Le discourse du désir,idées et vision

Cindytalk interview in French for Obskure Digital Magazine.
02/10/2009 - Bordeaux
Photo by Max Lachaud

Cindytalk Interview by spaewaif
Broadcasted Nov 23rd 22.30 pm (European time) at Canal Sud,Midi-Pyrenees 31

Twice-Wired!!

British music magazine Wire has reviewed
"The Crackle Of My Soul" twice!

Poésie Noise Minimale

"The Crackle Of My Soul" is officially released today on Mego Records.
Described by Cinder as "poésie noise minimale" in a recent interview for Elegy Magazine,this is Cindytalk's first album since the 1995 release of ‘Wappinschaw".
Join this journey of memories and premonitions,of shadows for possible futures...

Available on iTunes




"Today is the official release date of our new album The Crackle of My Soul.It's been a long time coming - I started recording it in Long Beach, California, as early as 2001 and it wasn't properly finished until 2006 in Kobe, Japan.A further 3 years later and it gets a glorious release on a very special label.A massive thank you from Cindytalk to Peter Rehberg and everybody at Editions Mego.They have been wonderful beyond words, exactly the kind of label we always dreamed of being involved with.This is the follow-up to our 1995 album Wappinschaw and though much has been done in between (Bambule,Darkmatter Soundsystem & unfinished album "FieryPlanetEyes") I'm personally very happy with this album as the natural follow-up.
Listen loud and on headphones if you are interested.
Cheers, Cinder x."
(From Cindytalk's myspace blog)



"Since the early ‘80s, Cindytalk has transformed from post-punk band to experimental electronic improvisation ensemble. Eight years in the making, The Crackle of My Soul marks a new transformation of Cindytalk's sound, a new step in the abstraction of the group's music. The sheer fact that it is released by Editions Mego (synonymous with glitch electronica and experimental noise) is a sign one shouldn't ignore. For this outing, Gordon Sharp has worked alone, in three different studios, to concoct a gorgeous set of shimmering high frequencies, delicate rumblings, and obliterating white noise. Forget the song-based approach of the early days: this is sound-sculpting, the transmogrification of raw thoughts into sounds without harnessing them to melodies or beats. The music on The Crackle of My Soul has the depth of Fennesz's best work but some of the harshness found in the works of Kevin Drumm and Pita. It's a subtle blend, a heady one too, as the album takes you on a continuous journey, all tracks sounding like variations on a single theme (except for a quiet piano-based piece). "Signalling Through the Flames" and "Transgender Warrior" (the latter previously released on a 7" EP) are the highlights, but the overall quality of this album is very high, and it is clear that a lot of thought and care have been put into its composition. An impressive comeback."
(by François Couture,review for Allmusic)

Artaud,Rimbaud,hip hop and a sardine...

Cindytalk play tonight at L'Embobineuse,Marseille together with KK Null and Evil Moisture.

...époustouflant...

La plus petite ville du "Cindytalk tour 2009", Cherbourg, aura sans doute été le lieu d'une des plus belles performances.

Après des répétitions magiques au cours de la balance de l'après-midi, donnant lieu à de nouvelles constructions sonores-vocales. L'atmosphère a commencé à se charger d'une énergie très particulière, comme si de miniscules choses se mettaient en place avant l'arrivée de la nuit.

Progressivement la salle s'est remplie, dépassant les 120 personnes, des amateurs énamourés du groupe, des curieux, des oreilles ouvertes aux expériences sonores. La soirée a été une inoubliable montée d'adrénaline et d'émotions.

Vers 21h, les Cherbourgeois de Minh [May] ont su harponner le public en propulsant leurs titres toujours en équilibre entre groove et tension. Une ambiance à la fois chaleureuse et attentive, propre à cette salle si particulière. A nouveau l'Epicentre s'est mis à respirer et à trembler sous le feu des plages énergétiques de Minh [May] plus en verve que jamais.

Le changement de plateau a permis de transformer progressivement l'ambiance. Quelques titres coldwave, post-punk et electro-pop plus tard, un dernier X Mal Deutschland puis le silence.



Après la mise en place minutieuse des musiciens: Shrill au laptop, Gary Jeff à la basse, Paul Middleton à la batterie et Dan Knowler à la guitare. L'attente et la tension sont devenues palpables. Entrée de Cinder dans un élégant kimono bleu, cheveux rougeoyants dans des jeux de lumières subtiles et minimalistes, puis le groupe a initié une lente introduction, une montée entre brûlure, caresse et stridulations. Le chant tout d'abord rentré, introspectif et intérieur s'est progressivement déployé vers la salle au rythme ondoyant et berçant des vagues sonores. Pendant près d'une heure, les plages imbriquées et enlacées se sont succédé. Sculpture sonore, poésie totale, temps en apesanteur, instants de magie, coeur et épiderme mouvants sous la peau de la musique. Au milieu de ce temps suspendu, des échos du "Prince of lies" et du titre fantôme final de "Wappinschaw". La morsure noise-industrielle du nouvel album "The Crackle of my Soul". Un concert transformé en véritable création sonore et émotionnelle en direct.
Dans le public, des personnes magnétisées, se balançant ou "explosantes-fixes" (cf André Breton). Une vague finale, expérience sonique, guitare en spasmes noise, sons électroniques comme tressés et abrasifs, la basse bousculant les fondations rythmiques comme des effets sous respiration artificielle et un incroyable désossage de la batterie, Paul démontant ses cymbales puis jouant tel un scratcheur mutant et tribal, écho au chaos de Neubauten.
Un membre du public le rejoignant pour prolonger les vibrionnantes stridences et fracas des cymbales tournicotantes. La voix se retire, les sons s'éloignent, de lointains échos sonores.

Puis s'élèvent des cris, des hurlements, des applaudissements, après cette heure d'osmose. Près de dix minutes pour remercier, exprimer l'énergie reçue et partagée et demander un rappel.
Le groupe ne revient pas, laissant émerger le désir.

L'impression d'avoir vécu des minutes hors du monde.

Une nouvelle fois, l'Epicentre aura été propice à d'étranges espaces de magie. Trinity tient à remercier vivement le public, les bénévoles, l'équipe de l'Epicentre et les trinitéens présents pour avoir contribué à la réussite de ce moment.

Stanislas
lundi 12 octobre 2009

Cinder & Dan photo par F.D. (Trinity)
Cinder&fan photo by Ed Luna

"Prendre le public par la peau du cul..."

"En tout cas, le show ils savent ce que c'est. Ils démarrent sur un truc très calme, mais ils savent prendre le public par la peau du cul et l'obliger à rentrer dans leur trip. Tous calés comme il faut (et sous les spotlights Laughing ), très bonne harmonie, les morceaux qui s'enchaînent de manière über-fluide, on est littéralement ailleurs pendant une heure, et même l'atterrissage est super bien géré."

(Boncamin about the Nantes gig)
Photo by Ed Luna

More photos by boncamin/Jean Delpech:

Japan/UK

Flyer for the Genève gig.

"Few days ago Blind Cave Salamander (as Paul Beauchamp, Julia Kent and myself) played a show in Geneve, Switzerland, to launch our new album "Troglobite", just been released on Shayo. This show has been a double bill with one of my favourite band ever Cindytalk. I've been in touch with Gordon "Cinder" Sharp of Cindytalk for years, but this has been the first time we ever met and i've got to see them perform live. The show went really well and I wanna thank Yann of Shayo and everyone @ L'usine for having set it up, but further than that I' ve to say that not only Cindytalk live set made me cry but that between Blind Cave Salamander and them has been love at first sight and for sure our paths will cross again and there will be collaborations -live/studio/spiritual...- between our bands.
Cindytalk have been far from the scene for a pretty long time, but now they are back with a new instrumental album of very intense and abstract music/sounds that I strongly suggest you to buy; it is titled "The Crackle Of My Soul" and should be out on the first week of Nov."
(Fabrizio Modonese Polumbo of Blind Cave Salamander)

Under Full Sail to Cherbourg-Octeville!

Drums:
Paul Middleton

Guitar: Dan Knowler

Bass Guitar:
Gary Jeff


Electronics: Shrill

Voice/Electronics: Cinder

Cindytalk play at L'Epicentre - Cherbourg-Octeville tomorrow,Oct 10th.

Photography by Jean Delpech

Entretien élégiaque

This month's edition of French magazine Elegy features an interview with Gordon Sharp and a Cindytalk track in their sampler,the unreleased "Old Jack Must Die".
Copies are available here: Elegy E-Shop

Crackles

L'Heretic Bordeaux, Aquitaine
2 Oct 2009
Video by musica eternal

Paris tonight!
Le Klub, Ile-de-France

By the Loire

Photography by Jean D.
Thanks to Stephen Jenn Andersen/No Projekt for the link!

Swisshness

6 Oct 2009 Kab De L'usine
Genève,Switzerland
with BLIND CAVE SALAMANDER



Photo:Cindytalk @ Brighton's Latest Music Bar
Sept. 2009
By GREG NEATE

Cindytalk live in Bordeaux 2.10.2009

Videos created and uploaded by musicaeternal.
A million thanks.

For bigger,better quality clips, go directly to the youtube page:
Cindytalk Live in Bourdeaux

"Au coeur de tes oreilles..."

Cindytalk have just started their French tournée!
Yesterday,the band played in Bourdeaux and tonight the noise and crackle melodies move to "Le Floride" in Nantes.

Guts of London

Video by Shrill,2004

"Guts Of London" appeared in 2003 as the B side to "Transgender Warrior".

(Follow the link or scroll down this page to stop or pause our Ghosts' player).

Tenebrous Waters

CINDYTALK will be warming-up for their forthcoming tour by supporting good friends THE TENEBROUS LIAR at a gig in Brighton next Tuesday evening.

Edina Posters

Posters for Cindytalk's
Voodoo Rooms gig,
Edinburgh Oct 24th 2009.



Design by Andy McGregor

.com

Cindytalk's official website is currently under a temporary look awaiting a proper revamp.
Under the main page's "Fire in Our Eyes",a player reproduces Cindytalk's live set at Otoya Kobe,May 2005.

eMEGO 097,crackling...

