BORN IN BORN Mr McFall’s DIRT AN Chamber ’ DIN

DCD34019 1 Paul Harrison (b. 1975) Consequences (2016) [6:11] BORN IN 2 Martin Kershaw (b. 1973) Far Vistas (2013) [9:31] 3 Raymond Scott (1908–1994) Curley Cue [2:31] DIRT AN’ DIN 4 Raymond Scott The Penguin [2:51] 5 Martin Kershaw Closing In (2011) [9:39] Mr McFall’s Chamber 6 Raymond Scott Tobacco Auctioneer [2:43] 7 Mike Kearney (b. 1983) The Phoenix (2018) [6:57]

8 Paul Harrison Born in Dirt an’ Din (2018) [6:11]

Tim Garland (b. 1966) ExtraPollination (2011) Maximiliano Martín clarinet — all except tracks 2 & 8 9 Introduction [2:29] Alec Frank-Gemmill horn in F — track 2 only 10 To the North London Metropolitan line [3:51] Paul Harrison piano, keyboards, electronics 11 To Robert Stevenson [3:54] 12 To Paco de Lucía [4:56] Rick Standley double bass, bass guitar 13 Raymond Scott Portofino [2:01] Stuart Brown drums, samples Cyril Garac violin 1 Total playing time [63:52]

Robert McFall violin 2 premiere recordings Brian Schiele viola Tracks 3, 4, 6 and 13 arr. Robert McFall Su-a Lee cello; musical saw — track 13 Recorded on 29-30 August 2018 Cover image: Frank Henry Mason (1876–1965), Iain Sandilands percussion — tracks 2–4, 6–8, 13 @delphianrecords at Gorbals Sound Studios, Glasgow An overpowering impression of immensity Producer: Paul Baxter [etching, c.1936], showing the building @delphianrecords Tom Hunter percussion — track 2 only Engineer: Kevin Burleigh of the RMS Queen Mary; private collection / Session assistant: Matthew Boyle The Stapleton Collection / Bridgeman Images @delphian_records 24-bit digital editing: Matthew Swan Design: John Christ 24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter Booklet editor: John Fallas Piano: Yamaha C6 grand Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK Piano technician: Alan Right www.delphianrecords.co.uk Notes on the music

