Richard Skelton
Landings

A Norman Records recommendation (21st January 2010)

This record left our Brett feeling ecstatic.

Time for the eagerly awaited new Richard Skelton album on Type. Landings features more of his trademark cello-heavy manipulations, conjuring up a cloudy terrain filled with melancholy. Like our very own Yorkshire moors perhaps? To be honest it wasn't doing a right lot for me on our first listen a few weeks back (as his previous material hadn't really) but this time around, actually sitting and *gasp* listening to the thing properly I can totally see why he's held in such high regard as it's super affecting. I won't go on about it 'cos everyone else has already. You can gets yer Landings in bog-standard CD style or double LP with bonus CD of extra stuff style.

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Sound clips for Landings

Noon Hill Wood Play

Scar Tissue Play

Threads Across The River Play

Green Withins Brook Play

Of The Last Generation Play

Undertow Play

Voice of The Book Play

Rapture Play

Pariah Play

River Song Play

Remaindered Play

The Shape Leaves Play

What their label says...

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THE  2LP VINYL EDITION COMES WITH A BONUS CD OF EXTRA MATERIAL NOT INCLUDED ELSEWHERE.
*GLOWING FULL PAGE REVIEW IN THE WIRE MAGAZINE: "IF PURVEYORS OF SUPER CHILL-OUT FODDER LIKE JOHANN
JOHANNSSON, MAX RICHTER AND HAUSCHKA CAN BE LABELLED NEO-OR-QUASI CLASSICAL, LANCASHIRE BASED RICHARD SKELTON
IS DOING SOMETHING SUPERFICIALLY SIMILAR BUT ESSENTIALLY QUITE DISTINCT, PERHAPS MORE EASILY CHARACTERISED AS POST-CLASSICAL.
SKELTON'S MUSIC HAS A TEXTURAL OPULENCE THAT MAY RECALL ARVO PART'S 'CANTUS IN MEMORIAM BENJAMIN BRITTEN'...WHAT EMERGES IS
AT ONCE ELEGANT , INTIMATE CHAMBER MUSIC AND KEENING, UNTAMED SONIC LANDSCAPING."

*Since the release of the genre-defining 'Marking Time', the music of Richard Skelton has been widely celebrated for its raw, organic beauty, its honesty and restraint. Whether the work has been under his own name or under one of his many shadowy guises (A Broken Consort, Riftmusic, Carousell, Clouwbeck and others) there is a level of skill, a sureness of touch, and an emotional resonance that is virtually unparalleled by his peers.

*'Landings' is the culmination of four years of recording on the moors and hillsides of Northern England. The resulting album isn't simply a suite of songs in the mould of 'Marking Time', but a form of diary; a dialogue with the landscape itself. It is imbued with a real sense of narrative - and of place - that is both epic in scale and yet intimate in feel.

*And so we are taken on a literal journey across the threshold of 'Noon Hill Wood', with its achingly beautiful interleaved bowed melodies, drifting through ranks of pine, larch and birch. From there we cross the river and climb the slopes of the
nearby hills in search of the source of 'Green Withins Brook' - a crushing Eno-esque ballad for concertina, recorded by the banks of the fledgeling stream as the ice melted one wintry morning. We are then taken across miles of bleak moorland, and to the album's desolate centrepiece, 'Voice of the Book', a symphony of bowed metallic sounds recorded in the ruins of a centuries-old farm house. Finally, we make a long, slow decent into the valley, and follow the river as it leaves the moorland behind.

*'Landings' is a demanding, involving experience and is without a doubt Skelton's most complete work to date, containing within it the very essence of his musical output. Slowly, over the course of its 70+ minutes, he reveals the heart of his compositional skill and with that we are drawn into the depth of his work. Rarely are albums so involving and so absolutely moving.

*Tracklist:
1.Noon Hill Wood 2. Scar Tissue 3. Threads Across The River 4. Greens Within Brook 5. Of The Last Generation 6. Undertow 7.
Voice Of The Boooon k 8. Rapture 9. Pariah 10. River Song 11. Remaindered 12. The Shape Leaves

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