Official announcement and pre-order:
emego097

White label

The Archive recently acquired the white label test pressing for The Wind Is Strong.
Cinder mentioned that the handwriting is quite possibly
Nick Ralph's,producer and founder of Midnight Music,the UK post-punk/experimental label active during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Artists on the label included Cindytalk, Robin Hitchcock and The Egyptians, Sad Lovers And Giants,Wolfhounds-who became Moonshake- and MCarthy-who went on to become Stereolab.
Cinder also explained:
"Nick played a huge part in financing,recording and releasing our first 4 albums".

"Equally Insignificant" and "Brain Bomb"

Books containing Freeze/Cindytalk references:
Andy Hutchinson's semi-biographical novel and Mark Fleming's "ride through the highs and lows of mental illness experienced by a Scottish twentysomething".
Andy,long-time Freeze/Cindytalk friend,is a regular of this blog.

Fleming is currently the guitarist in the Axidents and was at a gig in Forfar in 1980 when Twisted Nerve covered the Freeze's song Neutral Zone .This is mentioned in the book together with the "hero" painting "Psycho Dalek" on himself while he says that the song itself is "a futuristic masterpiece".

In fact,one of the chapters in the book is also called
Psycho Dalek Nightmares!

(Special thanks to Ken for his always helpful support!)

In This World. Radio stories.

“PLEASE NOTE: SECOND HALF OF ‘IN THIS WORLD’ IS TAPED TO THE BACK!”

Wheesht

Wheesht by Cindytalk with Alasdair Gray


Video uploaded by Burntime TV.

Music From The Empty Quarter (Mfteq),music magazine
Review of Wappinschaw,November 1995
(Thank you Dissecting)

Mego Press Release for "The Crackle Of My Soul"

(Click on the photo for an enlarged version)

Fugued

Last Wednesday (29/7/09) Cinder was invited to sing during the last part of Peter Rehberg's set at Fugue.

Of this completely improvised collaboration,Cinder has said:
"I interacted for the very last part of the set to computer music of an abstract nature but brilliantly filled with implied melody so for me it was perfect to sing to.I didn't do any "big" singing but rather just put a simple human voice into his machine-music.Disembodied but attempting to connect."



Peter Rehberg,also known as Pita and based in Vienna,is author and performer of electronic audio works and operates the Editions Mego label that will release Cindytalk's "The Crackle Of My Soul" in November.

FUGUE is a "weekly intervention from 7-11pm on the 4th floor and roof terrace of 23, providing a safehouse for the unsafe and unfettered with rarest and various accompaniment. Come get lost. "

(Photos by Shrill.Thank you!)

"The Spirit Behind The Circus Dream"

Video uploaded by musicaeternal.
Music by Cindytalk.
Images from David Lynch's "The Elephant Man"

French Tournée

2009/10/02 20:00 @ L’Heretic, Bordeaux, Aquitaine 33000
Cindytalk plus Oharu and Hypos.

2009/10/03 20:00 @ Le Floride Rue St Domingue, Nantes,
Bretagne 44000
Cindytalk plus Les Modules Etranges,Hide&Seek
and Wehwalt.

2009/10/06 21:00 @ Kab De L’usine, Geneve,
Cindytalk plus Blind Cave Salamander

2009/10/08 20:00 @ Le Klub 14 Rue Saint Denis, Paris,
Ile-de-France 75001
Cindytalk plus Hide&Seek

2009/10/10 20:00 @ Epicentre, Cherbourg,
Basse-Normandie
Organised by Trinity

Cindytalk will also be performing what promises to be a very special gig in Edinburgh
on 2009/10/24 20:00 @ The Voodoo Rooms 19a West Register Street, Edinburgh,
Scotland EH2 2AA
(Cindytalk plus support and dj’s).

Release of "The Crackle of My Soul"

"The Crackle Of My Soul" will be released by Vienna based label editions MEGO on November 2nd 2009.
(catalogue number eMEGO 097)
MEGO are planning to release two more Cindytalk works:
"Hold Everything Dear" and "Up Here in the Clouds".
Excellent news from an excellent label.

Silver Shoals of Light

To the Room

"Shapes of Words or Hints of Words"

In 1984,Issue 4 of British magazine "Abstract" published a three-page article about This Mortal Coil.
I am scanning some of it here since it contains a Gordon Sharp photo that you seldom see,together with questions regarding Gordon's work for Ivo's project.



General scans of the magazine:

Scotland's Punk Rock Heritage

Although The Freeze ceased to exist officially by 1982,I was pleasantly surprised to find them mentioned in an American punk magazine last year.
The Issue no. 4 of Loud Fast Rules,published in the summer of 2008,contains a 7-page special titled "Scotland's Punk Rock Heritage".
Consisting basically of the same review found in the punk77 website (click on this post's title to follow the link)),for a band whose discography comprises just two singles,it is quite an achievement to be remembered after so long!
Interestingly,The Freeze item appears on page 66...

"Wallace Rise,Old Jack Must Die"

(Illustration for Lanark, Book 4 by Alasdair Gray)

pursue this gold this gift you hold
deep within and deep below
scratch and scrape beneath the surface
using bare hands for purity's sake
pursue this love this breath you take

During the recording of Wappinschaw,
a track titled "Old Jack Must Die" was recorded and discarded later.It was felt at the time that it didn't quite fit in the album as a whole.
The main ideas behind the song were possibly covered by other tracks in the album already and this song was finally shelved.
We are recovering it here in our player to pay further respects to Matt,whose powerful bass so muscularly propels the song forward as the heart of the voice and the network of nerves within guitar and drums propagate the signals.
Impulse for change!


John Maclean,USSR postage stamp 1979

One year on

"One year on...
One year since the passing of our dear friend Matt Kinnison.
It has been a very very difficult year but it's clear to me that Matt has been with us (all) throughout it all.
We will never be able to write or perform a single song without bringing him with us.

Love you Matt xxx"

(From Cindytalk's myspace)

Rare Rhino

Original August-1979 87x62cm Rock Against Racism
UK Tour Poster with The Freeze included in the line-up.


The Freeze at Ironmills Park, Dalkeith 1979.

Other Freeze flyers, courtesy of
The Edinburgh Gig Archive:

29th November 1978,Freeze & Johnny Colon at Picardy Place.


15th December 1978 The Damned, billed as The Doomed, support band The Freeze.

"Infinite Archive"

From Freeze Set List. . .

(gig at the Milton Hotel,Fort William,1980)

...to Cindytalk Set List...


(from the American tour,1996)


Official tour poster for Cindytalk's 1996 USA tour.
Full color, approx 17" x 22".

(Thanks to Debbie Wright,Daar and Alexei Luthor)

"Nothing Happens in the Absence of Noise"

The latest number of Datacide (10) includes "SilverShoalsOfLight" in one of their DJ charts (DJ Nemeton from Darkmatter Soundsystem).
The 10" is also sold through the related Praxis Records shop.
Datacide and Praxis have been a massive inspiration to Cindytalk since 1993 and it was Christoph Fringeli who first introduced Cinder to the Jacques Attali quote "nothing essential happens in the absence of noise".

Writers&Musicians

Scott Heim's latest novel "We Disappear" contains an appendix titled "Further Reading and Listening" where he explains the importance of music in his creative process:

"My writer friends think I'm nuts because I often listen to music when I work.
I wish I could create a soundtrack for my books:certain sounds and textures and atmospheres that could accompany the reader's experience of the narrative.
Although I listen to a pretty wide variety of music,there's a certain type I play the most when I write.
It's often instrumental;it's often dreamy,eerie or sad.
Some of the album titles even illustrate the mood of the music: A Strangely Isolated Place;Music to Submerge In or Disappear Through.
Below,I've made an alphabetical list of the recordings I listened to the most during the years I was working on We Disappear..."

The list of author's picks include Cindytalk's "In This World",which he also used as the soundtrack for the
book's trailer.


(Photo: The Boston Globe / Eric Jacobs)

From an interview in magazine "Identity Theory" :

-Have you ever collaborated with a musician in another way, like write lyrics for someone to sing?
Have you recorded any music yourself?

*When I was in college, I was in three different bands. I played drums for years--I tried to emulate a lot of the drummers on Factory Records, heavy on the floor tom, that kind of thing. One of the bands I was in did some demo tape stuff. But that career never got off the ground, obviously. Now, though, one of the greatest things about publishing a few novels is it's made me feel legit when approaching musicians I love--I can send a person something I've published, and say "Your music has inspired me, here's my book." I'd be overjoyed if someone ever asked me to collaborate with them.
I've become close friends with Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk and John Grant of The Czars, but I haven't actually worked on music with them.

Allegro Review

European Reviews

DARK ENTRIES,Belgium

Approximate English translation by Hoshino:

"This is the 3rd release in the 'Art Series' singles by the friendly BlueSanct label, of which Pantaleimon's 7" 'Under The Water' is also part. In all cases, an artist is asked to compose a track, which then is released in limited edition on vinyl. On the unplayable reverse side,it then features artwork by another artist. The choice for this release was the obscure, yet influencial Cindytalk. This project of the Scottish androgyne Gordon Sharp has been releasing albums since 1983; they vary from chaotic and emotional Sturm und Drag over poetic movielike soundscapes to pastoral neofolk with a noisy edge. Besides this, Gordon Sharp is mostly known for his contributions to This Mortal Coil's debut single '16 Days/Gathering Dust' and the subsequent album "It'll End In Tears". This Mortal Coil was somewhat accessible, Cindytalk rarely are. This 10" also excels in unconventionality. In exactly 5 and half minutes Gordon Sharp and Matt Kinnison lead us through a dark soundscape, mixed with Sharp's half-muttered vocals... to end in Cindytalk's noisy side. They will (hopefully) never get tired of it... This piece wouldn't have been out of place on the more acoustic part of the two-piece 'In This World' or on their soundtrack 'The Wind Is Strong' made for the movie 'Eclipse'. To those who can't get one of the 500 copies of this little gem, there's hope: BlueSanct already hinted that Sharp & Co are again recording. To coincide with this release, Cindytalk have been performing live again for the first time since... 1994(?).
Who will bring them to Belgium soon?"



