Crowley

Following its previous album Evoke, with the pianist Timothy End, the Ferio Saxophone Quartet returns with this exciting and innovative programme of works for saxophone quartet and voices. Founded and directed by Freddie Crowley, the Corvus Consort is a vocal ensemble based in the UK, which draws its members from a pool of young singers in the early stages of their professional careers.

Adrian Crowley is a singer, composer, songwriter, lyricist from Galway, based in Dublin and was born in Sliema, Malta. "Some Blue Morning" is his seventh studio album. Crowley achieves a number of interesting and brilliant advances with this collection. The compositions move between sparse dream-state ghost-songs and song-stories to all-out epic numbers with tense nerve-ending strings. We hear essential contributions from members of London string ensemble Geese, cellist Kevin Murphy and singer Katie Kim, amongst others. ‘Some Blue Morning’ was recorded in Dublin with long time friend Steve Shannon.

The 'Cuckoo Storm' might never have been, were it not for a social media post Crowley wrote on a wintery late-night walk in a quiet neighbourhood of Dublin during lockdown. Struck by Waterson's previous album ‘Death Had Quicker Wings Than Love’ (co-written with David A Jaycock), he wanted to mark the moment and pressed 'send' into the ether with no way of knowing what would follow. Drawn to his voice and seeing a kindred spirit in his poetic lyrics, Waterson was touched by his message and responded by asking if he would be interested in working together. His answer was a resounding ‘yes.’

The follow up the successful 'Gary Crowley's lost 80s' Released in 2019. "I count myself incredibly lucky when I think back to my 1980's. A lot of those bands and artists that resonated with me during that time are featured on this, our sequel to our first lost 80s collection, which we have inspiringly titled "GC lost 80s two"! I must be honest and say as soon as I delivered the track listing for the first compilation, I already had a selection in mind for a sequel (if ever I was asked by those cool folks at Demon). Thankfully, they asked…And this is it." Gary Crowley. 65 tracks compiled and themed by Gary Crowley disc by disc. Many of these tracks are rare and hard to find having not appeared on CD before. The better-known artists appearing here are represented by some of their lesser-known ('lost') tracks. Presented as a 4CD media book and including a 32-page book. Includes an introduction and track-by-track notes by Gary Crowley, plus memories of the era from Mick Talbot (the Style Council), corinne drewery (swing out sister), Dr Robert (the blow Monkeys) Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) Andy Polaris (Animal nightlife) and more. "Expect a selection of not only the bigger names with some of their 'lost' Gems, but also a raft of lesser-known artists. Many of the latter came nowhere near the mainstream but most certainly (imho) Deserve another chance to shine under the spotlight. It was such a diverse and eclectic time for music, hopefully this box set mirrors that." Gary Crowley.

Following its previous album Evoke, with the pianist Timothy End, the Ferio Saxophone Quartet returns with this exciting and innovative programme of works for saxophone quartet and voices. Founded and directed by Freddie Crowley, the Corvus Consort is a vocal ensemble based in the UK, which draws its members from a pool of young singers in the early stages of their professional careers. The project was inspired by the Quartet’s 2018 recording, Revive, an album of baroque transcriptions. Freddie Crowley writes: ‘Heinrich Schütz in the preface to his Geistliche Chor-Music, of 1648 (from which four of the items on this album are drawn) wrote: “You can perform some of these pieces […] with an organ or instruments on the choral parts along with a full choir.” The instruments he had in mind were not saxophones, of course, which would not be invented for another 200 years, but I suspect that he might have found them an excellent choice! Schütz intended his collection to be a demonstration of good composition without basso continuo, focussing on counterpoint as the foundation of compositional technique. It is these contrapuntal properties that make his and other baroque and Renaissance music so infinitely adaptable into new forms – transitioning effortlessly onto the saxophone, for example – and the same properties that underpin the four contemporary works on our album, all inspired in their own different ways by music of the Renaissance.’

• Investigates the tales of Crowley "raising Pan," going mad, and working gay sex magick in Paris
• Uncovers Crowley's involvement in the Belle Époque with sculptor Auguste Rodin and other artists and in the 1920s with Berenice Abbott, Nancy Cunard, Man Ray, André Gide, and Aimée Crocker
• Reveals Crowley's "expulsion" from Paris in 1929 as a high-level conspiracy against Crowley