The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus And Other, by David A Jaycock (CD on Early Winter)

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EWR4 David A Jaycock – The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus and other Mythologies CD mini-album
I always liked books with ‘And Other Stories’ in the title; warmed to those archaic but kindly words that hinted at wonders
without name, all there for discovering by lamp-light later. ‘Other Mythologies’ will do just as well, though, and is especially
apt for David A Jaycock’s series of elegant and eerie acoustic guitar miniatures.
Right from its opening page, atmosphere rises and spreads like candle-smoke and autumn mist. A seance in a darkened
manor house summons percussive, echoing ghosts of sailors lost en route from the East Indies with a cargo of gamelan gongs.
Daylight brings a wandering, pastoral blues augmented by lonely harmonica. There’s sacred geometry courtesy of courtly
baroque fingerpicking, with patterns laid out like a hedge maze. Then gentle Spanish arpeggios become dark and
mountainous with drone till the song hints at a Jodorowskian trip up Monte Alban; and then back into an English silver-birch
woodland for a half-seen and most likely Cottingley-faked faerie dance; and then –
I won’t spoil the ending.
The Improvised Killing’s miniature set-pieces are hard to document in real time. Each one’s self-contained, delicately detailed
like an entry in a Victorian child’s encyclopaedia, and as with an encyclopaedia you can dip in and out, follow your own path
through the album. But listened to as a whole, its secrets creep out at the listener: constant sonic flourishes of mystery,
ripples at the edges of reality.
For even as Jaycock’s accomplished guitar playing creates a still, bright core to the music, there’s always something amiss,
awry: a keening, vintage synth; a diabolical fairground-organ lilt in the sweetest of tunes; a darkening drone in the distance;
or a sinister chorus of voices. On the title track, the guitar stands strong amid a rumble of kettle drums and growling
electronics, and a found flute straight from an MR James tale.
While drawing subtly from classical, folk and blues techniques (and the extended, experimental style established by Fahey
and carried on by the likes of Jack Rose and Ben Chasny), Jaycock colours his take on acoustic guitar’s traditional warmth
with an edge of thoroughly chilling British oddness. Listen close, and you’ll hear the ghostly textures of hauntology pioneers
Broadcast or Belbury Poly; the sinister regularity of a Hawksmoor church; the inevitable, fateful ending of a folk tale; the
clash of reason and superstition that gives tension to a Victorian ghost story; and always, somewhere, a sense of quite
beautiful unease – of not knowing what’s over the page, what’s in the woods…what’s to be found in the other stories.
- Frances May Morgan, Editor, Plan B Magazine
David has been a member of the Pickled Egg Records’ Big Eyes group since 2003, and is also a key contributor to the Big Eyes
Family Players project. He is also a member of the free-improvising/experimental unit The Broken Blackbird Ensemble and
psych-rock group Bingo Jesus. He is based in Manchester, UK
Tracklisting:
1. A Cocktail Party 8. Waltz For Sadie
2. Lost in a Bear Pit 9. Reeleel
3. George’s Square Kite 10. The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus
4. Es Cortinas Para Usted 11. 56-57
5. Tremolo Study 12. Bonny Jaycock Turner
6. Hood Faire 13. 20th Century Dance (A Dance to Decadence)
7. Ruben 14. Basking
As with all Early Winter releases, ‘T.I.K.O.U.F.A.O.M.’ is released as a limited edition of 250 copies, each CD with a handmade
lino-printed sleeve.

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