FIELD

RADIO
ANDREW POPPY ‘…and the Shuffle of Things’

Artist: Andrew Poppy

Title: …and the Shuffle of Things
Release: 27 October 2008
Label: FIELD RADIO
Catalogue: FR1008
Format: CD
Press: ian@ianpeel.com 07775 937494
Web www.myspace.com/andrewpoppy

‘…and the Shuffle of Things’ mixes dark ambient grooves, Schubert and the
funk, classical piano and some oscillators with enigmatic stories of lost
submarines and the head of Orpheus as a football

Inspired by Francis Bacon’s thoughts about the creative impulse and the urge to
collect things” ‘…and the Shuffle of Things’ brings together new compositions,
improvisations and songs without singing.

A homage to the grid. A sequence of different musical objects exhibited together

to form a mesmerising sonic narrative told by the unreliable narrator. A collection
of boxes that refuse to be boxes up in a style.

A romantic piano pattern cut with a wash of stark electronic sound. Sometimes a
drum machine, sometimes urban Beat poet style and sometimes a Latvian Male
Choir with all the dark and mysterious resonance of the forests in Northern
Europe.

Poppy is an eclectic post modern artist whose music has been compared to
Cabaret Voltaire and Philip Glass, Kraftwerk and Cage, Underworld and Adams.
Always mixing it up and moving between the studio and the concert hall, treading
a path between down tempo electronica and the minimalist classical works for
orchestra that shot him to notoriety almost 20 year ago. The BBC Concert
Orchestra recently played Poppy alongside Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman and John
Tavener at the Festival Hall.

‘…and the Shuffle of Things’ is Poppy’s first new release since the electronic
TARDIS which THE WIRE described as “Bewitching, beautifully crafted and
hightly addictive”.

Piano, keyboards, electronics, guitar and spoken voice by Poppy are matched
with performances from the Latvian Radio Choir conductor Kaspars Putniņš, The
Staining Ensemble and the String Orchestra of Fábrica

‘…and the Shuffle of Things’ is also a specially designed stage performance

with videos by Julia Bardsley presented at the Chelsea Theatre on Friday 24
October 2008.
“First,the collecting of a most perfect and general
library, wherein whosoever the wit of man hath
heretofore committed to books of worth…may be
made contributory to your wisdom.

Next, a spacious, wonderful garden, wherein

whatsoever plant the sun of divers climate, or the
earth out of divers moulds, either wild or by the
culture of man brought forth, maybe…set and
cherished: this garden to be built about with rooms
to stable all the rare beasts and to cage in all rare
birds; with two lakes adjoining, the one of fresh
water the other of salt, for all variety of fishes. And
so you may have in small compass a model of the
universe made private.

The third, a goodly huge cabinet, wherein

whatsoever the hand of man by exquisite art or
engine has made rare in stuff, form or motion;
whatsoever singularity, chance, and the shuffle of
things hath produced; whatsoever Nature has
wrought in things that want life and may be kept;
shall be sorted and included.

The fourth such a still house, so furnished with

mills, instruments, furnaces, and vessels as may
be a palace fit for a philosopher’s stone”

Francis Bacon ‘Gesta Grayorum’ (1594)

‘…and the Shuffle of Things’

is a cabinet of sonic curiosities.

is music ‘with’ language

and music ‘without’ language;
and the poetry of language about sound.

is attempting a spurious science

that will tell us where sound ends
and the meaning of words begin.

is staring at the empty shelf

and listening
to the messages that secretly flow
between each imaginary object
and asking what is in the air?

is the life of sound in darkness.

is the act of speaking;

a fiction that sparks the memory
of a lost friendship
or the expectation of a kiss.

is saying ‘dog’ a few hundred times

and watching Mr Woolluf
jump out of the window
and head for the hills.

