We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Water of Life 7", prints and essays

by Water of Life

/
  • Limited edition package: 7" record, prints and essays.
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The package includes:

    * Hand letterpressed folder on recycled card
    * Set of six art prints by Tommy, riso printed using soy inks on recycled paper
    * Set of five essays by Rob on water, art and the environment
    * 7" record pressed on recycled vinyl, with handpainted labels
    * Download code

    The package is limited to 300 copies, released on 9th December 2013.

    More information: www.edinburghwateroflife.org/overview/water-of-life-set-of-art-writing-and-sound-released/

    ---

    "it questions perceptions of, and boundaries between, natural and man-made contexts; it demonstrates the inextricable (and harmonious) relationship between nature and industry, science and mythology; it reflects a constant, yet constantly unknowable, source. It gives water a voice." - The Quietus

    "blurs field recordings with folksong, vintage synths and ambient electronica to create something at once natural, unnatural, and in perfect harmony with its source." - The List

    "A fascinating and ambitious project that tests the boundaries of what we perceive as music in the environments we live in" - The Vinyl Factory

    "These tracks, an ‘alternative travelogue’, evoke memories of 1970s Tomorrow’s World style programmes about a brave new world and as such fit into the hauntological universe of acts such as The Advisory Circle and The Eccentronic Research Council. This music really should be sountracking a BFI release of archive footage. Artefacts like this come along rarely and when they do often do not reach the level of thought, care and quality of Water of Life" - The Active Listener

    "aquatic synths burble alongside pulsating geyser beats and hydrophone chronicles, buoying the double helix allure of coursing waters: a becalming surface simplicity that, on closer inspection, reveals an unceasing shape-shift of busying audial information" - Record Collector

    "Water of Life may be the evolution of field recordings. Presented in an enormously appealing package, the 45 is accompanied by letterpress artwork and a series of essays that address Edinburgh’s water flow. As the first edition of the larger Imagining Natural Scotland project, it makes a wonderful first impression, and an even better second impression as the listener delves into the structure of the recordings and the background of Edinburgh. Is it possible for people around the world to be interested in a Scottish water system? Amazingly, yes. In the same way as a good novel makes one care about characters and settings that one has never visited, Water of Life makes its subject seem so interesting that the music itself seems almost an afterthought." - A Closer Listen

    "Water Of Life underscores the significance of water at every level, and indeed the importance of art: it re-maps our physical and imagined landscapes; it changes our perceptions of our day-to-day surroundings; it makes us reassess the world(s) around us, and beneath our feet." - The Herald

    ---

    Recordings made with hydrophone, ambient and contact microphone recordings of rivers, spring houses, manhole covers, pub barrel rooms, pipelines and taps are mixed with the peals and drones of 1960s transistor organs, harmoniums, Swedish micro-synths, drum machines and iPads: a blend of the natural and unnatural; modern and antiquated; hi-fi and lo-fi. Drum beats were sampled from underwater recordings, and reverbs created using the convolution reverb technique to recreate the sonic space of different bodies of water.

    Many of the sounds collected around Edinburgh and used to make the record are available on a sound map here: www.edinburghwateroflife.org/sound-map/.

    A: Sources and Springs / Abercrombie, 1949 (4.30)

    Side A begins with a set of field recordings taken at the start of Edinburgh’s water network - the sources and springs at Talla, Harperigg and Comiston - slowly merging into a tune for Edinburgh’s imagined and unseen landscapes inspired by Abercrombie and Plumstead’s futurist vision for the city in 1949.

    B: Liquid City / The Shellycoat (4.32)

    Side B is about confluences through the city: the pipelines, storm drains and sewers leading to sanitation and the sea, ending in a set of voices singing an excavated children’s song about a watery spirit said to haunt the Pennybap boulder by Seafield Sewage Works.

    Additional voices on 'The Shellycoat' by Ruben Bee, Clarissa Cheong and Neil Pennycook.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Water of Life 7", prints and essays via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more

    Sold Out

1.
2.
“Shelly-coat! Shelly-coat! gang awa’ hame, I cry na’ yer mercy, I fear na’ yer name.”

about

Tommy Perman - artist and musician (formerly of FOUND), www.surfacepressure.net - and Rob St. John - environmental writer and musician, robstjohn.co.uk - began the Water of Life project in June 2013, aiming to use water as a divining rod for exploring ideas of 'naturalness' in Edinburgh’s urban environment. Water of Life is an alternative travelogue, where water is a conduit for exploring new geographies: field notes from a liquid city.

---

The package comprises: a letterpressed folder on recycled card, a 7" record pressed on recycled vinyl and a set of essays by Rob and prints by Tommy exploring the themes of the project, riso printed using soy inks on recycled paper.

The package is limited to 300 copies, released on 9th December 2013.

Recordings made with hydrophone, ambient and contact microphone recordings of rivers, spring houses, manhole covers, pub barrel rooms, pipelines and taps are mixed with the peals and drones of 1960s transistor organs, harmoniums, Swedish micro-synths, drum machines and iPads: a blend of the natural and unnatural; modern and antiquated; hi-fi and lo-fi. Drum beats were sampled from underwater recordings, and reverbs created using the convolution reverb technique to recreate the sonic space of different bodies of water.

Many of the sounds collected around Edinburgh and used to make the record are available on a sound map here: www.edinburghwateroflife.org/sound-map/.

A: Sources and Springs / Abercrombie, 1949 (4.30)

Side A begins with a set of field recordings taken at the start of Edinburgh’s water network - the sources and springs at Talla, Harperigg and Comiston - slowly merging into a tune for Edinburgh’s imagined and unseen landscapes inspired by Abercrombie and Plumstead’s futurist vision for the city in 1949.

B: Liquid City / The Shellycoat (4.32)

Side B is about confluences through the city: the pipelines, storm drains and sewers leading to sanitation and the sea, ending in a set of voices singing an excavated children’s song about a watery spirit said to haunt the Pennybap boulder by Seafield Sewage Works.

Additional voices on 'The Shellycoat' by Ruben Bee, Clarissa Cheong and Neil Pennycook.

credits

released December 9, 2013

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Water of Life Edinburgh, UK

‘Water of Life’ is an art-science collaboration between Tommy Perman and Rob St. John exploring flows of water through Edinburgh.

contact / help

Contact Water of Life

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Water of Life, you may also like: