Tying up loose ends in the city of the Red Night.

In the summer of 2012 Glasgow’s Broken20 label released Red Night by label head Ruaridh Law of The Village Orchestra (TVO).

Ruaridh started Broken20 after the demise of Highpoint Lowlife and runs it with the help of label-mates Production Unit and Erstlaub. In their own words they release music: “rooted in a particular aesthetic – releases concerned with decay, erosion, entropy, mistakes and errors, line noise and tape hiss, hum and buzz.”

Over the course of its 60 minute duration Red Night took in dusty drones and entropic beats in a style that Ruaridh at the time called “horrible slow techno“.

Named after the William S Burroughs book Cities of the Red Night and taking in the names of those same cities. It was an album I could not wait to hear; as I, like Ruaridh, am a big fan of the authors work. In true Burroughs style the Variations have arrived; five Variations by TVO himself and four by Covered in Sand, better know to some as Shifted.

The five TVO variations are new works written using the same set up as that used on the original album. Again they are dusty and sparse. But they have an energy all of their own and they link new cities to those of the Red Night. Covered in Sand on the other hand goes back to rewrite and reinterpret tracks from Red Night and he does a stunning job. In his interpretations very little happens but it’s the sound of very little happening brilliantly. That is right up until Naufana where the drums have been designed to cave in your chest and beat you into submission. Clouds of white noise and squeals of feedback end the set, or do they?

Those who are quick can order the limited cassette/DVD package. With the DVD containing an extra 40 minute long track called Metaphysics For Beginners (again recorded using the same original set up); a 45 minute recording of the Red Night Variation set recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall as part of The Wire magazine’s Rewired event and a further 10 minute reworking of material from the same set called Some of these mutations are favourable. All of these tracks come with additional videos, but move quickly as they are limited to 50 copies.

TVO / covered in sand – Red Night Variations
Grab

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TVO – Outside The Brighton Church
TVO – Super 8 In Glasgow Tenement
TVO – Albert Hall Chess Boxing
TVO – Concrete and Steel, Peckham
TVO – The Male Is In Room 2, Stranraer (digital bonus)
TVO – Ba’dan (Covered In Sand Interpretation)
TVO – Yass Waddah (Covered In Sand Interpretation)
TVO – Many Lifetimes (Covered In Sand Interpretation)
TVO – Naufana (Covered In Sand Interpretation)
Tape Version Side A
Tape Version Side B

TVO: Red Night Variations (trailer) from Erstlaub on Vimeo.