirable or insane, Decca Records has signed Cooper for an album it will have to wait three years to hear.” A date for the public reveal, at the Barbican, was also announced as the tape lay, as yet unheard, in the soil – a release plan never before seen in the record industry.

Erland Cooper himself explains, “It’s a meditation on value, process, patience and art. Any alterations to the sound and music, produced by the earth, will be reincorporated into the pages of the final score for live performance, as orchestral articulations. Then, the work is complete.”

The work is a brand new composition for solo violin and string ensemble. Over three movements (Movement 1: Carve The Runes / Movement 2 : Then Be Content / Movement 3: With Silence), it celebrates George Mackay Brown on his centenary, written 100 years since the Orcadian poet’s birth.

On burying the tape, Erland left a cryptic trail for anyone to search and find it if they so wish, issuing a map, with extra clues released every equinox and solstice. The tape was found in September 2022, and (literally) unearthed by 
Orkney residents Victoria and Dan Rhodes. They had planned a whole holiday around the unusual quest, described in the Daily Telegraph as “a mystery that had been vexing music fans.”

Since then, the tape – carefully set in a wood and glass cabinet along with the sheet music and a violin (placed just above the tape to protect it from any overzealous shovels) – has been drying out whilst on display in independent record shops across the country. Gradually making its way down from Scotland, its final destination (before going back to the studio) was the Barbican, where it was exhibited at the arts centre in all its soil-ridden glory. Also in the cabinet is the carved rune stone which was placed on top of the earth to mark the spot, and can now be seen on the album cover.

Erland Cooper:

Folded Landscapes

Radical Scottish composer Erland Cooper, who merges music with evocative storytelling and conceptual art, today announces his ambitious fourth studio album ‘Folded Landscapes’. Hailed as ‘nature’s songwriter’, for his work celebrating themes of the natural world, place, people and time, ‘Folded Landscapes’ pushes Cooper's connection to the environment even further into unchartered new realms.

‘Folded Landscapes’, to be released on 5th May on Mercury KX, sees Cooper work through the lens of urgent observations surrounding climate change creating a potent, experimental new work. In early 2022, Cooper began a collaboration with Scottish Ensemble, a collective of pioneering musicians crossing art forms, to champion music for strings. The announcement coincides with Erland’s European tour. Tickets for the show go pre-sale on the 1st March via erlandcooper.com.

Erland Cooper:

Music For Growing Flowers

Contemporary composer Erland Cooper, who frequently collaborates with natural elements, has been commissioned to create an original piece of music to soundtrack the floral transformation of The Tower of London. Entitled Superbloom, the forthcoming installation celebrates the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen this year.

The project, marking Her Majesty the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, is named after a rare and incredible natural phenomenon, where whole landscapes are miraculously transformed into sheets of vibrant flowers. A “superbloom” occurs only once every few decades, when favourable weather patterns coincide and activate dormant seeds. The forthcoming ‘designed’ Superbloom event will celebrate nature by turning one of London’s most built-up areas into a blossoming, living flower field. (Find more information about the Tower Superbloom event, linked here.)

Erland has been chosen to produce a gentle accompanying ambient soundscape for this urban garden, which will be played continuously through speakers, softening the noise of the city. Named ‘Music For Growing Flowers’, Erland’s original score provides the perfect backdrop to the 20 million newly-sown flowers which, planted in spring, will continuously evolve from June to September, changing colours and patterns throughout the summer. For the first time, a space dug and filled with water in the 13th century to keep people out of the Tower will, from June 2022, welcome visitors in, with Erland’s music completing the immersive experience. Erland Cooper explains, “’Music For Growing Flowers’ aims to enhance the Superbloom’s emotional impact by rebalancing the dominant city noises and intertwining specific audio frequencies to uncover harmony in the most bustling environments. Since music itself is nothing more than vibrations, perhaps it will help us enter more deeply into this subtle appreciation of place, curiosity and calm”

Erland Cooper:

Egilsay

Scottish composer Erland Cooper has announced details of a new EP, Egilsay, set for release on Mercury KX on 26 November 2021: This recently recorded 4-track EP is Erland’s second collaboration with the renowned vocal ensemble, Shards. It will be accompanied by a video capturing an evening of the recording at Erland’s London studio, shot by long-time collaborator Alex Kozobolis. Egilsay, named after one of the smaller northern isles in the archipelago of Orkney, is the follow up to 2020’s collaboration with Shards, the Eynhallow EP. For this release, the experimental vocal ensemble expand on Erland’s compositions with this absorbing and contemplative piece of work, meditating on the theme of shifting time & light.