“Utilizing materials from various sonic sources Fisher Turner creates a rich tapestry of emotive neo-classical passages, minimalist Lynchian electronics, introspective ambient and pulsating techno” – 4* MOJO
“… a multifaceted record that incorporates… field recordings alongside synthetic “slivers”, surreptitious strings, snatches of piano, the occasional detuned guitar and the composer’s own voice” – The Quietus
Today Simon Fisher Turner has shared a full-length film of his new album, Instability of The Signal, directed by Japanese film director, graphic designer (creator of the yamavica-moji font) and manga author, Isao Yamada. Yamada’s very personal filmmaking, mostly on 8mm film, is known as Yamavicascope and his full-length film to accompany the album is a wonderful journey, showing intimate glimpses of their decades-long friendship. The intimacy of both the album and the film are mirrored in the album's artwork, a photo of Isao Yamada listening to the album for the first time.
Watch the full-length film HERE. Watch an except for the track “Toast” HERE.
The composer, musician and Zelig-like artist who has worked and performed in groundbreaking and underground music, film and art scenes since the ‘70s, has created a lush, soothing and intimate album, a landmark in his ever-expanding catalog of projects. The 13-track album features Fisher Turner singing for the first time in many years, accompanying compositions built from tiny snippets of sound along with piano, classical strings, a detuned Fender Telecaster and his magpie-like collecting of field recordings.
Listen to the full album HERE. Film plays an important part in telling the visual story of the album, with several filmmakers enlisted. “Barefeet” was directed by the documentary filmmaker Sebastian Sharples (who previously collaborated with Simon Fisher Turner for Lana Lara Lata (Mute, 2005). “Toast” and “I Can’t Hear Anything” are both by the artist, dollmaker and filmmaker John Lee Bird and “Bless Your Hands (Part 1 and 2)” is by the filmmaker and screenwriter Chris Newby. On Wednesday, October 23rd Simon Fisher Turner will celebrate his 70th birthday with a specially programmed show at Café OTO. Fisher Turner will perform with The Elysian Collective, who feature on the album and have worked with Fisher Turner for over twenty years on projects that include the BFI restoration of The Great White Silence (1924). The bill will also include Tito Heredia, the legendary Flamenco guitar player from the Algeciras area of Spain. Heredia and Fisher Turner worked together for the Derek Jarman soundtracks for Caravaggio and The Last of England, and again on Fisher Turner’s The King of Luxembourg project. Tickets are available HERE.
Instability of The Signal pulls together four strands of Fisher Turner's sonic experimentation: Slivers, Sounds, Strings, and Singing. The 'slivers' are tiny snippets of audio he used as source material for the tracks, all created by Salford Electronics (aka David Padbury), and reworked by Fisher Turner into foundations for entire tracks. The 'sounds' that pepper these tracks are sourced from Fisher Turner's relentless field recording. They include a rhythm created from the sound of a spinning bicycle wheel recorded in Berlin, the percussive sounds of objects on hard floors inspired by his collaboration with artist potter and writer Edmund de Waal, a hand-made mechanical pencil sharpener made by Tilda Swinton's father (recorded while working on a film with Swinton and the Derek Jarman Lab), along with an extended index of guerrilla field recordings and sonic textures. The album's 'strings' are recordings made with The Elysian Collective (who have recently been performing live with Pulp). Fisher Turner's voice is the centerpiece of this album, it is the 'singing' that draws all these sounds together into a complete and distinctive album of songs. "I was making these tracks with Padbury's slivers one day, and then the penny just dropped," he explains. "I just knew I wanted to sing over them: to use my voice again."
Like Fisher Turner's long and varied career, Instability of The Signal is an accumulation of experience, effervescent memories, sounds and textures. It contains hidden learnings. It is about how restorative singing of ourselves and to ourselves can be but is also a document of times and places delivered in beautifully impressionistic palettes of sounds and voices. It is also another document of Fisher Turner's remarkable life and unshakeable curiosity about sound. "I'm now a 69-year-old man and by hook or by crook and some good luck, this album has turned into something which really sounds like me," he reflects. "I'm singing how I feel I truly sound; this time, I'm not hiding anything.”
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