The Last Outpost of Empire

EP · DL · 2018

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The Last Outpost of Empire is the soundtrack to a podcast called A Lonely Isle, conceived and written by Matthew Sheret.

Matthew and I had been talking for a while about doing a project together of some kind. In conversation, he told me about a book heā€™d found about a strange island in the Atlantic Ocean. It had captured his imagination, and that was contagious.

"Birkin's chamber arrangements for piano and string trio brimming with atmospheric and melodic intrigue."

MOJO ****

"Birkinā€™s music has to rise out of a blank-faced sea, adding features through sound with surges of quiet power, and that helps in providing a memorable image of its understated and modest appearance. The island is described through its instrumentation as well as its personal accounts. While narratives recount the experiences of those who have been there, through music, we are able to go there, too. The music is a splash of colour, bringing light to monochromatic syllables, making it real and graspable even as it hooks into the Atlantic.ā€

Fluid Radio

As Matthew says in his narration, it is an island that ā€œexists in opposition to everything around itā€. Because it is featureless, it is those things that people talk about in order to define it. The music Birkin created therefore conjures the waves, collisions, grandeur, weather, peril and navigation.

ā€œThe chord sequence for the main theme was written by sitting at the piano and applying the navigational method of ā€˜dead reckoningā€™ – that is, deciding where to go next depending on your last point. The result was a strange set of arpeggios that never seemed to settle.ā€

Matthewā€™s story is less about an island than it is about the personal stories of the few who have been there…their persistent and strange fascinations and obsessions. For Birkin and Sheret, this project was a strangely persistent obsession that formed over years.

ā€œIt seems strange to hire a string trio and create a sweeping score for a podcast episode, but thatā€™s what I heard in my head when reading Mattā€™s script. His fascination with Rockall became my fascination, and so it had to be done.ā€

Credits

Written, recorded, performed and mixed by Richard J. Birkin
Engineered by Robin Newman
Mastered by Joe Caithness
Violin: Clare Bhabra
Viola: Richard Muncey
Cello: Deirdre Bencsik

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