AP2008
 …and the Shuffle of Things

01 SOMETHING SECRET (8:57)

Speaking Voice, String Orchestra of Fábrica, Celeste, Vibraphone, Harp,
Electronics

02 WET FOLD (6:28)

Piano, Bass guitar, Electronics, Percussion

03 MY STRESS MISTRESS (4:03)

Piano, Electric Organ

04 BALCONY SCENE (3:47)

Voice samples, Electric piano, Vibraphone, Xylophone, Synth Brass
Synth bass, Electric guitar, Percussion

05 WAVE MACHINE PART 2 (2:55)

Piano

06 WAVE MACHINE PART 3 (6:22)

Piano, Electric Organ, Bass Guiitar

07 THE HEAD OF ORPHEUS FOOTBALL (4:35)

Speaking Voice, String Orchestra of Fábrica, Synth, Electric piano,
Drum Machine

08 WHAT ELSE; WHAT THEN NOW (12:18)

The Staining Ensamble: Harpsichord, Electric Organ, Violin, Synth

09 MY FATHERS SUBMARINE (6:58)

Speaking Voice, Male Voice Choir, Electronics

10 ALMOST THE SAME SHAME (10:01)

Piano, Electronics

Performed by AP with
The Staining Ensemble
The Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Kaspars Putniņš
The String Orchestra of Fábrica
Recorded at Arrowfrac.
Mastered by Matthew Denny
Videos: Julia Bardsley
Lighting: Marty Langthorne
Live sound: Fernando Ferrinho
Still image: Glyn Perrin,
Design: Philip Marshal
Composed/produced AP
 ANDREW POPPY SELECTED PRESS 1982-2008

"The finest products of the minimalist mentality - Reich's ‘Music for 18

Musicians’, Riley’s exquisitely impure undertakings, Glenn Branca's
tumultuous The Ascension - rise above the cold consideration of mechanics
and draws the listener into the realms of ecstasy. Cadenza is the track in
question, a mesmerising feature for two pianos that rise and dip like a tea
clipper in a high wind. The effect is breath-taking; it’s superb enough to
make me look forward with optimism to future releases.
LYNDEN BARBER : MELODY MAKER

Time At Rest Devouring Its Secret “is a 35 minute single movement

work of "basically one texture" inspired by Riley's ‘In C’, Reich's
‘Drummin’g and Feldman's ‘For Samuel Beckett’ The light and lean
grandeur of the orchestration recalls Takemitsu: an unpredictable drip-
drop pizzicato of deep double bass and high pitched violin or harp,
mingling with tintinnabulous percussives. Overheard, clouds of strings and
electronics drift and repeat in a kind of bittersweet, melancholy ecstasy
that plays some fascinating psychoacoustic games with time/space and
stasis/movement. Bewitching, beautifully crafted and highly addictive.”
CHRIS BLACKFORD THE WIRE

Poppy first hit the scene as a composer of fierce electronic soundtracks for
Impact, the seminal 80's theatre company. Later, a stint as the first
classical act signed to Trevor Horn's ZTT label won him an underground
pop audience. He never gained the exposure of a Nyman or a Reich,
though, which is a pity, because this is a first rank composer, bursting
with ideas. TARDIS is a large scale piece, in which an endlessly growing
melody is toyed with, split into multiples, played against itself in a random
canon, and hung in the air to spin gently like a child's mobile. Time and
space are suspended, as chiming, plunking and silk-smooth harmonies
seem to progress forever upwards. The Doctor himself could be proud of
this post post-modern, ambient, slightly kitsch, minimal machine music.
RICHARD WOLFSON THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“Despite Poppy's reputation as a minimalist, his best pieces are gloriously

abundant in cascading cycles of notes and noises, with satisfying, circular
chord sequences, using very big ensembles and big-sounding virtual
ensembles with keyboards and samplers. A keen ear for the large-scale,
compositional use of timbre - the qualities that drew him to the cutting
edge technology of ZTT's studio-based culture - is even there in his theme
tune for The Tube, which always sounded huge compared to electro-TV
music. What Poppy brought to ZTT was some genuinely good and serious
work. His music's purpose is often revealed more effectively through the
multi-tracked recording process. Younger composers may take this for
granted, working out their masterpieces on PCs, but Poppy got there
first”.
JOHN L WALTERS: GUARDIAN
 “arriving at a distinctive and melodic approach he demonstrates an
uncanny talent for spreading short melodic motifs over long distances
without causing the mind to wander, using subtle development and barely
detectable changes in orchestration. Several composers have adopted his
approach since, among them Michael Torke and Michael Gordon, but it's
doubtful any of them have made a recording quite like the seminal
Cadenza an almost transcendental piece of music. What will surprise is
the year of genesis of these pieces. Poppy joined the ZTT label some
twenty years ago, hence this commemorative collection On Zang Tuub
Tumb. The other parallel to draw with Poppy is Cabaret Voltaire, for some
of the music takes on an experimental form, fractured rhythms thrown
around for dissection. Nowhere is this more evident than Kink King
Adagio…. an intriguing listen.
BEN HOOGWOOD MUSIC OMH