Born in Dirt an’ Din is an album forged in the first two movements of Tim Garland’s World’s End: just as the novel’s protagonist associated closely with funk – is used here from musical relationships that have been ExtraPollination and in Paul Harrison’s Born finds meaning in the juxtaposition of the in a funk context, but it also takes its place in developing over a decade. In that time in Dirt an’ Din – trains, lighthouses, and ships distant and the close at hand, of the expansive more reflective passages reminiscent of early Mr McFall’s Chamber has commissioned a all prove to be sources of inspiration. The and the modest, Kershaw’s composition is an twentieth-century composition, its soft tones number of pieces from , using composers have also explored the various expression of the differing scales of natural complementing the strings and clarinet. a line-up which supplements its core string contrasts that give our lives their colour. beauty. Melodies carried by the strings and quartet with a jazz trio (piano, bass and drums) Born in Dirt an’ Din touches upon human horn are suggestive of soft, unbroken horizons, Born in Dirt an’ Din takes its name from a and further percussion, and often adding an togetherness and separation, while Harrison’s while crystalline percussion and piano draw poem entitled ‘Clydeside Shipyards’, published eminent wind player (clarinet, bassoon or other contribution, Consequences, is inspired our attention to sharper angles. Kershaw’s in Linthouse News in 1961 and attributed to horn) as soloist. This album showcases the by both the ugly and the beautiful in human second piece, Closing In, presents its ‘The Red Poppy’: very varied repertoire which has emerged behaviour. Mike Kearney’s The Phoenix tackles founding melody from different perspectives: from these collaborations and commissions. an altogether more innate tension: how it can it appears first as though in the distance, Gaunt and black against the sky, It also revisits an idea from an early McFall’s be necessary for our insecurities to perish in led by the piano; it is then dismantled and Great lumps o’ girder-cradled steel album, the 2001 release Upstart Jugglers flames before our creativity can be born fully. repurposed by the ensemble in such a way Staun starkly naked, loomin’ high, – that of combining the ensemble’s original Alongside these broad themes are dedications to render it unrecognisable; finally, the piano Wi’ a still power that you can feel; commissions with pieces by the innovative to specific people and places. brings it into sharper focus. The piece reflects A kind o’ loveliness forbye. American and engineer Raymond the composer’s fascination with improvisation A ship is born in dirt an’ din, Scott. On that earlier album, Scott’s Square The album opens with Consequences, in – most evidently in its middle section, where Racket o’ rivets, flash o’ flame Dance for Eight Egyptian Mummies was which Paul Harrison explores the transience of fragments of the original melody provide the Fae the welder’s torch, a clatterin’ featured alongside new works by James anger and calm through richly layered musical bases for new melodic and harmonic ideas. O’ blacksmith’s hammer, a fretted frame MacMillan and Eddie McGuire. With its hybrid light and shade: major and minor, ascent and O’ tall cranes swingin’ oot an’ in. line-up, Mr McFall’s Chamber is perfectly descent, consonance and dissonance. Though Robert McFall first met Mike Kearney in equipped to mix contemporary classical and born initially from the composer’s frustrations Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar, where Kearney was Inspired by archive footage of Glasgow’s jazz influences in adventurous ways. with the contemporary political landscape, playing with a funk band, and approached him shipyards, Paul Harrison fuses electronic and the piece – whose title also nods to its theme- about potential collaboration. In The Phoenix, acoustic sounds to create images of materials Several themes run throughout the present and-variations form – closes with a sense of Kearney challenges the ensemble to explore being transported, melted, sawn and struck. album, particularly in the contributions of the cautious, suspenseful optimism. the funk grooves that fascinate him, and The piece also reflects the human dimensions contemporary composers. Natural imagery that he has been investigating for ten years. of shipbuilding: the power of ships to bring is brought to mind by Martin Kershaw’s Martin Kershaw was inspired to write As its title suggests, the piece plays movingly people together in their construction, and to Far Vistas and Closing In, both of which explore Far Vistas after a brief residency in Caithness, on themes of destruction and rebirth: the separate people with their departure. There is distance and scale, and require the listener and the piece responds to that county’s disruption of creativity and its renewed flow no implied dichotomy between the electronic to ‘refocus’ throughout. Feats of human striking landscape. The title is a reference to are mirrored in degrees of dissonance and and the acoustic – rather, each instrument engineering are celebrated too, notably Neil M. Gunn’s 1951 novel The Well at the consonance. The electric piano – an instrument communicates something of the machine and Notes on the music something of the human, and contributes in its Raymond Scott was an American musician, even hiring Scott to train studio staff in its use, that fascinated Scott so much that he built one own way to the overall assembly of the piece. composer, bandleader and inventor. His though no recordings featuring the himself. Its inclusion here is a fitting nod to playful, almost onomatopoeic musical instrument are known to exist. Scott’s innovative spirit and wit. Tim Garland’s ExtraPollination begins language made his work ideal for cartoons with a vibrant introduction for clarinet alone – a fact that did not escape the attention of With orchestral jazz and klezmer among his © 2019 Alison Eales that provides the base material for the three Carl Stalling, who in 1943 began adapting influences, it is little wonder that many of movements that follow, ‘pollinating’ both the Scott’s work for use in the Scott’s compositions include lively clarinet Alison Eales completed a PhD in 2017 other parts in the ensemble and the clarinet’s and Merrie Melodies animated shorts, for parts. They also showcase drums particularly on the history of Glasgow Jazz Festival, later solos. ‘To the North London Metropolitan which he was musical director. Later, Scott’s well; indeed, McFall’s drummer Stuart Brown and is currently researching and writing a line’ is the composer’s tribute to a particular compositions would be used in cartoons that has worked extensively to bring them to new history of jazz in Scotland from 1945 to 1990. London Underground route with which he is heavily referenced the golden age of American audiences through his own sextet’s two She has taught at the University of Glasgow, especially familiar; its trains, Garland writes, animation, such as The Ren & Stimpy Show Twisted Toons albums, along with festival the University of Strathclyde and the Royal ‘speed up significantly on the late shifts, and , rendering his music familiar appearances, a UK tour, and children’s Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a member creating ominous clattering rhythms’. There to a new generation – even if they were not all animation workshops. This album features of the band Butcher Boy, the Glasgow is a satisfying symmetry to the piece, with the familiar with his name. four Scott compositions in Madrigirls choir, and leads music-walking strings and drums creeping in at the beginning by Robert McFall. The whimsical title of tours of Glasgow.. and creeping out at the end – a train emerging Scott was fascinated by the musical potential Curley Cue is a reference to both the pretty from the tunnel at one end of the platform, of electronics, and in 1946 founded the twists and turns that ornament its melody perhaps, and then disappearing at the other. company Manhattan Research, Inc. to explore (‘curlicues’) and the idea of a musical ‘cue’ in ‘To Robert Stevenson’ is a commemoration ideas and possibilities. This resulted in the film or television, while The Penguin is one of the Scottish engineer’s most famous invention of electronic instruments such of Scott’s most familiar and endearing pieces, edifice, the Bell Rock lighthouse off the coast as the Clavivox and the Electronium. While evoking perfectly the shuffle and waddle of of Angus, which has been in service for 200 Scott was prolific as a supplier of futuristic- its subject. Tobacco Auctioneer imitates the years. The movement is a sort of nocturne, in sounding jingles and effects for use in gabble – and gavel – of an auctioneer, though which repeated pulses are layered at different advertising, he also composed for electronic it would not sound out of place in a Woody speeds, like pulsing, shimmering lights in the instruments, writing new pieces along with Woodpecker cartoon. darkness. ‘To Paco de Lucía’ is dedicated to the fresh arrangements of some of his best-known influential flamenco guitarist, and draws on his work. As a pioneer of , Scott Named after a town on the Italian Riviera, rapid fingerpicked scales and jazz sensibilities. has been cited as an influence by fellow Portofino is built around a soft bossa nova In their different geographic identities, inventor Bob Moog, composer Jean-Jacques rhythm. In McFall’s , the melody the three movements link London, Scotland Perrey, and ’s . Berry is swept along by the musical saw, whose and Spain, representing the composer, Gordy, founder of the Motown record label, timbre, vibrato and portamento are of course the ensemble and the soloist respectively. took a particular interest in the Electronium, reminiscent of the – an instrument Biography Also available on Delphian

