Ian Hawgood - Slow Films In Low Light

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Phil on Thu 11 Feb, 2010.

Home Normal have been busy lately with five releases out in as many weeks. Here's the 5th and it's a CD by Ian Hawgood called 'Slow Films In Low Light'. This one is a reissue of sorts of an older out of print album with a twist! This time it's been remixed by loads of folks like The Remote Viewer, Danny Norbury, Colour Cassette, Federico Durand (his mix is awesome!), Geskia, Hannu, Green Kingdom, Library Tapes, Ten & Tracer, Chihei Hatekayama and lots more. That's a stellar line up!! I'm not familiar with the original so I can't comment on how faithful the tracks are but after hearing this one a few times I can say I don't think it matters as this is a top stand alone listen. Lots of fuzz, crackles and whizzes over drones, tinkles, strings, micro electronics, acoustic guitar etc. The tracks are varied and for me the stand out tracks are the Federico Durand, Library Tapes, Ten & Tracer, D Norbury and Chihei. The whole album is excellent and you can feel even happier buying it as the money is going to charity (the Archway Foundation) to help folks who suffer from Loneliness. It's cheap as well so you should have no qualms getting one. I've never had a qualm in my life though... I've only not had them.

To play these clips you need to either update your browser (Norman Records recommends Google Chrome) or update your Flash plugin.

‘Slow Films In Low Light’ is a collection of remixes and re-workings by friends and artists from my now deleted album ‘Soundtrack To A Film In My Head Which Will Never Get Made’. The original album was released on the lovely Rope Swing Cities but I decided I wanted it to be a temporary release given the nature of the album. RSC and I decided to do a small release to coincide with the original, as a limited run CD-R featuring re-workings and remixes of the pieces by friends, namely The Remote Viewer, Geskia!, Ten and Tracer and Pan Am Scan.

Over time it became apparent that this project needed to spread its wings, and with lots of support from the lovely Yasuhiko Fukuzono (Aus), and other close friends, I decided to ask more friends to join in with the project. I’m so lucky that all the friends I wanted and asked agreed to be involved, creating highly unique pieces from the original sources (sometimes changing them completely). As such I suddenly found myself with this amazing album, featuring past, present and future Home Normal, Tokyo Droning and Nomadic Kids Republic artists and good friends.

The grand result is a really nice review of where Home Normal is at in some ways I guess, as well as highlighting where I am at musically too, albeit through the voices of others who know me. One of the results of these artists giving their time and enormous talents so freely to this was that I decided that this release should be for charity.

In 1982 my father set up The Archway Foundation, a charity that focused on helping those in various walks of life who are deeply affected by loneliness. They hold weekly social events, organise dinners, visits, drivers to take people to places and all sorts of support work. I grew up attending and helping out the various events, but have less to do with them after my parent’s retirement and my moving away from Oxford. In these difficult economical times, charities, which rely on the donations of others, are suffering terribly. But these people still need all the support they can get, so I guess I just figure that, even if it’s a small level of support we can provide, at least we can try.

“We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone.” Orson Welles

ALL the proceeds from this release will go to The Archway Foundation (http://www.archwayfoundation.org.uk/), a UK charity who serve those hurt by loneliness.

Mastered by Ian Hawgood at Yoshimura Studios
Photography by the very talented Eirik Holmøyvik

Tracklist:
01. A Film by Federico Durand
02. A Film by Pan Am Scan
03. A Film by The Remote Viewer
04. A Film by Danny Norbury
05. A Film by Color Cassette
06. A Film by Geskia!
07. A Film by Hannu
08. A Film by Yuri Miyauchi
09. A Film by Miko
10. A Film by The Green Kingdom
11. A Film by Library Tapes
12. A Film by Ten and Tracer
13. A Film by Chihei Hatakeyama
14. A Film by He Can Jog feat. Nick Sanborn

Christopher12 said:

The question you as a costumer should ask yourself is this - do I need quality or do I need low cost? This economic issue is just a standard quality/price problem which we face everyday in every market. However we should not only think about a current solution to our needs but solution which will pay in time and it will prove itself reliable. In fact there is more to it. In some cases the energy consumption could be lowered to only 10-20% of the energy cost that the conventional rope lights will have. That means that for a longer period of time it is possible that the lower price for energy costs could actually pay out the price for the LED rope lights. This is so because with LED rope lights you will for example pay only 10% of the energy cost of the traditional rope lights and in time the other 90% will become more than the price of the LED rope you purchased.

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!