accidental records: an independent home for music without compromise

In 2001, as part of the score for a French musical ’Le Defi’, directed by choreographer Blanca Li (pop culture fiends know her for her work in Daft Punk’s influential “Around The World” video), Matthew Herbert was asked to write three pieces for a Big Band. One of these pieces, “Singing In The Rain” attempted to go a step further by incorporating samples of the band, chopping up the existing recordings, looping, splicing and generally manipulating the raw material to create a new and totally distinct version.

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 2002, Big Band’s first album, “Goodbye Swingtime” attempted not to distance itself from the political environment in which it was created. The big band set up of 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 4 saxophones, piano, bass and drums were always considered a set of parameters to work with, rather than a staple of convention. Consequently, working with arranger Pete Wraight, much of what was written ended up more as a jazz orchestral work rather than a Big Band. Herbert took the original Abbey Road recordings, then deconstructed and reconstructed them in an electronic environment.

All pieces were written according to the rules of PCCOM, a series of constraints Herbert imposed on himself to prevent him from re-treading the path of the familiar. Sounds that were added were either taken from recordings at Abbey Road during the session, including forty people banging anything they could find in Studio 2, or noises relating to reading. Artists contributing to the album included Arto Lindsay, Dani Sicliano, Jamie Lidell, Mara Carlyle, Shingai Shoniwa, Plaid and Mouse on Mars.

Now, in 2009, the Matthew Herbert Big Band returns with new album, “There’s Me And There’s You”. Effortlessly wrapping deluxe avant-jazz arrangements around polemical lyrics and artfully selected noises, the album’s dominant theme is power and its abuses in the 21st century. Herbert’s albums always closely interweave medium with message, surface beauty with political subtext. Fans of Goodbye Swingtime, the last MHBB outing, won’t be disappointed: it’s another explicitly political album that combines the cream of London’s session musicians with Herbert’s beautifully infectious songwriting, all underpinned by his deft sampledelica.

Tickets available from: www.synch.gr