SANDS-ZINE,Italy

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~~.~.~.~~.~.~.~.~.~.

"...Outside history is falling like snow..."

In the mid-1970's,Gordon Sharp went to see the legendary Van Der Graaf Generator many times.
They were a fairly strong influence on the music of The Freeze and Cindytalk.
Currently their drummer,Guy Evans,plays with Subterraneans.

Debbie Smith,of SPC Eco,Curve and Echobelly,was in one of London's first lesbian punk bands,Mouth Almighty.
Debbie Wright,once a Cindytalk member,also played with them.

On Dec 10th 2008 Cindytalk have been invited to play a gig alongside Subterraneans and SPC Eco at The Gaff,London.

"Quivering with reflections of the future..."

" QUIETLY BURNING ON A SUNDAY NIGHT

Water flowing / feather burning
Angelic drone floating
A bell chimes (several times)

The voice

Multitude of sounds - ever heard of sonic constellations ? -
Always up
NOIZE poetry
LOUD very LOUD
Attacked
Almost surrendering
Still...
Going UP UP UP

And then

DOWN
CRASHING INTO THE SEA

Calmness of the endless horizon
The gentle moving of waves

To the bottom of the sea, she sang (mermaid cindy doll)
Quietly burning / quietly drowning
Caressing guitar chords... unexpected

Down to
The bottom of the sea

Like luminous fishes dancing into the Abyss

That was Cindytalk that night
10/12/08 @ the Luminaire in Kilburn London "

(Photo and text by Fabrice. Many thanks! )

The work behind the silver

Today sees the official release of "SilverShoalsOfLight" on
Bluesanct Records.
This 10" vinyl is a limited edition of only 500 copies on black vinyl with a screenprinted b-side and letter-pressed sleeve.
The sleeve was created by Chicago-based Rebecca Ann Rakstad of
Rar Rar Press.
Rebecca does letterpress printing using handset wood and metal type and a Vandercook Universal I press to stunning results.
Here we have stacks of the printed letter-pressed sleeves:



The offset printed front:

This is the plate on the press for the back side of the sleeve:

Rebecca decided to make a poster with the remaining extra paper and came up with this!:

Type used for the poster:

The vinyl print on the b-side of the record featuring the image at the top of this post was made by Keith Wright at What Press.

Choiced

Time Out magazine lists tonight's Cindytalk gig at The Luminaire as one of their Critics' Choice...

Luminous Silver

"CINDYTALK will be celebrating the release of their 10 inch vinyl picture disc release on BLUESANCT Records on the 12th October by playing at the LUMINAIRE
(311 High Road Kilburn London NW6 7JR - tel 020 7372 7123).
We are obviously hoping to have copies of SILVERSHOALSOFLIGHT with us for sale on the night but add a note of caution that it is being sent over from the U.S. especially for the event,so fingers crossed that it arrives on time.
We will be selling the record for a special £5.
The song was written between Matt Kinnison and Cinder and following Matt's death earlier this year.
Some of the money from this sale will be going to an elephant sanctuary in Africa.
Appearing with us at the LUMINAIRE will be JOHN & JEHN plus TENEBROUS LIAR - who will be celebrating the release of their new album LAST STAND on TV Records.Doors will open at 7.30pm.
£5 for tickets in advance/£6 on the night.
We would very much like to thank everybody who came to see us at the 12Bar in June - it was a great night and we hope to see you all there again on the 12th."

A Day at the Museum

Matt Kinnison's memorial at the London Natural History Museum was a very special event.
Among other things,it involved a quiz where the attendees had to go round the museum's premises answering simple questions relative to stuff Matt had an interest in,therefore interacting with Matt and the place itself.
A previously unreleased track was especially finished for this event and has been added to the player.
"Vitriol In Memoriam" (For Matt) features music composed by Matthew Kinnison and Neil Woodbridge on which Gordon Sharp was invited to sing on.Words come from a poem written by Matt and Gordon some time ago.
A "Matt pack" was given out containing a CD,a booklet of Matt's illustrations,a wooden elephant,a letter by one of Matt's close friends,Sara Crowley,the words for Vitriol (scroll down the page) and a packet of freshly ground coffee!

Photos


One of the last band rehearsals Matt attended in 2007 before stopping altogether due to his illness.
Band members at the time (from left to right):
Matt Kinnison,Paul Middleton,Andie Brown,Gordon Sharp.

Matt lost in bass,2007
(Both photos by Shrill)



People standing looking at the sign for Matt's memorial,wondering why the dinosaur was called Matthew Kinnison!


Quote by John Berger found inside the museum's Emerald Room.
John Berger is the author of "Hold Everything Dear",part of the inspiration behind the upcoming Cindytalk release of the same title.
(Photos by Cinder)


Quote on screen (photo by Andie Brown)

Thank you to all those involved in organising the event and those who attended on this very special day.

Memorial Dance

A memorial celebration for Matt Kinnison will take place today in London's Natural History Museum.
My thoughts are with all those attending.
Since Matt was very fond of Stockhausen,I am dedicating this bit of dance to him.As said elsewhere,"forever with us".

"Helikopter",music composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen and performed by the Arditti String Quartet.
Choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj.

"The Next World"

Spaewaif asked freelance artist Len E. Burge a few questions regarding his animation short film "The Next World" with music by Cindytalk.

1.Could you tell us a bit about yourself?

This is always a hard question for me but I'll try. I am a 41 year old sculptor living in Ventura Ca with my bride to be and our three wonderful children. They are my life and ultimate inspiration!
As for career,I am a freelance sculptor-artist-animator-toy designer-inventor or whatever someone wants me to create. I'll find a way. My interest in creating film or video only comes when it is a total creative and free process. So, I don't do it very often.
I am currently creating sculpture work that I lightly manipulate on a computer to create images from my brain. This is my first endeavor in total inspired art that I would love to show in galleries. Finding the right gallery is another story.

2. You once wrote this self-introduction:
"My work borders on the edge of the pre-sleep imagination.
That space right between consciousness and unconsciousness where brilliant thought might enter the feeble mind."
I can very much relate those thoughts to Cindytalk's own work.When did you become acquainted with Cindytalk's music?

High school 1983?.
A friend's mother lent me some very interesting records. The one I fell in love with was the first "This Mortal Coil" .
I then learned of the different artists like Gordon Sharp and the different labels creating great new music.
An amazing awakening.
As for "Pre-sleep imagination and brilliant thought entering the feeble mind",this is a state I hope and wish everyone on the planet and beyond might feel at some point. Where consciousness and unconsciousness meet. They blend to reveal thoughts or many patterns of thoughts changing and revealing images or thoughts totally forgotten by the waking mind. The feeling that you have all the answers in the universe and that you are totally aware, BUT! You wake up. Often times the waking mind will erase this and make it feel too simple. Maybe so you will forget and go on with your daily routine. Maybe it's too soon for evolution of the mind to take place. I don't really know. Anyway, the end.


3.Your short film "The Next World" features music from
"The Wind is strong".
When Gordon Sharp and I talked about it,he was particularly impressed with the way the images fit the music.
How did you script the film? Did you first weave music into images or images into music?

"The wind is strong" is probably my favorite record I hold right up there with other ambient works from Eno to Budd. This kind of music is like a soundtrack to my life-work. Enhancing creativity rather than distracting. Creating a dream-like atmosphere in which to work to.
I knew which track I wanted and I knew the look and the style of the film. So, I sat down and created timed storyboards.
That is essential to animation because time is of the essence and every frame is used.
Obviously, I am very indebted to the great work of "The Brothers Quay", their work is amazingly flawless and beautiful.
With "The next world" I was going more for an old fashioned German expressionist style.


4.Time and its fragile but inexorable passing seems to be one of the themes of your film.
I am also curious about the character that falls down from above after peaking into a world seemingly beyond their position inside the clock...
Can you tell us more about the main ideas behind it?

The first little character in the film is under the impression that it controls and maintains the timeless dimension of "The next world". In his lonely curiosity he discovers another entity behind the scenes, so to speak. This startles him so he falls, destroying his outer shell and revealing that that he is the simple metal frame that he glimpsed in the beginning. Distraught, he sits and ponders when the real caretaker comes to meet him. Arms outstretched, he remembers and goes with the caretaker. The caretaker shows him the door to the next world. He enters and starts the cycle over. He will continue to repeat this life until he gets it right.
This is how I view life. Repeat until you get it right. I hope I'm getting it right.

5.The figures in your film are so full of life yet so fragile! Which materials did you use?

This film was very "green": 97% recycled wood and antique parts from an old film studio. Having only $10,000 to work with this was a necessity that really worked out well.

6.When did you film this work? Also,there seems to be a funny connection with Schindler's list...

I was approached, I think it was 1994?, by a rock band. They wanted me to direct an animated video for them. They only had $10,000 so I said I would if I had total creative control. They agreed. I made the Cindytalk film.
Then I put their music on a copy and gave it to the label. Nothing happened with it except for the experience and enjoyment of film making for me.
The studio I was working with supplied me with 35mm color film. I really wanted black and white. I called a lab and they said they would trade the color for leftover Schindler's list stock. So,of course! It was the highest quality b/w film on the market at the time. I was very lucky.


7.Which other Cindytalk music would you put images to?

So many! Well, Snowkisss would be wonderful although I really like what someone did on youtube. Very interesting. All of the Wind is Strong. That would be nice.


The Wind Is Strong was released in 1990.
Cindytalk members for this "diversion" were:

Gordon Sharp
Ivan Unwin
Matthew Kinnison
Paul Middleton

Ghost Drift Images: Cindytalk at the 12 Bar 30 June 2008

This video excerpt includes the following tracks
(laptop material in lower case, band performances in upper case):
I Walk Until I Fall (partial) | A USEFUL MELANCHOLY | If We Meet,
We Meet In Silence | PRINCE OF LIES | Shibuku (partial).




