14 track album on transparent vinyl, with 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. Darren Hayman's 2012 classic LP "Lido" gets the deluxe reissue treatment this record store day - an all-new 12" transparent vinyl with a 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. As was the original, this is a joint release between Clay Pipe and wiaiwya. I was thinking about instrumental music and whether it could truly be about something. I was thinking about how classical, jazz and the avant-garde often group music together under conceptual titles and themes. Isnít a lot of this music about music itself? Isn't instrumental music literally about the unspeakable, the indescribable? My friend Dave says that he see no reason why wordless music should be any less about ësomethingí then lyrics or prose. I think he's right, but I also know that some music that is titled and thematically labelled is nothing more than the beautiful sound of a musician trying to reach out; to evoke; to remember. My name is Darren Hayman and I have made an instrumental album about Britainís open air swimming pools; it's called 'Lido'. If I am known or liked for anything at all in my career then it is for my lyrics. I see words as incisive, accurate tools, when used correctly. I donít want my words to paint vague canvasses; I want them to make detailed, forensic technical drawings. I am interested in specifics; my songs thus far have very much been about stuff. In my own listening, however, I have moved more and more towards instrumental music. I enjoy the heavenly fog of the ECM label. I love following the unpredictability of John Coltrane's reckless career. I adore roots dub reggae - it makes me feel safe and calm. Instrumental music has given me something that has been missing from my listening for a few years. It confuses, frustrates and excites me, and in no way do I feel it a less erudite companion to lyrical music. The opposite is true, in fact: this music can often say more, I just love not being able to define what it is. Cautiously, over the last few years, I started to amass recordings of my instrumental compositions. When I had five that I thought were good, I needed a title that might pull these sunny, open tunes together; I thought of 'Lido'. From that point onwards I tried to think about what it would be to write music with a specific setting in mind. I tried to write the tunes in my head, while visiting the individual pools. I collected field recordings and buried them inside the songs. Some were audible but I wanted to link the music to the place in some way. When it came to writing tunes about closed or destroyed lidos, I thought about absence and nothingness. I thought about disconnected music; tunes without formal structure or time signatures. I have not re-invented the wheel but this was a truly experimental record for me in that I devised routines and procedures that produced music alien to me. I thought hard about Brentwood Lido, in my hometown. It closed in 1976, when I was just five. It is one of those places that have slipped past the internet. I can find only two grey, fuzzy pictures online. Do you have any pictures of it? Iíd love to see them. My own memory of the place is also fuzzy: one of those early childhood memories that seems to be projected onto sunlight. If you think hard or try to grasp it in any way then it just melts. I can see a towel; there is a low wall or steps maybe? My mother is there some other people... It's sunny but then there's nothing there's no focus or clarity to the memory. If instrumental music can be about anything then surely it can be about this feeling; the sensation of fumbling, desperately, in the back of your mind. Looking for something beautiful that you know was there once. I wanted to make music that sounded half remembered but purposeful. I went to the road where the pool used to be. I recorded nothing but the faint rumble of traffic and put in my tune. My album 'Lido' is about open air swimming pools and something else as well. It's just impossible to say what it is exactly. - Darren Hayman February 2012. Track Listing: 1. London Fields 2. Black Rock Baths 3. Brockwell Park 4. Parliament Hill 5. Saltdean 6. The Knap 7. Super Swimming Stadium 8. Brentwood 9. Tinside 10. Stonehaven 11. Kingís Meadow 12. Jubilee Pool 13. Purley Way 14. Tooting Bec
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DARREN HAYMAN
14 track album on transparent vinyl, with 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. Darren Hayman's 2012 classic LP "Lido" gets the deluxe reissue treatment this record store day - an all-new 12" transparent vinyl with a 16 page 12x12" book of Darren's Lido artwork. As was the original, this is a joint release between Clay Pipe and wiaiwya. I was thinking about instrumental music and whether it could truly be about something. I was thinking about how classical, jazz and the avant-garde often group music together under conceptual titles and themes. Isnít a lot of this music about music itself? Isn't instrumental music literally about the unspeakable, the indescribable? My friend Dave says that he see no reason why wordless music should be any less about ësomethingí then lyrics or prose. I think he's right, but I also know that some music that is titled and thematically labelled is nothing more than the beautiful sound of a musician trying to reach out; to evoke; to remember. My name is Darren Hayman and I have made an instrumental album about Britainís open air swimming pools; it's called 'Lido'. If I am known or liked for anything at all in my career then it is for my lyrics. I see words as incisive, accurate tools, when used correctly. I donít want my words to paint vague canvasses; I want them to make detailed, forensic technical drawings. I am interested in specifics; my songs thus far have very much been about stuff. In my own listening, however, I have moved more and more towards instrumental music. I enjoy the heavenly fog of the ECM label. I love following the unpredictability of John Coltrane's reckless career. I adore roots dub reggae - it makes me feel safe and calm. Instrumental music has given me something that has been missing from my listening for a few years. It confuses, frustrates and excites me, and in no way do I feel it a less erudite companion to lyrical