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Helix: Music for Hard Times
Released 1 January 2020
Listen to the album on bandcamp.com
The music in this recording has been over thirty years in the making - the earliest tune in the set, The Bay of Biscay, was written in 1985; the most recent, Dusk in 2018. The nine tunes included here belong to different moments as my musicking has ebbed and flowed around the business of living, and flavoured by all that was happening around me at each moment.
These tunes also reflect my growing and shifting musical influences over these years. It's been a long period of musicking, of working this seam of changing ideas. Over the last decade, my contentment and confidence in this music has grown through performance, writing, and arranging with ensembles (e.g. Hard Times Orkestar, Hard Times Kapelye, and Levvy Metal) and for shows (e.g. Amidst the Mirk Over the Irk: When Klezmer Meets Irish; and Vessels of Song: Journeys into the Worlds of Klezmer).
It's been a period of sustained support and encouragement for me from a wonderful and diverse collection of musicians, too many to mention here but all greatly valued. So, it feels right to be now putting out some of these tunes with which I have been living all these years. They have come of age perhaps.
Composer: Richard Fay
Mixing & Mastering: Sam Gee
Creative Direction: Frankie McCormick
Project Management: Méabh Kennedy
Graphic Design: Sam Gee
Cover Art: Peter Seal
Album Illustration: Mary Burke
Recorded in Manchester by Sam Gee at the Grade 2 listed St. Cross Church (1863) in Clayton and at Levenshulme Baptist Church.
© Copyright 2020 Richard Fay
Musicians
Katherine Blumer: clarinet
Bob Dinn: trumpet
Jacqueline Fay: cláirseach
James Heathcote: cello
Mabon Jones: violin
Sarah Keirle: viola
Méabh Kennedy: violin
Jemima Kingsland: flute
Daniel Mawson: bass clarinet
Sheila Seal: piano
Nina Semertzidou: violin
Delia Stevens: percussion
Sophie Sully: double bass
Imogen Trinder: flute
Angela Usher: tenor banjo