We are thrilled to announce that contemporary British balladeer Merz, will release a reinterpretation of his acclaimed album ‘No Compass Will Find Home’ via Everestrecords and Accidental on 18th November. You can stream the lead song ‘Toy’ via the link below. We hope you enjoy the song.
It was three years ago in Bern, Switzerland, that acclaimed British pop musician Conrad Lambert, known as Merz, met Swiss drummer and sound artist, Julian Sartorius. Sartorius was drafted in as percussionist for Merz‘s album ‘No Compass Will Find Home’, “A rewardingly challenging folktronic affair that covers huge thematic and sonic territory” wrote The Sunday Times in their Album of The Week review. An album containing “consistently thoughtful songwriting” according to The Guardian.
Lambert’s richly detailed and expansive songs have now been reconstructed. At the hands of 32 year-old Julian Sartorius, this re-interprative album ‘Drum & Vocal Renditions’ illuminates as well as radicalises ‘No Compass Will Find Home’, Sartorius applying the same rules and operational methods to Merz‘s song variations as his epic audio-visual ‘Beat Diary’; no electronic effects appear on the ten renditions, overdubs are used but every beat is actually played, every sound is real.
’Drum & Vocal Renditions’ is primal and at times unsettling: a variety of percussion instruments sound-out during the album’s full-length playing time - from quiet goat bells arising here and there, gongs, an Mbira out of the dark and drill-machine-like toys, all while Lambert’s untouched vocal meanderings draw us in like a compass offering the way through the woods. Incidental sound miniatures serving as stabilising elements help guide the listener en route through these previously unexplored soundscapes, making this first collaboration between the two artists’ labels (Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records and Everestrecords) into a noteworthy happening.
UK PRESS FOR MERZ’S 4th ALBUM ‘NO COMPASS WILL FIND HOME’
“Marvellously edgy” – The Mirror
“Rattling psych-pop, a bass heavy litany of unease” – Uncut Magazine
“Lambert is a consistently thoughtful songwriter and this is an exhilarating blast of ideas” - The Guardian
“Merz has demonstrated he belongs in the upper echelons with his latest solo offering” – The Line of Best Fit
“Folktronic troubadour Merz and electronic kingpin Matthew Herbert have made an eclectic gem” - MOJO Magazine
“A rewardingly challenging folktronic affair that covers huge sonic and thematic territory without ever obscuring Lambert’s gift for clarity” - The Sunday Times
Tracklist:
1. The Hunting Owl
2. Judge
3. Lauterbrunnen Miniature 1
4. Goodbye My Chimera
5. Arrows
6. Lauterbrunnen Miniature 2
7. Our Airman Lost
8. Toy
9. Lauterbrunnen Miniature 3
10. No Compass Will Find Home
Web Links:
http://www.merz.co.uk