“The Amusement The obvious successor to The Art of Noise in this

modern composers forceful dynamic production. A captivating and
impressive piece."
DAVE HENDERSON : MUSIC WEEK

"The best things I heard (at the Huddersfield Festival) were a miniature by
James MacMillian and Andrew Poppy's inventively spare and varied Poems
and Toccatas”
NICHOLAS KENYON : OBSERVER

"Noise of industrial labour is submerged in Andrew Poppy's music as

tremendous gathering melange of piano then brass and synthesiser, finally
electric guitar in great slabs of impersonal, repetitive throbbing sound. A
scenario of mixed gestures, solo melancholy and frantic deshabillement....
The Songs of the Clay People remembered by a child, are lost, fleeting
renascent in a grey metropolis of granite rooms.... where excitement is
provided by music which really did strike me as being of exceptional merit"
MICHAEL COVENEY FINANCIAL TIMES

"A ritual for three performers, offstage voices and musique concrete. The
effect is one of animated hallucination on which Balthus and Francis Bacon
might have collaborated: arrogant ascetic, utterly sincere.
JOHN PETER : SUNDAY TIMES

‘Uranium Miner s’ "impressively full of emotional shrapnel."

PAUL DRIVER : SUNDAY TIMES

"His music is consistently trenchant and telling".

MEIRION BOWEN : GUARDIAN

A gift for creating atmosphere the scores virtue lies in the deceptively
languid way it can build up an insidious tension."
MARTIN HOYLE : THE TIMES

" A gripping and unusual evening....not a moment of it is dull and several

sequences are startling.
GERALD KAUFMAN : THE SUNDAY EXPRESS
" Poppy was never solely concerned with pure minimalism and he has now
developed a style of enviable flexibility, fusing a range of so called 'serious'
and 'popular' sources and allowing each to emerge as appropriate.
KEITH POTTER: THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

“Fulfilling all the Liverpool Philharmonics requirements of new music,

Andrew Poppy’s Horn Horn was consistently entertaining as a study in
the comparability of two alto saxophonist. Harnessed together much of
the time , John Harle and Simon Haram were each allowed the occasional
opportunity to emerge on a comparatively thoughtful solo line from their
joint virtuoso endeavours. They usefully offset the heavy industrial activity
in the orchestra which, between the deceptive opening and closing bars
characterises the score as a whole. An admirably high-energy all-or-
nothing performance
GERALD LARNER: THE TIMES

Avalanche Thoughts, are those dangerous cognitive moments that

beckon disaster. Before the audience enters the performance space, we
are met with an exhibition of exquisite objects combining the motifs of
books and shoes enveloped in an understated sound installation. The
video full of blues and whites, is deeply elemental, suggestive of gently
blinding snow or a threat of drowning. The accompanying soundtrack is
similarly beautiful. Shifting like the tide, the piece finally opens up to
piano music by turns melodic and discordant, becoming entwined with
secular incantations, intonations of passion and of danger. In spite of the
"thoughts" of its title, this is essentially a sensory experience. But none
the less a beautiful one.
FIONA SHEPARD MARK BROWN THE SCOTSMAN

Discography

All ensembles directed by AP Contributions of compilations etc not listed

THE BEATING OF WINGS CD (7/85) ZTT

32 FRAMES FOR ORCHESTRA /THE IMPOSSIBLE NET 12 INCH ZTT
THE AMUSEMENT 7&12 INCH ZTT
ALPHABED CD (8/87) ZTT
UNDER THE SON CD
RECORDINGS CD (9/92) BTRAP
OPHELIA/OPHELIA (95) Impetus
RUDE BLOOM (95) Art Gallery
BLOOD SUGAR CD (99) BTRAP
TIME AT REST DEVOURING ITS SECRET CD (00) Source Research
RUNNING NAKED THROUGH THE GARMENT DISTRICT CD (03)BTRAP
ANOTHER LANGAUGE CD (05) There Music
ANDREW POPPY ON ZANG TUUM TUMB 3CD(WINGS/BED/SON)(05)

For more detailed biography see www.myspace.com/andrewpoppy