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SORRY FOR LAUGHING (GORDON H. WHITLOW - MARTYN BATES - EDWARD KA-SPEL) - Rain Flowers

Format: do-CD Label & Cat.Number: Klanggalerie gg496 Release Year: 2025 Note: GORDON H. WITLOW (MNEMONISTS, BIOTA) arranged again a collection of tracks, many of them new interpretations of "traditionals", feat. MARTYN BATES and EDWARD KA-SPEL but also other BIOTA members and PATRICK Q-WRIGHT (LPD).. - *"And thats perhaps the album’s most poetic gift: its embrace of the liminal, the marginal, the in-between. These pieces operate in the cracks between genres, between tradition and experiment, memory and invention* [Chain D.L.K.] Price (incl. 19% VAT): €20.00 More Info Sorry For Laughing is a project by Gordon H. Whitlow who is also a member of legendary US avantgarde collective Biota, formerly Mnemonists or Mnemonist Orchestra. Their music is a mixture of modern classical, experimental sounds, noise, industrial, avangarde, songwriting and free jazz. In 1986 Gordon H. Whitlow released a cassette under the name Sorry For Laughing: "The compositions stem from my beginning days with the avant-garde recording ensemble Biota, shortly after completion of the Bellowing Room LP." The album was re-issued on CD by Klanggalerie in 2018 and is still available. Recently, Gordon reactivated the project and changed it from a solo effort into a new supergroup. He says about 'Rain Flowers': So, we arrive again… this time, ensnared in nature’s web, betrothed to tradition. In its next group installment — Rain Flowers — Sorry For Laughing looks out through an organic lens at a world (and a country) nearing disrepair. A love letter characterized by unexpected ironies and chance encounters. The two-disc gallery is adorned with impressionistic new pieces and more than a passing nod to history and lore, with original interpretations, some at odd angles. Add to this, a familiar voice from those halcyon days of post-punk pleasures, and the flower garden is full of psyched-out colours! Sorry For Laughing: Martyn Bates (vocals, piano, melodica, whistles), Edward Ka-Spel (vocals), Janet Feder (guitars), Gordon H. Whitlow (organs, accordion, production), Patrick Q Wright (violin, viola, strings). With Larry Wilson (drums), Tom Katsimpalis (paintings), and Bill Sharp (photography), and featuring Dave-id Busaras (vocals). https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/rain-flowers "And thats perhaps the album’s most poetic gift: its embrace of the liminal, the marginal, the in-between. These pieces operate in the cracks between genres, between tradition and experiment, memory and invention. (...) Rain Flowers is a love letter to imperfection, to collage, to listening with your whole nervous system. Its a record that rewards patience and curiosity, a kind of strange pastoral mass for our scattered, overwhelmed moment. So, sit in the garden. Let it rain. And listen." (Chain DLK, May 2025) "In terms of supergroups, this is probably an Uber supergroup. Started by Gordon H. Wirlow (erstwhile member of Mnemonists and Biota) in 1986 as a solo project for a single release, he released 'See It Alone' (Vital Weekly 1287), a collaborative effort with the distinct voices of Edward Ka-spel (of the Legendary Pink Dots) on vocals, atmospheres and lyrics and Martyn Bates (of Eyeless In Gaza) on vocals and lyrics. Later on, there was also 'Sun Comes' (Vital Weekly 1423), with the help of Janet Feder on guitar and Patrick Q-Wright, a Pink Dots in the 1980s. On this new double CD (well, one-and-a-half CD: the second is 23 minutes), there is also Larry Wilson (drums) and Dave-id Busaras (vocals); the latter a member of the Virgin Prunes. Supergroup or what? Busaras only appears on one track on the second CD. With two distinctive vocalists, this is very much a love-it-or-hate-it release. If Ka-spel or Bates' voice is not your thing, you may find only part enjoyment here. Don't dismiss this out of hand because both, and all involved, have a lot more to offer in terms of atmospheric music. As with many Ka-spel solo releases, he creates a highly atmospheric soundscape and recites rather than sings his texts. Within Eyeless In Gaza, Bates creates similar electronic soundscapes and takes more to song than recitation. Wirlow is the man at the controls, taking the individual elements from the players and making the overall sound painting. I mentioned before his background with Mnemonists and Biota and their 'studio-as-instrument' approach, and this might be standard practice these days, easier, perhaps, but he is the man at the controls and does a great job. None of this is very song-oriented, also defying expectations, I guess, but it all remains on the narrative side of things, in which the music takes the lead, and the vocals support the narrative. Spacious music, in which time is relative, space is infinite, and history looks down from ages; music is as new as old. As before, slow music is to be enjoyed in full seclusion, with no other distractions." [FdW / Vital Weekly # 1481]