Philip Sanderson - On One of These Bends

 

Side A

A1. Bright Waves

A2. Tale Chase

A3. E for Echo

A4. Viewfinder

A5. Everything He is Not

A6. On One of These Bends

Side B

B1. This is Not a Game

B2. Mixing Drinks & Aeroplanes

B3. Scene of the Crash

B4. Echo Complex

B5. Watertight

B6. Maps

B7. Looking Back

 

All music and lyrics by Philip Sanderson except: Bright Waves (Sleesenger/Sanderson/Tallis), Viewfinder (Sanderson, Denton), This is Not a Game (Sanderson, Ball). Philip Sanderson plays: VCS3, vibraphone, DX7, Roland SH-101, Roland TR-606, Revox tape delay, acoustic guitar, Yamaha FB-01. With: Bright Waves - vocals Nancy Slessenger. E for Echo - voice over Patricia Hosking. Viewfinder - guitar Michael Denton. This is Not a Game - keyboards Steven Ball, voice over Patricia Hosking & Tony Raven. Mixing Drinks & Aeroplanes - vocals Naomi, fretless bass Steve Rose, vibraphone Michael Denton. Maps - vocals Naomi.

 

Credits:

Format: LP, 500 copies

Release Date: 2018

Label: SÈance Centre

Catalogue Number:1SC

Sleeve Design: Alan Brian. Rear sleeve photograph by Philip Sanderson. Front images from various films by Philip Sanderson, and Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball.

Remastered from the original reels by Brandon Hocura

 

Notes:

From the back sleeve: On One Of These Bends is a collection of unreleased songs, soundtrack work and obscure cassette-only pieces from the 1980s which reflect a shift in focus towards film and moving image. It was a departure from the more industrial music Philip Sanderson had been making with his group Storm Bugs, having more in common with Nino Rota and Henry Mancini, albeit as seen through a DIY lens, and with a reel-to-reel orchestra comprised of an EMS VCS3, vibraphone, DX7, Roland SH-101, Roland TR-606, tape delay, acoustic guitar, fretless bass and Yamaha FB-01. On two numbers, Philip jokingly asked an American chanteuse to "sing it like a cross between Streisand and The Shangri-Las", and to his surprise she did. Counterpointing this are tracks such as E For Echo made with just an acoustic guitar, and the very first piece Bright Waves which combines the choral vocal talents of Nancy Slessenger with a Revox tape delay system, originally released on Snatch Tapes under the pseudonymous Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey.

 

These tracks are presented with the "picture turned down" so to speak, and as such the music acts as a kind of memento mori for the absent moving images, and maybe even for the decade itself. Remastered from the original reels, DMM pressing.