Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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$14USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Epic improvisational pieces Church & School on 4 sides of delicious vinyl in a beautiful gatefold cover with various inserts and visual pieces by Peter Liversidge. Only 100 copies.
Ships immediately when records have been manufactured.
Includes unlimited streaming of Church / School via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more
Includes unlimited streaming of Church / School
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
On February 19 2019 I had an experience that changed my life completely. I was walking home in the late afternoon and shortly before I got to my house I had a sudden realisation. I knew exactly what I was supposed to do as a musician. In one electric moment I received this information all at once - everything on songwriting, recording, improvisation, lyrics, mixing, performing...EVERYTHING. It was a moment of inspiration but I knew this revelation was permanent. I was in now.
I could trace my steps back in time and find precisely when I had been in this place before. Those short periods I had perceived as moments of inspiration and I had believed that they were coincidental, fragile and completely out of my control. This time I was in there for good. It felt like curtains had been opened.
My first reaction was: Now I´ve finally gone mad. So I didn´t mention this to anyone. My great fear of losing grasp of reality suddenly looked very likely. So I made a plan. The following weekend my family would not be in town and I was going to spend that time trying out all those ideas that suddenly were right in front of me. If the outcome would be horrible then I could just accept that I had lost my mind.
I drove my family to the airport and when I got back I went straight to the church and started recording. I played the amazing Steinway at the church for almost thirty minutes and this was like a wave of music pushing forwards into the world. No thought, just music pushing its way into the world.
Then I walked over to the school and I recorded there until morning. I recorded drums, bass, keyboards, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, guitars, vocals, percussion and horns, and violin, and so on and so forth. I walked home and slept for four hours and then kept going. This was going well but I also felt like I must be sliding into mania. I recorded and started mixing two long tracks that weekend, worked almost constantly, and slept very little.
When the weekend was over it was time to put this music on the scale and see if it was good or if I was losing touch with reality. I was confident this was the greatest music I had ever made and that my revelation was real. The music I made over that weekend is in your hands, those two pieces called Church and School.
I am still in that place of wonder and revelation and I will stay there as long as I´m granted access.
credits
released October 30, 2021
Written and recorded by Benni Hemm Hemm in Seyðisfjörður
Vocals on Church by Guðrún Ásta Pétursdóttir
Photographs & Cover Artwork by Peter Liversidge
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