Hamosity: Music in Hard Times

In memory of Sean Mannion (1969-2020)

As the year turned last December, my thoughts were on the launch of the first CD, Helix: Music for Hard Times ... on the scores, the conductor, and musicians, on the venue and rehearsals, on the invitations and catering, and on the coming to fruition of more than 30 years of composition. Yes, I’d heard of Wuhan (Manchester’s twin city), and, yes, I’d noted the ‘strange flu’ news from China, but, as 2019 morphed into 2020, like everyone else, I had no idea what lay ahead. When the UK’s first ‘lockdown’ came into force, all my planning for the launch concert fell apart (as did the plans for events and plans and concerts and occasions up and down the country and across the world). And for musicians, for those earning their livelihoods through music, work dried up overnight, and the role of music for our collective well-being was greatly diminished.

This new album, Hamosity, was already in my mind, but its production in 2020 ... the product of isolated recordings during lockdown ... was the result of a desire to maintain both an income stream for the musicians with whom I am privileged to work and also to contribute to the well-being of musicians and all those benefitting from their craft. The full title - Hamosity: Music in Hard Times - is intentional. These days of locked-down musicking involved  eight months’ of recording by 20+ musicians playing one, two, and sometimes more instruments. It’s been a sonic jigsaw assembled by Sam Gee whose own diverse performance skills grace this new album to complement his recording, mixing, mastering and production, all undertaken with patience, calm, kindness, and boundless enthusiasm.

Hamosity is endeavour which celebrates musicking in all its forms, and it challenges the pandemic erosion of music-making. The title comes from a decade or so (from 1995) of journeying in Greece, Bulgaria, and elsewhere in south-east Europe (the Balkans) - weeks spent in the metropolises and the mountains, immersed in the sights and sounds around me. It was a time, too, of personal contentment, of music, and musicking. A key aspect of my work in those days was the hamos (xamos), the unexpected, the chaotic, in which, and through which, everything seemed to develop. The CD takes its title from Hamosity Horo (2002) a piece which tries to capture that spirit of mayhem, destructive at times but also generative.

Composer: Richard Fay
Mixing & Mastering: Sam Gee

Cover Art & Illustration: Claire Loveday
Graphic Design: Sam Gee

 Recorded in isolation during lockdown, and in Manchester by Sam Gee at Levenshulme Baptist Church.
© Copyright 2021 Richard Fay