artist: PETER WRIGHT
title: An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover
label: Spekk
country: Japan
format: CD
title: An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover
label: Spekk
country: Japan
format: CD
"An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover started life as the second part of a two album
reflection on my emotive responses to seasonal changes, both in a personal sense and
also a more social and geographical sense. My double CD Snow Blind, recorded at the
same time and released earlier this year on Install, captures the foreboding darkness and
gloom of winter, whilst An Angel Fell... focuses on the spring and summer months, and
as a result has a generally sunnier disposition.
Obviously there's a direct literal interpretation at work here, the music is brighter and
more melodic, perhaps even sensual, without as much harsh discordance that is
predominant on Snow Blind. On 'Lavender Buzz' the seasonal inspiration is most literal,
where the foundation of the piece is from a strategically placed microphone in the middle
of a clump of lavender plants recording bees collecting nectar from the flowers. But also,
as the music was actually recorded during the summer I only had to look out the window
or take a walk in the nearby Streatham Common to get a sense of the type of almost lazy
sounds I wanted to create. Ironically, this was also one of the wettest July's on record in
the UK and the frequency of the often violent thunderstorms also tainted my creative
thoughts, neatly juxtaposing light and dark textures.
Aside from the weather, location was also an important factor. I made these recordings in
London, England, where my wife and myself were living at the time. This is an album
heavily influenced by living in that sprawling, chaotic urban jungle, as most of my last
few releases have been. Reflections on physical and mental space are frequently
wrapped up in the sounds I make, even at their most abstract. London was my home for
nearly 6 years and this was the last recording I made consciously referencing and
musing on the city before we moved back to New Zealand in 2008. In many ways it
represents the closing of a circle that started with my first UK-based recordings that
appeared on Yellow Horizon (PseudoArcana, 2004).
The titles I come up with for my music can be fairly oblique, often abstract and
meaningless, but they can reflect my mood at the time I make the sounds themselves.
Sometimes they are socially or politically motivated, sometimes very personal and
inward-looking. At their most poetic they can be a substitute for lyrics, but the titles are
not necessarily designed to lead the listener into a particular train of thought when
listening to the sounds. The album title, An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover, was one
of the first I came up with when previewing my early mixes on headphones sitting in a
South London meadow watching a kestrel circling high above looking for field mice in
the long grass. I could immediately see a connection to the birds movements and the way
my music drifts and floats. The kestrel's hovering flight, almost like a hummingbird,
beating it's wings and making minute adjustments in the wind, allowing it's head to
remain absolutely still to enable it's sharp eyes to spot movement in the ground metres
below is amazing to watch. And I liked the idea that maybe it could see something in the
grass that us mere mortals can not, like a fallen angel." (Peter Wright)
reflection on my emotive responses to seasonal changes, both in a personal sense and
also a more social and geographical sense. My double CD Snow Blind, recorded at the
same time and released earlier this year on Install, captures the foreboding darkness and
gloom of winter, whilst An Angel Fell... focuses on the spring and summer months, and
as a result has a generally sunnier disposition.
Obviously there's a direct literal interpretation at work here, the music is brighter and
more melodic, perhaps even sensual, without as much harsh discordance that is
predominant on Snow Blind. On 'Lavender Buzz' the seasonal inspiration is most literal,
where the foundation of the piece is from a strategically placed microphone in the middle
of a clump of lavender plants recording bees collecting nectar from the flowers. But also,
as the music was actually recorded during the summer I only had to look out the window
or take a walk in the nearby Streatham Common to get a sense of the type of almost lazy
sounds I wanted to create. Ironically, this was also one of the wettest July's on record in
the UK and the frequency of the often violent thunderstorms also tainted my creative
thoughts, neatly juxtaposing light and dark textures.
Aside from the weather, location was also an important factor. I made these recordings in
London, England, where my wife and myself were living at the time. This is an album
heavily influenced by living in that sprawling, chaotic urban jungle, as most of my last
few releases have been. Reflections on physical and mental space are frequently
wrapped up in the sounds I make, even at their most abstract. London was my home for
nearly 6 years and this was the last recording I made consciously referencing and
musing on the city before we moved back to New Zealand in 2008. In many ways it
represents the closing of a circle that started with my first UK-based recordings that
appeared on Yellow Horizon (PseudoArcana, 2004).
The titles I come up with for my music can be fairly oblique, often abstract and
meaningless, but they can reflect my mood at the time I make the sounds themselves.
Sometimes they are socially or politically motivated, sometimes very personal and
inward-looking. At their most poetic they can be a substitute for lyrics, but the titles are
not necessarily designed to lead the listener into a particular train of thought when
listening to the sounds. The album title, An Angel Fell Where The Kestrels Hover, was one
of the first I came up with when previewing my early mixes on headphones sitting in a
South London meadow watching a kestrel circling high above looking for field mice in
the long grass. I could immediately see a connection to the birds movements and the way
my music drifts and floats. The kestrel's hovering flight, almost like a hummingbird,
beating it's wings and making minute adjustments in the wind, allowing it's head to
remain absolutely still to enable it's sharp eyes to spot movement in the ground metres
below is amazing to watch. And I liked the idea that maybe it could see something in the
grass that us mere mortals can not, like a fallen angel." (Peter Wright)
