The (Fallen) Black Deer - Requiem - Vinyl

It's a miracle the record you are holding in your hands ever happened. Josh Graham and I had been discussing the possibility of Red Sparowes recording a Latitudes session before they came over to tour the UK in the Autumn of 2006, and the studio time was duly booked. I got fleeting messages and missed calls as the shows progressed and began to get the feeling it just wasn't going to happen. For the first time in the history of the Latitudes series, we were going to have to scrap a proposed session. Ever the optimist, I carried on discussing it with Josh, and a new idea coalesced. Greg Burns and he were eager to fulfill the commitment and still set on entering the studio to improvise their own soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's classic The Shining, particularly concentrating on the last half of the film where Jack Torrance slowly loses his fragile grip on reality and the inevitable conclusion draws in. At this stage, I must say, I wasn't confident of them being able to pull off such an endeavour with no preparation time and in the midst of a big tour with their 'day job' band. I needn't have worried. Listening to the crystalline melodies, ominous drones and confident ringing peals the duo composed on that day, I am sure that you, the immersed listener, would have received no clue as to the fraught, hurried and hanging-in-the-balance nature of the session in question. Without the benefit of these notes to explain the situation, you would just have ten tracks of gloriously evocative, cinematic soundscape to enjoy. And like the best of this ongoing series, a never-to-be-repeated masterpiece. - Tony Sylvester, February 2008.