Mr McFall’s Chamber was formed in 1996 Birds & Beasts: music by Martyn Bennett and Fraser Fifield as a response to what seemed like a narrowing Fraser Fifield, Mr McFall’s Chamber demographic for classical music in Scotland DCD34085 at that time. The original string quintet (string Martyn Bennett was one of Scotland’s most innovative musicians, quartet with double bass), four of whom combining the traditional and modern, the local and the international. remain core members of the group, played to A long-planned collaboration with Mr McFall’s Chamber was never nightclub audiences and offered a mixture of realised during his tragically short lifetime. Here, Robert McFall has put types of music, some popular, some way-out. together a programme of his own sympathetic arrangements of More recently the group, often with a more Martyn’s music alongside original works by Fraser Fifield, another of extended line-up than in its earliest days, has Scotland’s virtuosic musical innovators. The premiere recording of tended to take over concert halls instead, while Bennett’s Piece for string quartet, percussion and Scottish smallpipes still offering repertoire which spans the divide epitomises his sophisticated mastery of fusion. between classical and non-classical. ‘a satisfying, serpentine dalliance of whistle, violin and percussion’ The group has appeared many times on BBC — The Independent, May 2010 Radio 3 and on Radio Scotland. In 2016 it was shortlisted for a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Michael Marra: live on tour 2010 Society Award. In 2018, the group’s members Michael Marra, Mr McFall’s Chamber were voted New Music Performers of the Year DCD34092 in the Scottish Awards for New Music. Robert McFall writes: When we toured with Michael in 2010 we had, of course, no idea that he would only be with us for a further two years. Looking back on it I’m hugely relieved that we made these recordings when we could, that we helped capture what a Michael Marra performance was like, down to his impeccably presented and hilarious introductions. For some time before the collaboration some of us had been faithful fans of his, and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity to be, for an all too brief few weeks, his backing band. ‘Aficionados will know Marra’s utterly idiosyncratic material ... but the sympathetic McFall’s settings bring a new, almost cinematic element, managing to complement the frequent quirkiness of these songs while emphasising the compassion which glows amid the surrealism’ — The Scotsman, November 2010 Also available on Delphian