"There can't be many groups who I started listening to almost twenty-five years ago who are still going, let alone ones whose output still means much to me. In fact, of the handful of artists whose work I liked then and who are still active, none has released anything that has struck much of a chord with me for quite some time. The people who I tend to think of as my long-term favourites came slightly later, in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Only one band I was listening to at the age of sixteen still has the power to intrigue and excite me and that band is Cindytalk. The wayward, enigmatic Cindytalk, whose last "proper" album was released in 1994 (though a couple of subsequently planned releases have surfaced via the internet). The band who I'd only ever seen perform live once, in late 1995 at the Dublin Castle in Camden. The band who I'd ever wondered if I'd see on stage again.



It's funny how things go. They did a gig towards the end of last year in London, but I couldn't make it. A couple of months ago, I found myself enthusing about them to a friend of a friend. I ended up re-immersing myself in their albums, making a compilation CD of what I considered to be their most intriguing material. This influenced one of my written pieces at the time. Then, a few days later, a London gig was announced.


Chance, or fate? Who knows. Where Cindytalk are concerned, anything is possible. A band cursed and blessed: cursed with a considerable degree of bad luck surrounding the ownership and re-releasing of their back catalogue; blessed with an extraordinarily singular vision, an individuality and a purity that has seen them charting solitary territory throughout their existence. A band without peers, with all the joy and terror that this implies.



The problem I always have with Cindytalk when trying to convey their appeal to others is trying to encapsulate them in a way that does them justice. I used to describe their debut album Camouflage Heart as "the soundtrack to my dreams". That's probably a more honest reaction than rattling off a list of comparable band names, but it's also the only approach I've ever been able to take. They don't sound like anyone else.

So, here's my conundrum: how do I review this gig? For a start, it comes with a weight of expectation, the pent-up appetite of over a decade. All critical faculties desert me as I approach its convulsive beauty. The most realistic tack would be to say nothing, to urge you to click on the YouTube excerpt above and experience it for yourself. And yet, I'd feel rather selfish doing that. I need to try, at least, for the people who couldn't be there.



The set lasted around forty-five minutes. It was mixture of ambient laptop backing and four-piece band performance. Straightforward, in many ways: guitar, bass, drums, vocals. Oh yes, those vocals. Gordon Sharp still has one of the strongest, most beautiful voices I've ever heard. A voice that connects with something elemental yet floats amongst the stars, matched by a musical backdrop of considerable subtlety and power.



In fact, the music was something of a surprise. If there's any long-term trend to Cindytalk's output, it seems to be one of de-structuring and dissolution. However, the band performance was remarkably melodic and song-oriented, amongst the expansive, ambient electronica of the backing material. Also, it was great to hear the excepts from Ghost Dance (a favourite film of mine) featuring as part of the set.

Watching Gordon on stage, I'm thrown back to that first startling moment when I heard his voice on This Mortal Coil's unexpectedly compelling 16 Days Gathering Dust cover version. I'm sixteen again, alive to the overwhelming possibility of the world: the potential, the beauty, the desire, the rawness. And yet, here we are: I'm forty and I feel no different. The ongoing journey has only made these things more precious.





Cindytalk do this to me. No amount of hyperbole is going to frame it, express it or contain it. They are, utterly, without doubt, one of the defining bands of my lifetime. I wish they were more well-known, but at the same time I know that the very things that epitomise them work against that. If they start playing gigs more regularly I might stand a chance of becoming more objective and critical. Until then, I'm content to be overawed."

Video & Words by Stuart aka Hydragenic
Photography by Richie Young


Set list:

The titles in capitals are those played by the group, the rest are the tracks played as part of the laptop set:

How Soon Now... | Above The Paving Stones, The Stars | SPEECHLESS CAGE | Fly Away Over Here | Hanging In The Air | LOST BETWEEN US | Maglev | WIDENING THE FOCUS | From The Mountain | I Walk Until I Fall | A USEFUL MELANCHOLY | If We Meet We Meet In Silence | PRINCE OF LIES | Shibuku | OUTSIDE OUT | Signalling Through The Flames | A Distant Kite | The Eighth Sea | MY DRIFT IS A GHOST |...until we disappear...


More images from the gig can be found at
Poison Creeper's Concert Attack page

Drawing near

"SilverShoalsOfLight" Bluesanct Records update:

"We've had a bit of a longer wait than expected on this one, but it's
because we want it to be PERFECT... and it going to be so gorgeous, I
promise you!
Esp. in light of the passing of Matt Kinnison, this release must SHINE
brightly and resonate with everyone who sees and hears it.
AND IT WILL!
We have the vinyl pressed: CHECK.
Colour front of sleeve: CHECK.
Letterpressed back of sleeve: soon.
Screenprinting of vinyl b-side: in progress.
The backside of the vinyl is a gorgeous half-toned photo of reeds
reflected in water... it's taken many different tests to get the image
half-tone correct. We've finally got a stunning test print, and are ready
to do the final printing of all the vinyl.
SO, thanks for sticking with us, and it will be worth the wait...
shouldn't be long before I have a price worked out, and then we can do
pre-sales to be sure you all get yours before they go bye-bye... I expect
it to sell quite quickly once released. SOON SOON SOON!"

"Above the paving stones,the stars"

"This rare live performance by Cindytalk, will feature two live sets in one.
An abstract and minimal electronic set will intermingle with a partly improvised set of new material by a full band line-up, featuring singer Gordon Sharp alongside long-time Cindytalk drummer Paul Middleton, bass monster Gary Jeff, laptop obscurist Sherrill Crosby and new guitarist Daniel Knowler."
(From Tenor Vossa Records website).

Band line-up currently rehearsing:

GUITAR


ELECTRONICS


VOICE


DRUMS


BASS

Both Hands Turn To Heaven (Matt Kinnison RIP)

Long-time Cindytalk friend and collaborator,Matt Kinnison,died on wednesday 7th of May.Matt who had been part of the Cindytalk family since 1982 (having co-written "Under Glass" from the Camouflage Heart album) had been ill with cancer for some time.He died peacefully at around 11am after deciding he had endured enough.I saw him a few hours earlier and let him know that his spirit would continue to shine through all of our future work.And whilst it was very difficult to see him so close to death,he had almost never looked more beautiful.It was an absolute privilege to spend that time with him.He told me he was 16 when he came to audition for Cindytalk (when David Clancy and I lived up in East Finchley in 1982) but we subsequently discovered he'd lied and was only 15.I thought he was too young to be considered as our bass-player at that time but had a strong feeling that here was somebody very very special, somebody that would get better and more interesting through time.He proved me right and more.He wasn't always the easiest person to work with,he didn't just have foibles he had FOIBLES... but he was more than worth any effort made and he showed that time and time again,especially with his bass-playing and tape manipulations on "The Wind Is Strong" & "Wappinschaw".We had been in rehearsal to play live when he had to stop due to a shoulder problem which was later diagnosed as lung cancer.We had also been working together on new material over the last two years,notably, "For The Benefit Of All" and "Silver Shoals Of Light",both of which were written by myself and Matt.A new Cindytalk album, again written between Matt and I ("Hold Everything Dear") had just been completed before Matt's condition worsened,rendering him unable to create any new sounds.Cindytalk label touchedRAW had been planning to release Matt's stunning album of yayli tambur pieces "Evenings Of Ordinary Sand" but had been held up due to the petty deception of our back catalogue being stolen.But we will endeavour to bring that plan to fruition as soon as possible.Matt always worked very hard with his music and he did so right up to the end.He will be sadly missed by all those he came in contact with.Rest in Peace Matt,seek out those corners,wherever you are.You will always be with us.We love you.

Gordon Sharp/Cindytalk

Matt,

You asked me for a shaman to help you on your way... this was written some time ago but maybe i can imagine you near and i'm whispering in your ear...

this journey is fevered
and i'm moving between the lines
in a corner of the sky
where it's dark around the edges
where pity holds sway.
i'm trying to stay dry
for now
hot then cold
i'm slipping in and out of focus
at times i hover
then i'm still
maybe for days.
and then like now
i'm falling
flying
swooping...
like the golden eagle
i can see all things from this vantage point.
i hear you sigh
lost in that distance
of warm bodies
of silver shoals
of light
of flying too..
it's never cold up here
even when it's snows
even when i'm naked.
and you on the edge of adventure
close your eyes
close your eyes
close your eyes
we're falling
flying
swooping...
touching wings
like the inuits kiss
up up up
into the cool blue sky
caressing..
i change my name from icarus
to shaman ghost-echoes
and take my place at the mouth
of every river
dancing with the wind
with the moon
with the love of a million stars
embrace..
and when you reach that edge
and a long long long way down
close your eyes
close your eyes
close your eyes
and feel the ghost echoes...

(Originally posted by cinder on cindytalk's myspace)

Wishing you well in your next journey,Matt.We will be listening...

Flickered Fiction

I recently found this fictional cover for "It's Luxury" by Cindytalk fan Robin Parmar and it made me think about the scarcity of Cindytalk singles.
Is there any particular reason for that?

"Glaciales et psychotiques.Unique et fascinant".

That's how French magazine Elegy describe "It's Luxury",the Cindytalk track included in their Sampler 52 that accompanies the magazine of the same number.There's also a one-page review of the ill-fated reissues:

Minty Archaeology

Despite having released just two singles,The Freeze's repertoire live was surprisingly large.Some of those songs can be rediscovered in David Clancy's youtube project (see Links list).Last year I came across a four band compilation EP from an Edinburgh label called Playlist Records that contained a Freeze reference.A track by "Twisted Nerve","Neutral Zone",was "based" on a song "written by Gordon Sharp for and perfomed with The Freeze".



Any recollections of this song?

Craigmillar,the place

On 30th April 1978, the Anti Nazi League/Rock Against Racism (RAR) march and carnival took place in east London's Victoria Park.The succesful and seminal event was repeated in other parts of the UK and was also held in Edinburgh's Craigmillar Park in the summer of 1978.
As seen in the programme,The Freeze also joined the occasion but The Clash never turned up...Another band,The Scars had to hurriedly leave the stage ... : Freeze biker gang?!

