Richard J Birkin presents The Last Outpost of Empire [music for A Lonely Isle]

 

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(Photo by Aaron Bradbury)

RICHARD J BIRKIN PRESENTS THE LAST OUTPOST OF EMPIRE [MUSIC FOR A LONELY ISLE ]

The Last Outpost of Empire is the soundtrack to a podcast called A Lonely Isle, conceived and written by Matthew Sheret with music by Richard J Birkin.

Following on from Richard J Birkin’s critically acclaimed 2016 release Vigils this richly crafted mini-album is less about an island than it is about the personal stories of the few who have been there…their persistent and strange fascinations and obsessions. For Birkin and Sheret, this project was a strangely persistent obsession that formed over years.

Richard remarks “Matthew and I had been talking for a while about doing a project together of some kind. In conversation, he told me about a book he’d found about a strange island in the Atlantic Ocean. It had captured his imagination, and that was contagious.”

As Matthew says in his narration, it is an island that “exists in opposition to everything around it”. Because it is featureless, it is those things that people talk about in order to define it. The music Birkin created therefore conjures the waves, collisions, grandeur, weather, peril and navigation.

The chord sequence for the main theme was written by sitting at the piano and applying the navigational method of ‘dead reckoning’ – that is, deciding where to go next depending on your last point. The result was a strange set of arpeggios that never seemed to settle.

Richard continues…”It seems strange to hire a string trio and create a sweeping score for a podcast episode, but that’s what I heard in my head when reading Matt’s script. His fascination with Rockall became my fascination, and so it had to be done.”

The Last Outpost of Empire [Music for A Lonely Isle] is released digitally by Time Travel Opps on July 27th on all streaming/download platforms.

Track Listing:
1. Chasing a Rock
2. We Waved They Waved
3. Impact (1904)
4. Dead Reckoning
5. Waveland

QUOTES ABOUT VIGILS:

An essential, beautiful, alive, thrilling record – NORMAN RECORDS

Peaceful, poised and intensely beautiful – CLASH

Podcast: www.alonelyisle.co.uk | iTunes | TuneIn | Stitcher