Pretz
Sound Castles
Label: I label
Release date: 26th JuneCatalogue Number: ilabelcd02
'Sound Castles' is the eagerly awaited album from writer, producer, jazzmeister, Zero 7 keyboard player and all round talented fella - Neil Cowley. Released on new indie imprint I Label the album is penned for release as the World Cup qualifiers kick into action on June 26th. This little beauty is a dead cert for the final The Brazil of the bunch.
Soulful, spiritual, atmospheric stuff riddles this latest work from our man Mr. Cowley who used to be one half of downtempo dons Fragile State; but now spends as much time touring with his Jazz trio as making the seminal laid back beats you will discover here. Named after a Swiss mountain top village Pretz realized the incarnation that is Sound Castles over the course of a busy couple of years.
A couple of years that we feel Neil best explain for himself in his own words. Quite rightly it's now time for us to hand over the literary reins and leave you in Neil's capable hands to unravel the plot for this his debut solo project and gives us a low down on where he and his music is at. Who needs a biog?
In the summer of 2004 Fragile State released their second album 'Voices From The Dust Bowl'... Hailed as 'sweeping and epic' by the Independent On Sunday, 'an album that outdoes its contemporaries and exceeds all expectations to become one of 2004's must haves' by Virgin megastore and 'a true downtempo dream' by DJ magazine, it reached number 5 in the UK dance charts.
Within two months of its release the record company we were signed to were no more and the band had followed suit. After the initial shock of it all had settled I resolved to pick up the pieces and start again, not at all certain of which path I would take. Both Fragile State albums had been written and recorded at my home studio and it was difficult to exorcise the ghosts of what had become a somewhat tarnished memory. I moved the studio to the damp dark recesses of a friends flat in south west London and spent an entire winter scratching out ideas.
Without the buoyancy leant to the project by a record company's backing or any support structure in place, summoning up drive and a vision of the final outcome was tough to say the least. I started to mistrust my ear and tracks started to consign themselves to the darker reaches of the studio shelving. An opportunity to move the studio came once again as spring arrived. A great aunt of my wife's sadly passed away and left an empty house in the country. The family went about the process of clearing and preparing it for sale. In the interim it was decided that I should act as house sitter and put my studio in it for one last stab at inspiration. Beautifully situated in the Surrey countryside it provided an uplifting tonic to this seemingly flagging project 'Goodbye Ferrers' was born. A reference to the house name, it perfectly summed up the spirit of a house which had been in my wife's family for several generations, and the family emotion surrounding the inevitable loss of it. With the house no longer in the family I am transported to it now every time I listen to that track. Despite this momentary tonic, and without a record deal, I was now almost completely out of love with the notion of studio recording and computer based music. I finally gave in and packed up the studio. The tracks went into the attic and I went about the business of forming a jazz trio whereby I could pursue my everlasting love of playing piano in live situations. I went off to Real World studios in Bath and indulged myself in that particular pleasure for six months with my trio, happily forgetting about the material I had sweated over for the past nine months.
It was only when Chet Selwood of 'i-label' contacted me to enquire about any tracks I had for licensing that the notion of releasing this material began to manifest itself. I pondered very deeply whether I should revisit this material. I decided to send it off to Chet and check his reaction. In truth he was more or less the first person to hear it other than myself. Then began a long process of Chet trying to twist my arm to finish the material and put an album together. It was through his persistence that I began to fall back in love with this album, and find peace with it.
In opposition to my current jazz trio project, this album is about avoiding the improvisational immediacy of live band work, and constructing something that is crafted and controlled from start to finish. With this format I am able to go back time and again until a passage feels right, and really target the mood I have striven to reflect. The Fender Rhodes keyboards feature heavily on this music as, outside the piano, this is my favourite instrument. Like the Fragile State records I have gone for large singing string arrangements mixed with the production techniques that accompany my work of this nature. This project is a million miles away from bouncing off a band of live instrumentalists, but I think hits on something quite unique for me in the process. With hours spent trying to extract ideas from oneself and with no other influence, the result is an extremely introspective, personal, hand in hand journey through the making of an album; with all its emotional highs and lows. It has also proved to me that I still have something to say with my own particular fusion of dance music and jazz/classical roots that have shaped much of my output.
Incidentally the name 'pretz' is in honour of a mountain top village in Switzerland of a similar name where I run off and hide sometimes. My friends father is the mayor of the village, and by honouring his village I'm looking to land a few free holidays!
For more information on Pretz and Sound Castles and new label I Label releases please contact Trailer on:
t: 020 7924 6443 or [email protected].