"From the Mountain"

Demo track from "Hold Everything Dear"

Photo by Cinder

SilverShoalsOfLight Updated

"So here is another update on the CINDYTALK 10" out soon on Bluesanct.Most importantly, WE HAVE THE VINYL! and goodness is it pretty and it sounds FIERCE! I was on tour with a friend for all of February, during which time I had hoped to have the b-side of the vinyl screenprinted with the image Gordon gave me... Unfortunately, the image was too detailed to work out, and so we are looking into other ideas for the screenprint, hence the delay.In the meantime, I hope to sort out the sleeve this weekend, and shoot it off to the printers...AND SO...We are making slow, but sure, progress... I will update everyone again soon, with pre-order info and a price, so you can be the first in line and be sure to get a copy of this gorgeous piece of sound and vision by CINDYTALK! All good things...Mkl."

Photo by Spaewaif

Magic-Revue Pop Moderne

The January issue of French magazine Magic included a two-page review of the reissues.
Thanks to Stanislas (Trinity) for the initial information and to Christophe Basterra,author of the article,who kindly sent copies.

Reissues Reviewed

Whilst Cindytalk themselves are keeping quiet regarding the reissues of "Camouflage Heart" and "In This World" ,various websites,fanzines and magazines have been reviewing the remastered and repackaged records.
This silence is due to totally unforeseen and indeed very unpleasant circumstances brought about by the releasing Italian label and Cindytalk are therefore heading towards legal action.
It is not my place to discuss this matter here but - to illustrate the situation - I will just mention the fact that to this date,Cindytalk are yet to receive ANY copies of the releases in either vinyl or CD format from the label,as well as any royalties or contractual payment.
Cindytalk were absolutely delighted to have their back catalogue reissued and worked hard to make these records available but the joy has all but evaporated.
Bruised once again (cf. Midnight Records and World Serpent),the band is now looking into new possibilities to release the back catalogue through their own label.

Aquarius Records, the oldest independent record store in San Francisco,
included these reviews in their highlights of the week:


CINDYTALK Camoflage Heart (Wheesht / Scratch) CD (with 12 page booklet)/ LP printed inner sleeve



"Longtime regular aQ customer Joshua Maremont commented that Cindytalk's Camoflage Heart is a record which was only really meant for about 30 people. Not that only 30 copies of this record were released, or that it is so terminally obscure and willfully difficult that it by design has a marketing ceiling of an elite few. What he's on about is that Camoflage Heart is such a personal document of self-realized torment, pain, and sorrow that when Cindytalk embarked on the project, it's hard to imagine that they had any delusions about the intensity of this album and the potential for these songs to alienate beyond a limited few.
At the helm of Cindytalk is transgendered vocalist Gordon Sharp, who to this day is probably still best known as one of the multitude of vocalists who appeared in This Mortal Coil. In many ways, Sharp is the masculine equal to the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser in delivering expressionist falsettos, trills, and banshee wails in an eerie, yet heavenly fashion. He's one of those few vocalists who can make the lyrics embody their content by shaping the words into emotionally charged sound. In fact, Sharp and Fraser had come together for a duet back during the Cocteau Twins' Peel Sessions of 1983. In his 4AD lineage, Gordon Sharp's first band was the criminally overlooked punk-glam ensemble The Freeze, where his Marc Bolan strut matched the nightmarish lyrics on top of some truly fantastic Bowie / Buzzcocks sparkplug riffs. Sharp, alongside fellow Freeze band members John Byrne and David Clancy, found shortcomings in the glam punk agenda, and sought a wholly new direction that became Cindytalk.
While undeniably dark and theatrical, Cindytalk cannot be pigeonholed as an '80s goth band, even in comparison to such off-kilter groups like The Virgin Prunes, Princess Tinymeat, or Sex Gang Children. Camoflage Heart was Cindytalk's first album and originally came out in 1984; and it's an album like those This Heat albums which is quite unique in terms of production and aesthetic. The album opens with the militant drum machine of "It's Luxury" setting the stage for an explosion from a monotone guitar riff, coated in amplifier grit, distortion, and detuned heaviness that comes across as a mix between late-'80s Skullflower and The Cure's Pornography. At this moment, Sharp's voice also erupts into the mix crooning with a downtrod beauty to this industrial dirge, spitting and swooning at the same time. The next track "Instinct (Back To Sense)" is more of an ambient interlude with distant heartbeat rhythms, haunted with impressionist piano trickles and Sharp's siren song buried between an atmosphere of smoke and mirror. Two more explosive tracks -- "Under Glass" (featuring Mick Harvey from the Birthday Party for a disjointed stutter of abject rock) and "Memories of Skin and Snow" -- are examples of loud / quiet / loud dynamics, later embraced by the likes of Slint and Mogwai to equally profound effect. "Everybody Is Christ" is often viewed as the pinnacle of Camoflage Heart with its harsh arpeggiation of electronics cast against Sharp's heavenly voice. Soon after, the album disintegrates in a cascade of delicate piano, voice, and grim drones.
As Cindytalk had suffered through the fate of several record companies going out of business (first Midnight Records then World Serpent), their work might have been forgotten had it not been for this reissue. Thankfully, that oversight can now be remedied with this long overdue reissue."

CINDYTALK In This World (Wheesht / Scratch) CD (with 20 page booklet)/Gatefold 2 LP WHITE VINYL printed inner sleeve


"So the rumor goes that Gordon Sharp was invited to join Duran Duran after Sharp dissolved his Edinburgh glam-punk band The Freeze in the late '70s. He turned them down. Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie also put out the request for Sharp to join the Cocteau Twins. After a brief stint accompanying the Cocteau Twins for a Peel Session in 1982 and a guest spot on This Mortal Coil's It'll End In Tears, he opted for his own project -- the obscure, yet majestic Cindytalk.
In This World is an opus in every sense of the word. Originally, In This World came out in 1988 as two separate albums under the same name, each with slightly different artwork. One album, a masterpiece of abject post-punk that in all honesty is the closest parallel to Swans' Children Of God; the other, a delicate ambient construct of melancholy piano scarred with surface noice prognosticating pretty much everything that Type Records has released (e.g Machinefabriek, Jasper TX, etc.). It's a very good thing that both of these albums have been repackaged into one self-contained object, as the only half of In This World that seemed to be floating around was the piano-laced ambient one. As good as that half is, you need the grit and dirge of its companion album to complete Cindytalk's ideas of grand dualities: heaven / hell, pleasure / pain, holiness / transgression, etc.
While billed by Sharp as the 'disgusting' part of the In This World diptych, the first half begins with a lovely tonefloat of scratched violin drones and painterly piano notes. Yet, with the crushing rhythm and noise attack of "Janey's Love," Sharp does not disappoint with his disgusting tag. This is a monstrous industrial dirge with huge monotone slabs of distortion and atonal drones counterpointing Sharp's soaring falsetto. The punk poet Kathy Acker supplies a brief spoken word interlude as the coda to this incendiary number. Immediately hereafter, Cindytalk continue their turgid rhythmic marches with an angular distorted rhythm, slippery bassline mired in audio rust, and twin guitars spitting acid, fire, and brimstone on such tracks as "Gift Of A Knife" and "Circle Of Shit." As the first half of the album progresses, the songs steadily disintegrate as rhythm, song structure, and noise all collapse into a blur of smeared grey that is eerily reflective of William Basinski's Disintegration Loops. The piano which opened In This World becomes the dominant sound in Cindytalk's soundscapes, also marking the delineation between the two halves of In This World. Yes, this is the beautiful side of Cindytalk, coated in ash, snow, bruises, and rust. Gordon Sharp's piano playing comes from Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon, which in turn came from Erik Satie; and that impressionist sentiment continues forward amidst subterranean drones and field recordings of barren spaces. Sharp's voice is mostly absent from these tracks, although the eponymous finale to the album showcases one of Sharp's most emotive croons. They really don't make albums like this any more, with such attention to detail and dynamics between rage and beauty.
Fortunately, both of these records were concise enough that they could both fit onto one CD; and if you've not had the opportunity to hear Cindytalk, please do not let this album and its predecessor Camoflage Heart pass you by!"

Lacquered

Reference lacquer for Cindytalk's Silver Shoals of Light 10",
coming on Bluesanct in early 2008.

Photo by Drekka

We disappear

" WE DISAPPEAR is the third novel by Scott Heim. It is published in paperback by HarperPerennial, and will arrive in bookstores on February 26th.
This short trailer for the book provides the atmosphere for this psychological thriller about obsession, addiction, and loss, a book that should please fans of Heim's earlier MYSTERIOUS SKIN (which was adapted for a 2005 film by director Gregg Araki)."
Accompanying music by Cindytalk.

From Scott Heim's blog:
I've spent the last few weeks working on a promotional video / trailer for We Disappear. Michael and I (and my HarperCollins marketing team and I) have been discussing the possible publicity options for writers, and I've been wanting to make something like this for a while; after a couple of potential collaborations fell through--collaborations with folks who know more about creating this sort of thing--I finally took the advice from the excellent Joseph G-L to just do it myself. So I did. The result is below. Thank you to Brent Covington for letting me borrow his movie camera; Apple for the super user-friendly iMovie; and the saintly Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk for granting me the use of his song "In This World."

Flashback Feedback

The Freeze 1979

David Clancy,co-founder of The Freeze and Cindytalk,recently started a project on youtube to highlight the band's early work.
So far,TheScottishFreeze shares music from 29 tracks, many of which are absolute rarities.An added joy are the comments from band members.



