Oddfinds is an occasional series about the records, songs, shops, labels and other pieces of the musical ecology that are literally ‘odd finds’. Pieces of vinyl, CDs or online bits of music hanging around in digital corners. From my point of view, an oddfind is good - very good.
Oddfinds #3.2: Keeping it WARM
This is the second oddfinds post on the Warm Agency. You can find the first one - featuring Paul Hillery’s Folk Funk Trippy Troubadours Volume One compilation – HERE.
Virtual crate-digging has largely replaced the physical trawling through record bins for me these days. There are still some amazing record shops (and some new ones too – see my previous post on #RSD2024), but independent artists and labels are still finding new ways of reaching listeners. Bandcamp, Soundcloud – even F**ebook – throw up new, interesting oddfinds. Online record stores too.
One of these label is Warm Agency – “an independent booking agency, record label and online record shop…”, based in Poole in Dorset. They put their money where their mouths are, and have a really interesting roster of artists, as well as specialising in great compilations and re-issues through its label, RE:WARM. It was one of those compilations that drew me in, and is one of the oddfinds in this piece.
WARM is geeky, eclectic and committed to bringing to light gems that have been overlooked and/or forgotten. You can find them on Bandcamp, but they also have their own online shop (RS:WARM) which has a the feel of an old-fashioned couple of record bins you might have found in a backstreet somewhere. There’s old UK soul classics, books, T shirts, 12'' re-releases and brand new albums from artists on the Warm roster. And these oddfind compilations too. What more could you want?
Warm Part 2: HOME Volume 1 - Various Artists
HOME Volume one was released during lockdown in 2021 and curated by WARM boss and producer, Ali Gillett. It’s a beautiful double album featuring a range of artists, and my copy came packaged with a 12" EP of remixes of a couple of the tracks from the album (I’m going to feature this EP on a future Twelve" series piece).
As well as the music, what makes this really special are two other things. The first is the artwork by artist Gareth Fuller, whose intricate map illustration, Purbeck, appears on the front cover of the album, reflecting the Dorset home territory of the Warm Agency. The second is the nature sound recording work by Gary Moore. Short pieces of themed recording intersperse each musical track and give the album an ethereal quality, and bringing it ‘home’. More on both of these artists below…
Each side has a theme. The first, Harbour and Estuary begins with the sound of the Sea lapping, then a Ships horn and the calls of Avocets and Cormorants introduce each subsequent track. Side B is Heathland & Moorland (sounds of Nightjar, Wood Ants, Stonechat and Natterjack Toad). Side C is Woodland & Forest (sounds of the woodland canopy, woodpecker and tawny owl. The final face is Beach & Cliffs (starting with the sounds of the cliff top, followed by puffins, swifts and swallows).
When I got the record, there was such a resonance in hearing these recordings. During lockdown, the noise of birds and surf, wind, rain and the rustling of creatures seemed to come to the foreground. I remember visiting our local beach again - Newgale - for the first time after the first, strict COVID lockdown in Wales was eased. I stood on the stones, hearing the breakers, and watching wave upon wave of seabirds diving into the sea just offshore. Nearer to home, the rooks, gulls, sparrows and swallows – always swirling in our sky, seemed somehow more… apparent. As if they were restoring some kind of balance. Not consciously, of course, but naturally moving into the spaces left by the absence of noise and bustle from human activity.
That bit hasn't gone away. The birds around our way have stayed noisy. The divers have moved offshore again though. Something shifted back when we started to move into our lives again…
Above 1 : The birds around our way (including wind gusting and rooks calling), recorded in my garden on the 6th May 2024.
Above 2: The evening chorus (including rain and minus the rooks who had settled down for the evening) recorded in my garden on the 16th May 2024.
And below, Gary Moore’s Woodland canopy recording from the HOME album..
On HOME, the combination of the music with the recorded sounds is simple and beautiful throughout. It seems like the best of the natural world and the best of the electronic soundscapes that humans come up with have come together. Some of the best music, for me, in these days, holds this tension well, scanning and spanning place and nature with beeps, beats and intricate patterns borrowed from, then returned to the natural world. I’m thinking Craven Faults or Karine Polwart, or even Taylor Swift’s album, Folklore here, as well as a whole swathes of ambient, electronic and folk music with its heart in ‘place’ (more of these to come in future posts, maybe).
Ali Tillett, who compiled this collection wrote this about the process:
"The past year during the pandemic has enabled me to take a step back and reflect on the environment that encompasses us day to day. With those multiple pause buttons on life that were lockdowns, the real beauty of nature and the soundscape around us came to the forefront and shone through as daily life stopped.
Playlist and tracks
The whole album has such a ‘feel’ to it, and everyone will probably have their own favourite tracks. I’ve chosen a favourite from each side of the album, and I’ll come back to the remixes as part of the Twelve'' series in a future post…
The full YouTube playlist, complete with sound recordings and songs is HERE and you can buy the digital or vinyl album from HERE.
Side A: The Fade by Coyote
Like Orbital on slo-mo, with a fade into Cormorants…
Side B: Beyond Because by Brainchild
Mellow, melodic piano-led, jazz ambience to finish the side…
Side C: From Little Seeds We Grow by Fug
A beautiful song with vocal by Jess Williams…
Side D: Doldrums by Âme
Dreamy ambience from German electronic duo…
Postscript 1: Gareth Fuller – Purposeful Wandering
Artist, Gareth Fuller’s website is called Purposeful Wandering. He writes:
“My exploration is in pursuit of authenticity – a compulsion to walk unremittingly, looking beneath the surface of cities and landscapes to discover the distinct systems and stories they hold. The tragedy, romance, folklore, and facts wrought by great metropolises become landmarks within my visual storytelling. I also seek out the secrets of the wilderness, the dead space of places, and the aural maps of people’s lived experience – I'm forever fascinated with our emotional connection to place.”
His work is intricate and detailed, informative and funny, and his illustration, Purbeck, appears on the front cover of the HOME album. It shows the land and sea around the Dorset coastline where WARM boss, Ali Gillett lives and works. I love these connections. Gareth Fuller, for his part, has lived and worked in the UK, Ireland and China. During lockdown, and based indoors in Beijing, where he was living, he came up with The Quarantine and Pandemic Survival Map. He has also drawn intricate and beautiful maps of Beijing, Shanghai, Pyongyang, London and Bristol. And Purbeck.
You can find all his maps and illustrations at https://www.garethfuller.com and information on his Quarantine and Pandemic Survival Map in a Guardian article from May 2020 at https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/may/06/artist-fuller-quarantine-pandemic-survival-map-beijing-global-crisis
Postscript: Gary Moore
Gary Moore (no not that one) is a Bath-based sound recordist. He works on a number of projects, including BBC Springwatch, and provided the sound recordings for the HOME album. Like with many of the connections I find when researching Ziggy’s Lament, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole with Gary’s work. It’s fascinating and essential: who knows what we would lose if it weren’t for people like him keeping the connection between humans and the natural world alive and intact – and also chronicling the changes that herald something more tragic and the loss of species and habitats.
There are lots of videos on his YouTube channel, Moore Sounds - from vintage motorbike trips to Lake Como, to a 40 minute Dawn Chorus (in stereo) from May 2020 (which is highly recommended!). He also tweets regularly on the platform formerly known as Twitter: https://twitter.com/mooresounds and appears in Springwatch vids and elsewhere.
What a find!!!