SHEDBAND: THE FIRST ALBUM
Welcome to Versailles
If possible please listen on headphones or a good stereo system
Track 1: The Imperial Cosmic Oyster (Opening)
The Imperial Cosmic Oyster is a mysterious and enigmatic creature that can be found floating in the vastness of deep space. It has a shimmering, iridescent shell that glows with the light of a thousand stars, and within that shell lies a pearl of unimaginable value.
The oyster is said to possess the power to grant wishes and unlock the secrets of the universe, but only to those who are pure of heart and truly deserving.
It is a rare and precious creature, much sought after by cosmic travellers and intergalactic adventurers alike who seduce it to open with an ample supply of Transcendental carrots and Translunar vegetables.
Track 2: Lullaby for Shedland
Birdland was a New York Jazz Club that opened in late 1949. The name was as a reference to Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker, although he did not perform there very often. George Shearing wrote 'Lullaby For Birdland' in 1952 as a theme to be played at the club every hour, on the hour. Shearing stated that he had composed "the whole thing [...] within ten minutes.” The chord changes were from Walter Donaldson's 'Love me or Leave Me.'
By a strange coincidence ShedBand’s improvised version of the tune was also created within about ten minutes.
Shedband often use the idea of subverting a 'standard' as a starting point for their improvisations.
Track 3: No Trace
The text for this improvisation was created with the help of Wordle. Each day playing Wordle generates a short list of five letter words. On one occasion the words were:
TRACE
CIGAR
SMOKE
RURAL
SCRAP
These words were then used to create a short text, with each word appearing in the same order as they were on Wordle - 'There was no trace of cigar smoke in the rural scrap merchant’s yard'.
Meanwhile the image on the right was created entirely by AI responding to the words of the text.
In
Track 4: Trans Saturnian Rings
Join ShedBand as it embarks on a psychedelic, sci-fi adventure in sound and music travelling over, under and though Saturn’s seven rings that circle the planet at high speeds.
It's a difficult and dangerous journey through a cosmic swirl of diamond and pearl particles of rock, dust and ice - a labyrinth of light, colours, shapes and textures.
In
Track 5: Hello Time!
In this track ShedBand attempts to grasp the essence of time through a series of futile greetings summarised in this four-dimensional representation:
geometric plane hello time curved looping flatness hello time exquisite twisting fractals hello time fullness of number creating this dimension hello time you caught up with us we to you with by from ablative absolute grammar time each word the point the shifting geometry hello time point point point word vanishing-point delete delete hello time hello time promised accessible infinity really imagine ‘imagine’ imagine are we not we less than the dots on the ‘i’s in ‘imagine infinity’ or the inverted commas or love unfolding hello time
In
Track 6: 3-IN-ONE
3in1 started life as three different improvisations. Unfortunately the recording equipment was not working well that day with the result that there was one fully recorded piece and two shorter segments from two other improvisations. While editing the complete track, instead of fading from one piece to the next, as was with the original intention, by chance the two segments pasted themselves over the first creating a composition that rises to a chaotic climax before calming down again and ending peacefully.
And all at the same time as it lubricates, cleans and prevents rust.
In
Track 7: Imperial Cosmic Oyster (Closing)
Meanwhile the album's closing track reveals that The Imperial Cosmic Oyster is in fact a skittish illusion perpetrated by the Bronze Age tribe who really believed that the spirit of the Dead transmigrated to those of ground-nesting bees, which were copious in the meadow-lands nearby.
These Bee-Whisperers knew of the palaces and temples below the ground and how to access messages from departed loved ones. They also understood the correspondences between the stars and the apparently random locations of bee-stings on the human anatomy, by means of which the future could be accurately foretold.
In order to keep such knowledge and skills secret from the neighbouring so-called Bewildered Oyster Catchers of Wibbly, they spun yarns about the Imperial Cosmic Oyster. The Bewildered Oyster Catchers were thus fooled into thinking it was the Cosmic Oyster that imparted great knowledge and skills rather than the Bee-Whisperers, and supplied them with copious amounts of Transcendental carrots and Translunar vegetables in exchange for carefully selected non-threatening pearls of wisdom.
In
Get in Touch
CONTACT
shedbandinfo@gmail.com
ShedBand is based in Canterbury UK - home of The Canterbury Sound
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