Marty Willson-Piper

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RELEASE DAY!

Still in love with The Afterlife? The scent of roses is dissipating into the ether, the blood pumping through your heart is slowing, the last tacky Valentine’s Day card lies discarded on the bed. What now? For those of you that didn’t hear the new Noctorum album The Afterlife before today, February 15th is the official release date and it is now available to order and stream if that is your poison.

GET THE LP | GET THE CD

The reaction from those that ordered the album in advance has been somewhere between enthusiastic and rhapsodic. Those unsure about dipping their toes in the water for fear of a sudden chill can now test the album with the confidence of a warm bath. If you use Spotify, Apple Music and all the other streaming platforms like I do as a place to listen to the albums I’m going to physically buy, you can now look before you leap and confidently fall onto the mattress, into the arms of the fireman, safe and sound, rescued by the huskies, justifying your decision to choose this record to love in the war of choices.

THE AFTERLIFE on Spotify

Noctorum’s fourth album, The Afterlife, a collaboration between me and Dare Mason, is out today on Schoolkids Records. Vinyl first pressings are already selling fast, even the CDs are vanishing in a trail of dust, so get your physical copy, with all the artwork and the words now – while you still can.

Thank you to everybody that has sent such wonderful positive feedback to us about the album. See you out there somewhere on the planet Earth, come and talk to me about the music you love. 💿

Marty

My favourite Albums of 2018 – Artists Pick for [sic] Magazine

One of my most impossible tasks is listing my favourite albums. As soon as I commit, I remember that I forgot something. So when I was asked to do this list for [Sic] Magazine, I was hesitant to get involved. But then I heard the Exit North album and I thought this really is without any doubt one of my favourite albums of 2018.

But it’s still tough because I tend to have vinyl versions of albums that I buy sent to the archive and I don’t really want to stream them for the first experience – but then I can’t really wait. What a dilemma. So, in the end, that week we spent in Penzance at the archive in January did allow me to catch up with the vinyl I had bought so between Spotify and In Deep, this is what I came up with.

Still, I couldn’t just list 10 albums, there were the other 10 albums that I also liked a lot, then there’s the EPs and the Box Sets and what about the albums I’ve never heard of that I know I’m going to like (that’s the odd list of bands you’ll see that don’t exist!)?

Then I thought, oh no it’s already 2019 and what about the albums that have already revealed themselves? Hence the beginning of a list for 2019.
And then there’s the fact that I need to listen to all these albums multiple times and first impressions may be overtaken by a deeper experience. Like for example, Neil Finn’s Out Of Silence.

As usual it’s a pretty eclectic list and as usual, I’ve failed to find any Hip Hop that I really liked although I did discover Dreezy last year. I guess it’s not that big on Electronic Music either although I am a fan. So, what did I miss? Let me know and feel free to post your own favourites on the In Deep website as well as Facebook.

Ultimately it’s all subjective and the list will never cover everything new that has inspired you in a year unless you start keeping your list from January – so this year I’m going to try that even if it’s just to see if my Top Ten turns in to 34 albums.

THE LIST

Winter in Königswinter

Christmas Day, Germany 2018. Here we are in the small Kloster Heisterbach graveyard where half a dozen untended graves, moss-ridden and illegible as to who are the inhabitants, lie worn and almost invisible in the grass amongst the trees. The monastery, built at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century, flourished until the Cistercian monks’ suppression in 1803 and final destruction of the monastery in 1809.

The picture, taken by Charly Wulff, reminds me of McDonald and Giles’ lone album cover from 1971 – or perhaps one other wintry seventies Progressive Folk record of the day. Can one’s musical direction be inspired by the mood of a photograph?

Photos: Charly Wulff

Noctorum’s THE AFTERLIFE – Post Campaign Pre-Orders

Hey All! If you missed out on the PledgeMusic campaign but would like to pre-order the new album (release date February 15th 2019) you can do that here:

LP | CD | DIGITAL

We reached the grand total of 113% on the campaign and Schoolkids Records will be sending out physical copies of the album asap. If you pledged after or on November 1st, you will have to wait a little longer as the label has to get the cover art to me in Germany to personally autograph to you. In the meantime a download is available so you can hear the complete album. Also if you downloaded the album immediately when the campaign ended, please check that you have the right cover graphic (it appears when you play the tracks on your computer) as PledgeMusic inadvertently used an early draft layout until we corrected it. So if you download the files again you’ll get the right artwork as shown below.

Last but not least, there are limited CD copies available of the three previous Noctorum albums:

“Offer The Light” is available here.

“Sparks Lane” and “Honey Mink Forever” are limited to seven and four copies. Contact Olivia at olivia@noctorum.band if you would like to pick up these final copies.

We appreciate all your feedback on your initial listening of The Afterlife as well as comments on the previous albums that help spread the word about Noctorum.

Producing Salim Nourallah’s 9th album in Nashville & Dallas, US Tour Dates & More

Last day of the Nashville sessions at WELCOME TO 1979 studio for Salim Nourallah’s new album. Note: Potential dangerous situation when in producer chair. Characters are (right to left): Joe (sitting) – Guitar, Jason – Bass & Drums, John – Drums & Bass, Salim – Singer/Songwriter, Acoustic Guitar, Sarah – The Label, Moi, Chris – Studio Owner, Nick – Studio Assistant, Rich (sitting) – keyboards. Pic by Olivia

I noticed in these days of short attention spans that the newspapers I read online (The Independent and The Guardian) warn you if an article, that might pique your interest, could be challenging. They call it The Long Read. In fact it might not be challenging at all, it might just not be an empty soundbite, it might be in depth, have detail and try to give good overall information, facts and it might even be stimulating – it might be brainfood. Mailchimp doesn’t seem to want you to do that, get to the point. Well, there is no point except for the pleasure of writing and surrounding facts in eloquent words so as to bring pleasure into information rather than impatience. I never understood Fast Food, why would I want food fast?

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