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Erland Cooper

Carve the Runes, Then Be Content With Silence

Mercury KX
Release Date: September 20, 2024

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1 Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence - Full Version  
2 Carve the Runes (Mvt. 1) - Pt. 1 "bouncing and bending in the harbour"  
3 Carve the Runes (Mvt. 1) - Pt. 2 "through that yellow spindrift"  
4 Carve the Runes (Mvt. 1) - Pt. 3 "you must dance in a beautiful coat"  
5 Then Be Content (Mvt. 2) - Pt. 1 "song of the five seas"  
6 Then Be Content (Mvt. 2) - Pt. 2 "driftweed scored the strings"  
7 Then Be Content (Mvt. 2) - Pt. 3 "walking through heather"  
8 With Silence (Mvt. 3) - Pt. 1 "con la memoria"  
9 With Silence (Mvt. 3) - Pt. 2 "wow and flutter of unearthed magnetic tape"  
10 With Silence (Mvt. 3) - Pt. 3 "our winter jar"  
11 With Silence (Mvt. 3) - Pt. 4 "sunwards turn"  
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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 RELEASES HIS CHORALLY COLLABORATIVE EGILSAY / BACKSEAT MAFIA
    Posted At: April 22, 2022 12:00 AM
    Scottish composer Erland Cooper new EP, Egilsay, on Mercury KX 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 ...
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