"Trance"
Song recorded in 1979 for a Freeze side-project called "Pinktones":
"I remember that project was on the outside of the Freeze and I always referred to it as Pinktones.
One of the tracks,an instrumental,was often used as intro music at Freeze gigs (when we needed a change from Nico's Frozen Warnings)".
"Laughing"
"One of the very early Freeze songs captured live in Blair Street Edinburgh circa 79".
"Underglass" (Instrumental)
"Matt Kinnison plays Bass, David recorded the sax and rhythm on top.
(Can't call it drums because it was his bed, a couple of pillows and if you listen closely a bunch of keys).
This would eventually end up of the first Cindytalk album with guest drummer Mick Harvey of the birthday party doing real drums."
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"David recorded the drums using pillows with books under them if I recall.
Oh and you can just about hear the change in his pocket as accidental percussion ;-)
How brilliant was David Clancy!!! This is also the first time we recorded with Matt Kinnison,I think he was 16 at the time,you can hear him say "did you get enough" {bass] at the end.
Wonderful stuff."
"Some Kind Of Journey"
"Somewhere between the Freeze and Cindytalk.This tune probably heralded the end of the Freeze. Bounced at Blair street on reel to reel as it was by David, Gordon and Neil. a jolly good way to spend some time on a wet afternoon in Edinburgh!"
"In A Strange Light"
Recorded live,probably at Linlithgow Academy.
"Videoscream"
Encore recording.

"Entretien avec Cindytalk"

Cinder interview for French webzine/fanzine Trinity,
August 2007,part 1.
Trinity will soon release a 10th anniversary compilation CD titled
"Ruines and Vanites" to which Cindytalk contribute two tracks:
"Canto" and "Surrounded by sky and the stillness of time".
The CD comes in an edition limited to 500 copies of which the first hundred are especially numbered and contain inserts.

CINDYTALK

Entretien privilégié avec Gordon Sharp (aka Cinder), figure culte de la scène underground depuis ses débuts débuts post-punk avec Freeze, puis Cindytalk, en collaboration avec Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Pankow, Black Rose... ou dans ses digressions électroniques sous le nom de Bambule (cf: R.W. Fassbinder).

Partie I:

Since « Wappinschaw » Cindytalk almost disappeared, why?
We heard about your electronic projects (Bambule...), but what about Macbeth...?

Cindytalk has always existed in half-light,so "almost disappearing" is something we are very good at... It has been a difficult journey and invisibility is often very necessary so that we can concentrate on the work.Concentrate on the passion.
Shortly after recording Wappinschaw,the record label we were contracted to,Midnight Music,went bankrupt.The assets of the company were in the hands of a British bank,who were in no hurry to sell us our back catalogue and unreleased material.It took us a couple of years to wrench the rights to our work away from the bank and at the same time stop Cherry Red records from buying it as part of a "job lot" along with the rest of the Midnight Music catalogue.
During those years [early 1990's] we regrouped,started writing new material and began to rehearse to play live for the first time.
It seemed obvious that if we weren't able to concentrate on recording [due to lack of label and finances for decent recording equipment],we might as well try to see what we could be like as a live entity.
So in 1993 Paul Middleton [drums],David Ros [engineer] and myself hooked up with Paul Jones [guitar],Andie Brown [bass] and Mark Stephenson [tapes,sampler & keyboards] and began a new phase for Cindytalk.
At the time most of us were squatting in the Hackney area of East London,so it was relatively easy for us to rehearse without cost at any time we wanted to.It allowed us a lot of room to be playful with our ideas.I actually consider this a classic time for Cindytalk and although a lot of our work [in rehearsal] wasn't heard by many outside [until we started performing live],it was one of the most creative and inspiring times for me personally.In that period we were also starting to become more and more influenced by the London underground techno scene.The structure of the sounds,the parties and the dj sets had a huge impact on us and although we didn't immediately try to make techno music ourselves,those shapes and structures were beginning to creep more and more into our improvisations.This all led into Bambule and beyond that,my work in Los Angeles with Darkmatter Soundsystem.
Macbeth was in many ways destined to become a one-off project.In truth,the track "Help Me Lift You Up" was intended to be a Cindytalk track [for the cd compilation Volume5] but I never felt happy with it.The line-up on the trackwas all wrong.Robin Guthrie and myself managed to cancel each other out,leaving only Nadia Lanman's cello as a bright spot.I decided not to use the name Cindytalk as the whole process lacked the energy or creative spark that was always present in our recordings.It just felt wrong.In doing so,I had a brief flirtation with the idea of more songs of that nature but time just moved on so quickly and left that idea in its wake.It's always possible that I will return to the idea of recording some acoustic based songs in the future but I doubt if I will resurrect the name Macbeth.

You often talk about Scottish culture and mythology, is it always an important influence for your work?


Yes,it is important to me.I was born and brought up in Scotland,weaned on the stories,the music and the songs of our history.I love the poetry of Scottish folk culture and I use the word poetry here,not in the literal sense of poems,although I love them too but in the broader sense of the use of imagery,rhythm and dynamic.
With that passion I can't imagine not being inspired by it within my own work.I also think the landscape of the country or area you were surrounded by whilst growing up,affects who you are and what you do.Scotland has a ragged and sometimes desolate quality but the people are warm hearted and often sad.Not without hope but melancholic.The bad weather could be a reason for that melancholy but I think also the fact that ultimately we are a tiny country that has been subsumed by a larger one [England],which means we are less of a force within our own destiny.I think this affects the psyche of Scottish people and at times gives us an identity crisis.This is compounded by British reluctance to fully identify with being European.The Scots generally feel European and a lot of us see ourselves as Scottish first,European second,bypassing being British altogether.
However by law,we are British,and this makes British leanings toward the USA,as opposed to Europe,all the more galling.
"It's shite being Scottish", I think Irvine Welsh said in "Trainspotting".Half right,the other half gives us a reason to be alive and to remain being creative... Alasdair Gray often begins his writings with the words "work as though you are in the early days of a better nation",I think both those quotes are an essence of being Scottish,the desolation of being a conquered people and the hope of a better future... Those same elements collide within the work of Cindytalk.

When you began Cindytalk,which bands and artists were you listening to?

I remember very clearly the moment I decided to detonate The Freeze and create Cindytalk from the debris. It was late in 1981 and The Freeze were on a trip to the Northwest Highlands of Scotland to play some gigs.I had made a special tape compilation for the trip and one of my band members had done the same.Those tapes were to be the spark that signalled the end of The Freeze and the beginning of Cindytalk.I remember being appalled that my band members' tape was filled with middle of the road classics like Donna Summer,Phil Collins,Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd whilst my own was full of fucked up punk and post-punk tracks by the likes of The Slits, Subway Sect,The Mekons,Fire Engines, Pop Group,The Fall,Josef K, Clock Dva,Scars, P.I.L.,Virgin Prunes, Birthday Party,etc.The dichotomy presented by the tapes alone wasn't the real problem but the conversation that came from it,highlighted some very serious differences in attitude and direction between the band.I was left thinking that my personal vision for the future of the band was not fully supported by those around me.So at that moment I started to dream of something more far reaching,more exploratory.Something edgier,darker,something more poetic...
I started to dream of Cindytalk.
Along with those artists mentioned above,in the early stages of Cindytalk,I was also listening to Test Department,Einsturzende Neubauten,SPK as well as the music I grew up with.I was a crazy Roxy Music fan when I was a youngster and that led to a lifelong love affair with the music of Brian Eno [pre-1985] and related artists.The eponymous Roxy Music album followed by their second album "For Your Pleasure","Human Menagerie" and "Psychomodo" by Cockney Rebel,and the "Ziggy Stardust"/"Alladin Sane" period David Bowie were a huge inspiration to me.Random artists like PeterHammill & Nico.British punk circa 1976-1978 and not forgetting Scottish folk music.
I always considered Cindytalk in its beginnings to be a post-punk band,maybe the second generation of post-punk which led into industrial and gothic,although, I've never considered Cindytalk gothic.

The death of Midnight Music and the difficulty to found records via World Serpent sadly affect the possibility to hear the music of Cindytalk.Is there a chance to found again the whole discography of the
band (self-production via TouchedRaw...)?

Yes,the intention is to set up the touchedRAW label so that it can activate as much of the back catalogue as possible and also release new and existing [unreleased] work.
Beyond that,I would like to release other artists as well.We don't have much money at the moment so it will take some time.


Stanislas , vendredi 31 août 2007

"...then switch to PERFECT CALL..."

"You sit and watch the trains go by,a memory for all,
a life is lost but none too sad then switch to perfect call..."

Early Freeze song from a demo tape circa 1979

silvershoalsoflight

December update from Bluesanct Records:

"This is an update on the progress for the CINDYTALK 10".

The vinyl has been mastered direct to lacquer at Golden Mastering (who
were wonderful to work with), and it currently at the record plant. Test
pressings and labels are being made right now.

I hope to have the vinyl soon after New Years, keeping us on schedule for a hopeful FEB 08 release.

Once the vinyl is in hand, I will begin the process of arranging to have
them screenprinted locally by a friend of mine. As well as the process of
having the covers printed by a friend in Chicago.

Once I have quotes on both those portions, I will be able to figure out
the cost for the entire project, and come up with a price to sell them at.
At that point, I will email you all again with info on how to pre-order
the single.

It's going to be GORGEOUS! Wait until you see this thing... wow!

I would like to thank Gordon and the band for letting me release this
single. I hope to work with them again and again, and have dreamed of
such since I first heard 'In This World' in 1987.

Silver Shoals of Light.
Mkl."

Songlines

Last Friday Nov 30,Cinder and Shrill did a "CINdYTALK" set at The Loaded Dog,Leytonstone.
It seems the experience was good enough to encourage future exploration of singing accompanied by laptop sounds...

Photos by Poison Creeper

Colours and Flames

Sat. 29th of september. Night.
Cindytalk were caged as birds
but still flying.

The menagerie exploded with colours and flames.
Voice and bass and electronics and drums.
Cindy threw shapes like a strange ballet dancer
- ghostdance.

Oh and she wore a silver version of Dorothy's shoes
(Dorothy from Esmerald city of Oz that is).



Paul Middleton's bad good jokes (before and after gig)
were an absolute plus.
Fear quickly became
excitement.
Dreaming.
I was exhausted and definitely in heaven.