La Pasionaria Piazzolla: María de Buenos Aires Mr McFall’s Chamber Valentina Montoya Martínez, Nicholas Mulroy, DCD34120 Juanjo Lopez Vidal narrator, Mr McFall’s Chamber DCD34186 (2 discs) Valentina Montoya Martínez’s songs of life as a Chilean exile are complemented by the music of the tango nuevo. ‘La Pasionaria’ was According to Horacio Ferrer, author of the text for this unconventional the nickname of Dolores Ibárruri, a Basque Communist leader during ‘operita’, its highly poetic libretto was written ‘not to be understood, but to the Spanish Civil War. Likewise both engaged and passionate, the songs create emotion and atmosphere’. Piazzolla’s music, too, offers a charged brought together here – including Valentina’s deeply personal odes to mix of classical forms and Argentinian traditions – milonga, canyengue, her late mother and to the political activist Sola Sierra – pay tribute to the tango, candombe, payada … Mr McFall’s Chamber are joined by regular private and public lives of women across Spain and Latin America. collaborators and by the narrator Juanjo Lopez Vidal in the work’s first major recording since the 1980s. ‘hugely engaging ... A glorious, loveable disc’ — The Arts Desk, August 2013 ‘Rhythms are crisp and precise, and the pristine sound brings out plenty of sharply focused instrumental detail. Montoya Martínez, her voice earthy and lived-in, captures the defiance and vitality that drive María on … Exhilaratingly done’ — Gramophone, January 2018

Solitudes: Baltic Reflections Gavin Bryars: The Church Closest to the Sea Mr McFall’s Chamber Susan Hamilton soprano, Nicholas Mulroy tenor, DCD34156 Rick Standley double bass, Mr McFall’s Chamber DCD34058 No one knows quite when tango was established in Finland, but the style has a long history there – still little known to outsiders – and The double bass has always been close to Gavin Bryars’ heart. His own combines rhythmic interest and yearning melody with a distinctively instrument, it has also featured strongly in his music for other players – Nordic melancholy. In this ingeniously curated programme, two Finnish as in The Church Closest to the Sea, written for Mr McFall’s Chamber and tangos from the 1950s and a tango-based work by Finnish classical their bassist Rick Standley. Voices, meanwhile, are a more recent composer Aulis Sallinen are woven into a bold tapestry of music from concern, displayed here in typically understated settings of Petrarch the Eastern Baltic seaboard, shot through with longing, sadness, and a translations by the Irish playwright J.M. Synge. Bryars’ music straddles heightened sense of nature. These original compositions are worlds: classical and jazz, composition and improvisation, the works on complemented by Robert McFall’s own sensitive arrangements for a this disc moving between the lushly sensuous and the coolly laid-back as core McFall’s line-up of five strings and piano, and the programme they meditate on geographical and emotional borderlands. culminates in a truly unique version of Sibelius’s famous Finlandia Hymn. ‘deceptively simple sounds whose complexity is revealed in the aftertaste ‘Full marks for originality of concept and for execution’ … Whenever I hear Bryars’ music, I want to hear more’ — Gramophone, September 2015 — Norman Lebrecht, www.scena.org, November 2009 DCD34210