music. The opposite is true, in fact: this music can often say more, I just love not being able to define what it is. Cautiously, over the last few years, I started to amass recordings of my instrumental compositions. When I had five that I thought were good, I needed a title that might pull these sunny, open tunes together; I thought of 'Lido'. From that point onwards I tried to think about what it would be to write music with a specific setting in mind. I tried to write the tunes in my head, while visiting the individual pools. I collected field recordings and buried them inside the songs. Some were audible but I wanted to link the music to the place in some way. When it came to writing tunes about closed or destroyed lidos, I thought about absence and nothingness. I thought about disconnected music; tunes without formal structure or time signatures. I have not re-invented the wheel but this was a truly experimental record for me in that I devised routines and procedures that produced music alien to me. I thought hard about Brentwood Lido, in my hometown. It closed in 1976, when I was just five. It is one of those places that have slipped past the internet. I can find only two grey, fuzzy pictures online. Do you have any pictures of it? Iíd love to see them. My own memory of the place is also fuzzy: one of those early childhood memories that seems to be projected onto sunlight. If you think hard or try to grasp it in any way then it just melts. I can see a towel; there is a low wall or steps maybe? My mother is there some other people... It's sunny but then there's nothing there's no focus or clarity to the memory. If instrumental music can be about anything then surely it can be about this feeling; the sensation of fumbling, desperately, in the back of your mind. Looking for something beautiful that you know was there once. I wanted to make music that sounded half remembered but purposeful. I went to the road where the pool used to be. I recorded nothing but the faint rumble of traffic and put in my tune. My album 'Lido' is about open air swimming pools and something else as well. It's just impossible to say what it is exactly. - Darren Hayman February 2012. Track Listing: 1. London Fields 2. Black Rock Baths 3. Brockwell Park 4. Parliament Hill 5. Saltdean 6. The Knap 7. Super Swimming Stadium 8. Brentwood 9. Tinside 10. Stonehaven 11. Kingís Meadow 12. Jubilee Pool 13. Purley Way 14. Tooting Bec
As he explains, “With projects like Thankful Villages, I became interested in what a record could be, using field recordings, interviews and songs to make sound collages. I wanted to return to the stricter art of song writing and try and make the twelve best compositions I could. I wanted to make useful songs, words that could be comfort, not just thoughts that would depress.”
TRACK LISTING
A1) How It Could Be
A2) You Were My Map
A3) Don’t Haunt Me
A4) A Real Human Being
A5) Let’s Drift
A6) Love Is Through
B1) Otium
B2) A Room Within A Room
B3) No Lime For The Gin
B4) The Safest Way
B5) Turn My Grey Tick Blue
B6) Feel Like This Every Night
C1) Girls Who Look Like You
C2) Here’s The Stillness
C3) Loser Run
C4) Say You Want To Be Alone
C5) We Are Repaired
C6) Easter Gold
D1) Actually I Still Really, Really Miss You
D2) Holiday Eyes
D3) Where Were You
D4) Adverse Camber
D5) I Am Owned
D6) You Were Always Here
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- LP
- £17.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- FIKA079LP
- Release date
- 22 May '20
- Includes MP3 Download Code.
His early songs told the story of the lonesome and lost, and broken dreams of love on the back streets of London. After Hefner, Hayman’s palette grew to include a unique take on place and memory. In the early 2000s he wrote a trilogy of albums around the history of Essex. In 2012 he made an instrumental album describing the tranquillity of Lidos. In 2016 Darren was awarded ‘Hardest Working Musician’ by the Association of Independent Music for his epic project on Thankful Villages, the 55 villages that survived the Great War with no casualties. His most recent record, 12 Astronauts, tells the personal story of the only men to have walked on the Moon. Darren is continually obsessed with the idea of what songs can be, and the stories they can tell. As he explains, “With projects like Thankful Villages, I became interested in what a record could be, using field recordings, interviews and songs to make sound collages. I wanted to return to the stricter art of song writing and try and make the twelve best compositions I could.
I wanted to make useful songs, words that could be comfort, not just thoughts that would depress.” The songs for Home Time were written over a three-year period but recorded quickly, and with love, in Darren’s home. Home Time is a fragile, subtle slice of prettiness. Wrap it around you. Three digital singles will be released; ‘I Tried and I Tried and I Failed’, a song about the endless, circular nature of being human, ‘I Was Thinking About You’, a song about the uncontrollable nature of memory and how it continues to haunt us even when we consider the long buried, and ‘The Joint Account’, about how when trying to negotiate matters of the heart and mind, it is sometimes the physical objects that anchor us down in the mire.
TRACK LISTING
A1) Curl Up
A2) I Was Thinking About You
A3) Because We Were Impossible
A4) I Am The Noise
A5) I Want To Get Drunk
A6) I Tried And I Tried And I Failed
B1) I Love You, I Miss You, Come Back
B2) Dinosaur Plate
B3) The Joint Account
B4) Kissing A Cloud
B5) A Girl That I’m Seeing
B6) Wrap Yourself Around Me
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- CD
- £10.99
Usually ships within: 2-10 days - Cat Number
- WIACD071
- Release date
- 19 Jul '19
Back in 2001 Hefner (Darren Hayman’s previous band) released a single called Alan Bean about the 4th man on the moon (an all new version is included on 12 Astronauts). In 2011 he contributed songs and pictures to Vostok 5, a London exhibition (and compilation album) about people and animals in space (he has also illustrated the cover of 12 Astronauts). In March 2014, as part of a year-long residency at Dalston’s Vortex, he played a set of his space-related songs supported by Robin Ince (this included the live debut of a number of tracks from 12 Astronauts).