Cindytalk live at Behind Bars V
Dame Colet House,London
Sept 2007


Text by Fabrice
Photos by Poison Creeper,manipulated by spaewaif
Shoes photo by Magda

Lights

News from Bluesanct Records:
"CINDYTALK - Silver Shoals of Light art 10" (INRI084).
The third in our series of art vinyl, ltd to 500 copies w/ screenprinted vinyl and letter-pressed sleeve. Cindytalk are one of the utmost important artists in the experimental community, and since the early 80's have produced some of my favourite albums of all time.I am VERY excited to be issuing this brand new Cindytalk track..."

Their website catalogue news indicates this as well:
"CINDYTALK - Silver Shoals of Light 10" (INRI084)
A gorgeous 10" single, w/ screenprinted vinyl and letter-pressed sleeve".

silvershoalsoflight

Cinder at Buffalo Bar,August 2003
Photo by shrill

'We haven't yet found the means to live without speaking.'

Scene from Jean-Luc Godard's "Vivre Sa Vie" containing the sample that was used in the track "My Sun" from "In This World".


in this world, if i have no love, i have nothing.
said no to a silent tongue, no in silence, could it be
there was a way of saying that i didn't know. and just
as i was leaving some voice shouted. just shouted:
be strong in death. a real voice in a quiet low tone.
still shouting. nothing more. just shouting . . .


"The meaning of language is an important issue in Godard's cinematic philosophy, as seen most directly in My Life to Live (1962), in the scene between Nana (Anna Karina) and the linguistic philosopher Brice Parain (playing himself) where they converse about language and the necessity of talking.
Sitting in a café, they discuss the nature of words and speaking. Nana prefers not to talk, longing for a life in silence without words. Because the more you talk, the less the words mean, she explains. Words should express exactly what you want to say. But they don't. They betray us, she argues. Parain understands Nana's longing for a wordless life in silence, but as a linguistic philosopher he does not agree with her.
According to Brice Parain, you cannot live without thinking. You have to think, and in order to think you have to speak. Thinking demands words, because you cannot think in any other way. Such is human life, concludes Parain in his lecture on our dependence on language as human beings.
And such is life for a filmmaker, one might add, with reference to Godard's numerous reflections on the essence of the cinematic language in his articles, films and interviews.
"Language is the house man lives in", as Juliette (Marina Vlady) says in "Two or Three Things I Know About Her".
About thirty years later, Godard repeats this linguistic reflection in JLG/JLG - Self-Portrait in December (1995) as the narrator of the polyphonic inner dialogue in his film:
"Where do you live? In language, and I cannot keep silent.
When I am talking I throw myself into an unknown order for which I then become responsible.I must become universal."
(Peder Groongard)

The Sweetness Loop...

ARTAUD LOOP

*ANDIE:
Do you remember the little song that kept wafting out of the ether on your amp paul(y)? The one from "In This World" that kept cropping up in the middle of rehearsals in Ashwin Street?
*CINDER:
That sound that kept coming out of the amp at rehearsals was the "sweetness loop",used at the beginning of "Touched" (In This World).
I'd found that whilst surfing radio waves back in 1983,during the "Camouflage Heart" sessions.We always thought it was a Portuguese radio signal.But that it should mysteriously re-appear to guide us through our rehearsals to play live more than a decade later was very beautiful indeed.If I recall it also followed us on our U.S. tour in 1996 as well... spooky....

"There's enough elegy in "Touched" to melt an invading army..."
(Melody Maker,1988)

(Artaud loop by Azriel)
(Crackle Series photo by Cinder)

Behind and Beyond

CINdYTALK LIVE!


BEHIND BARS V
29 Sep 2007, 22:00
Ben Jonson Rd. Stepney Green, London, London and South East E1 3NH
Cost : £3-5
Supporting:
The next QueerBeograd festival
&Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW)








"Cindytalk will be playing their first full line-up gig in over 11 years,we
will be playing as part of the Behind Bars V event at Dame Colet House
in Stepney,east London on Saturday 29th of September.The band for
the night is one of the classic Cindytalk line-ups and alongside Cinder
will feature Paul Middleton on drums & Percussion,Paul Jones on guitar,
Andrea Brown on Bass & Sherrill Crosby on Electronics.The set will also
include a laptop live "dubstep" set by Mark Stephenson as The Mook.
Also playing that night will be Devotchka's Conundrum,HRTK & others."

"And now it's playtime"

(CINdY 1985, Abstract Magazine)


I'm with you tonight without mask or clothes
I'm in your hands like a leper I crawl and hide burnt by the sunlight and chased by the cold.
We're in some strangely-lit room no signs of decay until twilight falls over us to show us our way
beyond the comfort of loneliness we follow our footsteps dancing dancing...
I'm lying naked on the floor with my hands held up high
Something is forcing down upon me scarring my body gashing..
A piano plays quietly lullaby-like in the background
Won't you fuck me with your sin
A child rushes into the room,crying... but takes no notice of me lying naked on the floor
She walks over to the window and throws some bread to the birds by the wall
She stands by the window for a while just watching the birds then runs back through the room laughing...
And now it's playtime and some pathway through a laugh and a jolt and a laugh
Your train-stations are my radio-waves
In no mans' land
Some kind of romance
Some kind of romance...

(CINdY 1982)




From ABSTRACT Magazine Issue 5


"Playtime" was especially recorded for this project,it wouldn't exist otherwise.
We wanted to do something short and suggestive rather than structured and clear.
It was a step beyond "Camouflage Heart",though an uneasy,tentative and only partially succesful step".

For the recording of "Playtime",Cindytalk was:
Gordon Sharp: Voice and percussion
Debbie Wright: Voice and instruments
Alex Wright: Instruments
John Byrne: Instruments

Recorded at Alaska Studios,London

(Added to the player)

More on the Wrights and Cindytalk

Powers of Ten (1977)

A while ago,I came across this information:

"Btw, I had a duo with Gordon during that period, dubbed 'Pills for Ills' for the Wexner and Cleveland Cinematheque live performances of new film scores we had composed (to accompany two of Charles and Ray Eames' great films, 'Powers of Ten' and 'Tops') as part of the avant garage music/film series, for a couple consecutive years of its run"...
So I asked Phillip, for more...

"I met Gordon in the late '90s shortly after he moved to Columbus, Ohio where I have lived since 1990.
At the time, I was working in an 'art house' video rental store that was called Aardvark Video and he became a customer there. We soon became friends and shortly began to collaborate on the music/film scores.
I was then, and still remain, enamored of the Charles and Ray Eames films- some of which I saw as a child in my early school days- and I had recently rediscovered them after reading a book by Paul Schrader ('Schrader on Schrader') in which he devoted a section to them.
I had begun making music for short films a few years earlier, mainly by participating in an annual series called the Avant Garage Music and Film festival, which my friend Tim Lanza organized and ran for about 8 or 9 consecutive years.
The general concept of the series was to have several artists or groups compose new scores to accompany existing (often silent) short films, and to perform these live with the film screenings in a public venue for an audience.
I suggested to Gordon that we should attempt to re-score the Eames' films 'Powers of Ten' or "Tops",depending on his reaction to seeing them for the first time. We first watched 'Powers of Ten' and he responded immediately to it, even DJing along with it on this first viewing, if I remember things correctly.
He happened to have had some records already selected that- by sheer coincidence- seemed to work perfectly for the film, and we decided immediately that we would perform a new score based on this for the series. Gordon would perform with two turntables and I would be adding electric static and guitar noises. This was performed at the Wexner Center for the Arts and was well received.
We enjoyed the experience ourselves and decided to do another score for the Eames' film "Tops" the following year for the next installment of the series. Gordon was to be away during the dates of the actual performances, so he contributed to the score with a recording of a piano piece he had improvised some time earlier.
This piece also happened to accidentally work perfectly for a major section of the film and I found it easy to incorporate this into what was otherwise a drum and melodica-based score.
I performed it alone on melodica along with the recorded piano and drum pieces for the film screenings which occurred in Columbus and Cleveland, at the Wexner Center and the Cleveland Cinemateque, respectively.
The name 'Pills for Ills' was a purely ridiculous one I had chosen to use for this second collaboration of ours, partly because I believed I would have to present it myself in Gordon's absence and didn't want the ads to specifically list (or NOT list) him by name as appearing."

Between 1950 and 1982, Charles and Ray Eames made over 100 short films ranging from 1 to 30 minutes in length.
They also made slide shows and multiscreen presentations.
From 1953 is this visually stunning production,

A Communications Primer
Delightful.

Related article in Senses of Cinema

Up Here in the Clouds

From Isolation Recordings website:



"For its first CD release of the year,
Isolation is delighted to announce that this will be
Up Here In The Clouds by Cindytalk.
Up Here In The Clouds is a laptop set by Cindytalk,
who for the past 25 years have been beguiling
and challenging listeners with their beautiful,
uncompromising sound.
The album will be released in a limited edition of 500."

Imagery

The two bottles found in some Cindytalk-related images come from Smile Magazine,produced by Stewart Home in 1985.
About his graphics,he has said:
"...my graphics are usually simple. A prime example of this is a photograph of a packet of tea with the word 'FREEDOM' underneath. These two elements set up a simple but effective dialectical opposition between the slogan 'FREEDOM' and the historical reality of the production of tea being based on slavery.
So while there isn't necessarily much visual delectation to be taken from the graphic and it only requires the viewer to look at it for a few minutes, for anyone intelligent enough to understand how the racket we call society is organized, this combo could potentially spark off hours of thought on the inequities of commodity production and the bourgeois world."

"Haud yer WHEESHT!"

In January 2007 Cindytalk signed a licensing deal with Italian distributors Abraxas.
A sub-label,Wheesht, will shortly be re-issuing their entire back catalogue,re-mastered and re-packaged.
Wheesht will be "run" by Gordon Sharp and longtime friend Maurizio Fasolo of Italian band Pankow.

Sharps' own label touchedRAW is in the process of releasing three albums:
* Cindytalk - "The Crackle Of My Soul"
* Matt Kinnison - "Evenings Of Ordinary Sand"
* Ship On Fire - "Bits And Bobby August"
London independent label Isolation will release another Cindytalk album, "Up Here In The Clouds" (2007).

