Motion is an innovative new album by sound artists Toby Marks and Andrew Heath. Although the pair have collaborated on individual tracks and shows before, this is the first album they have worked on together.
Toby and Andrew started making extensive field recordings on trips to the four corners of Britain during 2018. They went deep into Llechwedd Slate Caverns in Wales, explored Suttle Stone Quarries in Bournemouth, hopped on the Swanage Ferry to Poole Harbour, took to the air with the Yorkshire Gliding Club, floated down the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and rode the Bure Valley Railway in Norfolk.
By the end they had a staggering hundred hours of audio in total, which they processed and transformed, blending piano, guitars and electronics, to produce a deeply meditative, endlessly unfolding collection.
Sometimes evoking images of machinery, sometimes of nature, these pieces flow and twist, at all times maintaining a humanity and sense of personal experience at their core. At times intense, sometimes barely even present in the mix, the music enthralls and entices, drawing the listener into a world both seemingly familiar and weirdly unknown – a quite alien, and yet still organic, space, a space which is of this world and yet ultimately of Marks and Heath’s own invention.
credits
released May 10, 2019
Toby Marks - Field recordings, Sound design, Guitar, Guitar synthesizer
Andrew Heath - Field recordings, Sound design, Piano, Electric Piano
All music written and performed by Toby Marks and Andrew Heath
For Stone (west)
with thanks to Llechwedd Slate Caverns, Adam Lemalle, Jeff Smith and The Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth
With Iron (south)
with thanks to Suttle Stone Quarries, Bournemouth - Swanage Motor Road and Ferry Company, Nikki Farmer
In Air On Water (north)
with thanks to Yorkshire Gliding Club, Leeds and Liverpool Canal and Roger Burghall
By Fire (east)
with thanks to Bure Valley Railway, Howard Turner, Dee Hanner and Peter Toll
Ambient, piano based, lower-case music. Quiet and intimate - it explores sounds from both acoustic and electronic sources,
along with processed field recordings and gathered, ‘found’ sounds. This music is not static though. It drifts. It constantly shifts and creates new maps that are full of change but listen carefully and you’ll also hear quiet, random glitches or shimmering dissonances....more
Never have I heard a more intricate yet simplistic ensemble of perfection in sound.
It's hard to pick a favorite track on this album, as every single one is it's own masterpiece. I have a huge library of ambient soundscapes and drones, and this is without a doubt the king of them all.
This album will provide you a genuine experience of drifting through the vast universe in a hyper sleep pod.
10/10 Jonas
Now THIS is the ultimate Christmas-gift..! Deep, soothing, comforting, and above all: classic Steve! This will be on repeat a lot.. Hopefully this will come as a CD/vinyl-release as well! Thanks Steve and best wishes from the heart. Berkdrums
Beautiful, carefully constructed ambient reflection on decay and loss from Portland producer Graintable; each track has its own life cycle. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 23, 2019