His record label, ‘Belka’, is named for one of the first two dogs to go into earth orbit and return alive, so it should come as no surprise that the 12 Astronauts were in the back of his mind while he researched, wrote and recorded his classics about Thankful Villages, the Essex Witch Trials, Lidos, William Morris and British seaside resorts. The songs are works of historical fiction. Although Darren researched heavily he is essentially imagining himself as each astronaut and singing in the first person. The songs are not all set during the Apollo missions. Buzz Aldrin battles with his demons and fights for his marriage. Pete Conrad sympathises with his partner’s fear of an accident in flight. David Scott wonders what happened to his bodyguard on his press tour. Gene Cernan list every object he can think of that was left on the moon. Although the subject is big Darren has always written songs about small things and this album is no different. Darren collects together tiny moments from magnificent lives.' The album itself is curious in its genesis as Darren conceived and started the album back in 2008 and only recently came back to complete it. Some of the vocals are recorded 10 years apart.
TRACK LISTING
1. Spaceman No More (Neil Armstrong),
2. Low Orbit (Buzz Aldrin),
3. Timber Cove (Pete Conrad),
4. Alan Bean (Alan Bean),
5. Don't Clip My Wings (Alan Sheppard),
6. Hard Disk In The Sky (Edgar Mitchell),
7. Major Sunday (David Scott),
8. Genesis Rock (James Irwin),
9. 100% Oxygen (John Young),
10. Duke's Dream (Charles Duke),
11. It's Geology (Harrison Schmitt),
12. Things We Left Behind (Gene Cernan)
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- LP
- £18.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- RIVERTONE9LP
- Release date
- 26 May '17
-
- CD
- £9.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- RIVERTONE9CD
- Release date
- 26 May '17
An ongoing and hugely ambitious folk project, ‘Thankful Villages’ is only partially concerned with the war itself, moreover it is a celebration of British rural life. Darren pulls together first person interviews, folk tales and songs, field recordings and his own personal experiences to create a vast patchwork depicting community, history and legend.
‘Thankful Villages Vol. 2’ is something akin to an arcane musical radio documentary. The success of the first volume of ‘Thankful Villages’ has encouraged Hayman to go deeper into his subject. Themes of ‘the river’ and ‘death’ weave their way through these eighteen villages. A centuries old drowning is uncovered in ‘Arkholme’ on Bonfire Night. Dennis, the river man, tells us of a tragedy on the Weir in ‘Cromwell’. Judy Dyble, the original singer of folk legends Fairport Convention, joins Darren in the village of ‘Upper Slaughter’ and sings a lyric about the generations flowing like water through the village.
Darren uncovers two World War II air disasters in ‘Woodend’ and ‘Wigsley’, where he records in the abandoned control tower at the airfield, the so-called cemetery of lights. Perhaps the most shocking and miraculous of tales is found in ‘Flixborough’ where in 1974 the local plastics factory exploded killing everyone inside but nobody in the lucky village. Derek and his son tell us the story of finding each other amongst shards of glass.
However, glimpses of light shine through the darkness; a sunny day of wild swimming in ‘Tellisford’, a village fete with bell ringing in ‘East Norton’ and a tale of a grateful Belgian refugee in ‘Norton Le Clay’.
TRACK LISTING
Cundall
Norton Le Clay
Chantry
Tellisford
Woolley
Shapwick
Cromwell
Wigsley
East Norton
Maplebeck
Stretton En Le Field.
Nether Kellet
Arkholme
Colwinston
Upper Slaughter
Woodend
Coln Rogers
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- LP
- £18.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- RIVERTONESLP6
- Release date
- 3 Jun '16
- Includes MP3 Download Code.
-
- CD
- £9.99
Usually ships within: 2-5 days - Cat Number
- RIVERTONECD6
- Release date
- 3 Jun '16
A thankful village is a village in Britain where every soldier returned alive from World War I. Darren Hayman visited each of the 54 thankful villages and, focussing on village life, made a piece of music and a short film for each one. Some take the form of instrumentals inspired by the location, some are interviews with village residents set to music and others are new songs with lyrics or found local traditional songs.
‘Thankful Villages Vol. 1’ is the first (of three) volumes of the project and contains the first 18 villages that Darren visited during 2014/15. The pieces do not necessarily refer to the Great War, rather they portray the village and its communities at many points in history.
TRACK LISTING
Knowlton
Culpho
St Michael, South Elmham
Puttenham
Stoke Hammond
Little Sodbury
Rodney Stoke
Holywell Lake
Aisholt
Stocklinch
Strethall
Welbury
Scruton
Chelwood
Langton Herring
Herodsfoot
Butterton
Bradbourne