MOAT Archives - Marty Willson-Piper

Hey All,

We finally made it out of the studio after three months working on three different projects in beautiful Penzance, Cornwall:

1) “One Day” – the instrumental album by Atlantæum Flood, which will be released on Schoolkids Records in November.

2) “Poison Stream” – the second MOAT album. It’s currently in my Swedish/German partner Niko Röhlcke’s hands, as he completes overdubs, including strings, horns and piano in Stockholm with a projected release in 2020 also on Schoolkids Records.

3) I added some final guitar touches with Noctorum partner Dare Mason’s help to Salim Nourallah’s new album “A Nuclear Winter Feels Warm”, that I produced in Nashville and Dallas last year – it will be out in 2020 on Palo Santo Records.

More details of all three projects coming soon via our newsletter including me singing backing vocals on the new Diesel Park West album “Let It Melt” (appropriate with the heat this week) and playing with Swedish Progressive legends Anekdoten in November in Norway. Plus there’s one more digital EP coming that relates to the PledgeMusic situation with some songs you haven’t heard related to “The Afterlife” album and a couple of extra cool covers one of which recently appeared on the Bandcamp rarities selection.

The other one has never been released. Standby for details.

In the meantime, here in Germany, Olivia and I are rehearsing for her local area summer festival in the small town of Bad Honnef next to the Rhine that will have us playing four shows in odd locations, one in a flower shop, one in a cafe, one in a courtyard and one on the street! Details in the banner. Variety is the spice of life.

After all this we are off to Europe’s biggest Progressive Rock festival, hosted by Olivia the last four years, where we will see the latest incarnation of Tangerine Dream (unfortunately without the great Edgar Froese), Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets (unfortunately without Syd Barrett) with Nick playing a whole lot of songs from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn to Meddle (can’t wait) and a resurrected Steve Hillage looking back at his great guitar orientated cosmic albums with the new Gong as his backing band (unfortunately without Daevid Allen, should they have been playing alone). Nostalgia is so now! It seems that key missing members don’t stop the enthusiasm for the music, perhaps especially when they have left the earth. Also on the bill are Liverpool’s Anathema, IQ, Steven Wilson collaborator Tim Bowness and French band Lazuli amongst others.

If we don’t see you in Germany in July we will be back for the Acoustic Festival Düsseldorf on September 7th after a spell in August at the In Deep Music Archive, curating the collection for posterity.

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Have a great summer in the North and a great winter in the South.

Love from Marty and Olivia

We are in Cornwall as May arrives and another large-numbered birthday looms (May 7th). We are working on the instrumental Atlantium album’s release and considering the financing for the second MOAT album’s recording (all songs written). In the wake of the ongoing PledgeMusic scenario and the attempts to recover and honour the outstanding monies owed to all the artists and the music that the pledgers contributed to, we are left patiently wondering what the outcome will be as we hope for a sign that this can be resolved positively so we can move on.

Although the MOAT album wouldn’t be released until next year, at some point we have to decide on a crowdfunding platform but recording has to commence so at the end of a campaign, it’s ready to go. These days records are often recorded over longer periods as you try to raise money, try to match up schedules with your collaborators and try to survive in a world where the price of two coffees, a muffin and a croissant would buy you an artist’s latest CD but the value of one seems to seriously outweigh the value of the other. As Mark and the Chameleons said, Strange Times.

Also trying to figure out how Olivia and I can play more shows in the world as we enjoy the synergy of violin and 12 string and the reinterpretation of songs from all the albums that I have been involved in. There is of course the album version of us that Olivia and I need to make together – old songs, new songs and songs yet unrealized.

One wonders if time itself needs to stand still in order to complete all these projects, plus, there’s more collaborations on the horizon that I will share with you as they become real.

In the meantime another amazing review came through, this time for the RSD release of Hanging Out In Heaven.

There are still some copies available at Schoolkids Records online store – if you’re quick.