The Summer Sang is the name songmaker John Cooper has used for his musical output since distant college days playing alongside Dave Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack) and Richard Walker (AMP) in the short-lived but seminal The Secret Garden. Since, The Sang has drifted in and out of human form gathering an unfeasible number of former collaborators to its extended family, including Deep House eclectic Richard Davis and ModeM's Miroslav Stebivka, both of whom are responsible for introducing many crucial influences to the mix.
John's admittedly hazy sense of timescale has nevertheless allowed for guesting with Art Punks Mower, Dark Folk sophisticates Khaki Hamlets and old bandmates AMP. For AMP he provided the haunting Satie-esque piano piece at the centre of "Songe" from their Kranky release Stenorette.
Stars In The Dust is the product of much living and listening, drawing in many influences but always maintaining a simplicity and emotional honesty to its drawn-from-life narratives. Written, recorded and almost entirely played by John himself, and mixed at home and at AMP's Hilly Studios, SITD's mode of production has allowed for a highly personal but highly accessible album, soon to be available as a free download from the sheBear.
Chas Seeley
sheBear
Blue Sky Sinking
In the process of working on our Blue Sky Sinking project, the blue sky has pretty much sunk and the villainous lies of our overlords have become transparent. Our “unjust king†has been replaced by another equally unjust king, and this fate awaits their spiritual leader. (We would, however, like to wish our cousins every luck with his replacement, whoever that ends up being. We all need a bit of your luck).
Ahead of completing Blue Sky Sinking (and when will that be? At our current rate of progress it could just about be ready as our unofficial soundtrack to the 2012 London Olympics) we thought we should present five working mixes for your listening pleasure. Their mood is sombre (not many laughs here … well, not intentional ones anyway!) but we hope you like them none the less. The mastering (such as it is) has been left dynamic - so if it sounds quiet, turn it up. Please download them!
Now, we'd better get back to work, or the world as we know it will end before we finish (and how I wish that was just a figure of speech). Gotta get Lee Delamere on the phone to arrange that 'steel session...
Love and Peace to all beings everywhere
the summer sang
Chas on Blue Sky Sinking
It is a bizarre feature of our age that despite the rising waters lapping at our feet (both literally and metaphorically) it is considered by many to be ‘uncool’ to comment on the flood. Why are we more afraid of being seen to state the obvious than we are of the consequences of remaining silent? What number has been done on us that we should prefer the rules of the schoolyard to politics, even to the politics of our own survival?
Here, resolutely uncool and begging your attention, are five new songs by The Summer Sang. Described by the band as falling, musically, somewhere between early Elton John and late Scott Walker, they do indeed touch on the MOR balladry of the former and the edgy abstraction and pitch-dark worldview of the latter. But the style of each song revolves around its content. There is no lad-mag irony or onanistic formalism here – just simple songwriting.
In a world where lazy, flippant ugliness in art is too often mistaken for gravitas, The Summer Sang recognise that an artist’s hardest (and perhaps only) job is not just striving to tell the truth but striving to tell it in a way that is beautiful.
All they need, (at the risk of stating the obvious), is someone to tell it to … which is where you come in.
Chas Seeley
sheBear