No more heroes

"No more heroes"
A Complete History of UK Punk from 1976 to 1980.
Written by Alex Ogg.
Published by Cherry Red Books in 2006.

MacBeth

"MacBeth the real person was a very benevolent and kind king. During his reign (1040-1057) Scotland didn't have any expansionist ideas. He was concerned with what happened within the country. It's interesting how a very clever playwright can come along and destroy your reputation entirely for possibly propagandist reasons. At the time the play was written it was important for the English to believe that Scots kings were bad people -- heathens and primitives.

It was a good way of darkening the soul of a powerful character from Scottish history."I looked into it and I got really pissed off that that had happened. I like the darkness of the name MacBeth but, knowing the historical truth, I thought that I'd like to use the name for both purposes. It has a power, but also in the context of dissemination of information -- if I can sort of lighten the name of the true MacBeth then I'd be quite chuffed about that."

Snippet from soon-to-be-published Cindytalk interview for French Magazine "Trinity":

"MacBeth was in many ways destined to become a one-off project.In truth,the track "Help Me Lift You Up" was intended to be a Cindytalk track (for the CD compilation Volume 5) but I never felt happy with it.The line-up on the track was all wrong.Robin Guthrie and myself managed to cancel each other out,leaving only Nadia Lanman's cello as a bright spot.I decided not to use the name Cindytalk as the whole process lacked the energy or creative spark that was always present in our recordings.It just felt wrong.In doing so,I had a brief flirtation with the idea of more songs of that nature but time just moved on so quickly and left that idea in it's wake.It's always possible that I will return to the idea of recording some acoustic based songs in the future but I doubt if I will resurrect the name MacBeth".



MacBeth was a Cindytalk side-project established to explore covers of songs or traditional Scottish songs."Help me lift you up" is a Mary Margaret O'Hara cover that appeared in 1992 for the CD+book magazine Volume,number 5.


Volume 5 MacBeth photo by Simon Bower
Pinky Cindy photo by Nicole Huber

Rare Hearsay

Cocteau Twins live recording
The Venue,Victoria London
November 16th 1982

Gordon Sharp sings in the first track,"Hearsay Please"
(added to the player) and the last one,an encore,
"It's All But An Ark Lark".

Recorded by CB and mastered by Josef Karol.

Not In Colour

"It's October, so it's raining. Only 50 yards walk fast, faster, trotting, running jumping, made it. The train ticket wasn't an option and the barrier's only 4 feet high. Money for drink now and that drink will be in Chamber Street tax dodgers union where The Freeze will play an encore longer than a set - it's always the way.

I'm on the guest list because I've got a car, shit I've got a car, why did I catch the train! I meet Billy and go to the pub first, Ramones on the jukebox, "Go Mental", so we do. One hour to Freeze time, a slow walk, more pubs on the way. Two pubs from Chamber Street Billy remembers he's late getting home, should've been back in June. Truth is he won't go to the Freeze because he auditioned on keyboards and Gordon said he was bottom of the list, he was the entire list so an optimist might say top, he's still waiting for the call.

In Chamber Street I see Gordon, he's sitting in the corner, a finer display of undisguised indifference to the students who talk at him, I have never seen. He's obviously writing in his head. The sounds he writes may be for tonight or may be 20 years time, his concentration span is rather longer than that of most.
I decide to talk at him too. "What's Paranoia about?" "Can't say, figure it out." He never would explain that song to me but I know he's told everyone else, why, why them and not me, what's going on, am I the only one he won't tell? I'll work it out later, he will sing it at least twice, because he has to, if he doesn't the audience will rip him to shreds, so they all know.

The set will include BG123, I know that's a lift, Her Eyes, I don't know who she is, For JPS, Jean Paul Satre, Celebration, Louise Brooks and of course PsycoDalek Nightmares, doomsday.
The encore will cover the rest of an expanding repetoire. Fifteen minutes to go, the band disappear into the bogs to change. Bandages to be applied for a three minute opener during which bandages will be unravelled to reveal Gordon's face. The opening number is always the same and sets the tone, if I could remember the name of it I would share it, but I can't, if I could remember the words, I would share them, but I can't. I know the tempo, slow to fast put very before both. I know the chant it ends with, so I will share it, "you're gonna die, die die, die die, die, die, you're gonna die, you're gonna die. I know who died but that's private and tragic and still hurts us all.

The gig is over, time to break the news to Gordon that I forgot I have a car and we're going home by train. If we had the car he would sit in silence for the entire 30 minute drive back to Linlithgow, then I would stop at his house and he would talk for 2 hours. Last week he mentioned something called CindyTalk. CindyTalk would be his next venture. Named after Sindy the kiddies doll, you pull a chord in her neck and she would speak a randomly chosen inane, incomprehensible phrase, could you base a band on that, I didn't think so!"

Text by Andy Hutchinson,aka Plastic Orcadian

Electric

A: When did you start playing live again, in your new formation?

G: We began to rehearse with the purpose of playing live in the beginning of 1993. We played our first gig, under the name Lucinder, in December 1993. And we played 6 gigs under that name from December until March of 1994. We kept it quiet, and then at the end of that period, the last two gigs, we invited some people, to get some feedback. We were getting a good reaction, so we played our first show as Cindytalk, on the 16th of March, 1994. And we chose a smallish venue and tried to tell as many people as we could, expecting not to be many people there, we'd been at the venue before and it was practically empty, so we weren't expecting too much. I hid in the dressing room for two or three minutes until it was time to go on stage and I came out of the dressing room and I practically couldn't get through the crowd, it was so packed. I was shocked. The atmosphere was electric. I could just feel it. I had been waiting 12 years for that moment, for Cindytalk to play live. Something in me had lost hope about it, didn't think it would happen. And so walking out, through the crowd that night, I know from my own point of view, I had been waiting 12 years, but I didn't expect to feel like a sizable portion of the crowd had been waiting that long too. It was just an electric atmosphere. It was incredible. It really affected a lot of people. It was really really special. I don't even know if I enjoyed it that much, because it was tense and so scary. But I know it was an important experience. I know it was really good. I wouldn't have liked to see it on video, or listen to it on tape, ever. It couldn't match the atmosphere I actually felt as it happened. Very special.

Tear Down The Sky Volume 12, 1995

Sounds:
Cindytalk Live Seattle Feb 28th 1996
By This River (Eno cover)

Photos by Steve Gullick

"... as the sun through a lens..."

Photo and texts from the Midnight Music official press release for
"Secrets and Falling". (Click on the texts to read them and enjoy
"Song of Changes" in the player).

"In 1991, SECRETS AND FALLING saw daylight, an EP containing four titles that opened the doors to a new CINDYTALK. This album is a renaissance: the voice returns more troubled and present than ever, while the instrumentation of guitar-bass-drums impose themselves anew in the breast of the atmospheric sounds. A life brilliant, furious, heated, and bruised pours out; on In Sunshine, a trumpet corroborates the shivering joy while enfolding the melody beneath a hood of nostalgia. Empty Hand's descent into Hell tightens the atmosphere, curving one's spine to the lyrical flights of Gordon Sharp's voice -- pain culminating in unison with supreme pleasure."
"CINDYTALK", Trinity No. 2 (Winter), 1998
Stanislas Chapel,translated by Sandra

Follow Sun Ra

I SOLD EVERYTHING I OWNED
YESTERDAY
WHAT I COULDN'T SELL
I THREW AWAY

WHAT I DIDN'T THROW
I LIT A FIRE I DUG A HOLE
SOME THINGS NEED A RITUAL
BEFORE YOU LET THEM GO

IT'S TIME TO GO
IT'S TIME TO LEAVE
IT'S TIME TO DISAPPEAR

TO FOLLOW SUN RA

CARTHAGE NINEVAH JUPITER MARS
CARTHAGE NINEVAH JUPITER MARS
CARTHAGE NINEVAH JUPITER MARS
CARTHAGE NINEVAH JUPITER MARS

I'M GOING HOME...


After The Flood 2, review

Gordon Sharp - voice
Richard Young - bass,electronics
Dale Lloyd - drums,percussion,electronics

Splinter and Move

Splinter and Move",a "Camouflage Heart"-era track can be found in the Midnight Music compilation"Between Today and Tomorrow".

On February 01, 2006 6:04 PM
if in doubt turn up the gain, said...

"Splinter and Move" was mainly a John Byrne/Gordon Sharp track,with David Clancy adding (great but) minimal guitar to it.
It was recorded live in David's bedroom at Priory Road,Crouch End in early 1984 and if it wasn't for the shrieks of feedback from the microphone,it would have been included on "Camouflage Heart" for sure.It was thankfully rescued by the aforementioned midnight compilation.There was an interesting experimental noise track from late 1983 called "Kiss the Wiseman",written and performed live by Gordon Sharp,David Clancy and Matt Kinnison (16 at the time) but the tape of that has been lost to "storage & travelling..."

Cindytalk circa 1984.Photo by Cliff Ash who also photographed the "Camouflage Heart" session.
From left to right: Gordon Sharp,John Byrne & David Clancy.

Vocal Counterpoint

Gordon Sharp singing with fellow Scots Cocteau Twins
at The Odeon, Hammersmith,
spring of 1983 opening for OMD
(Photography by Mick Mercer)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Peel Session recordings of "Hazel" and "Dear Heart,"
Liz has her only vocal accompaniment ever on a Cocteau Twins record
with Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk (along with extra lyrics not featured on the original recording).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"We did our second Peel session recently",enthuses Liz."We're really pleased with it and the new songs came up better than they do on the EP- I shouldn't really say that,should I ? " she chuckles,"but Gordon Sharp,
a friend of ours who used to be in The Freeez (sic) came along and added some vocals,and it came up pretty well".
(Melody Maker March 19,1983)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"THAT John Peel session-a fabulously exquisite tapestry of supreme,breathtaking power..."
(Sounds May 21,1983)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The original version of Hazel rocks as few other Cocteau tracks do, but the stunning BBC Sessions version manages to surpass it, mostly due to the great vocal contributions by Gordon Sharp, vocalist with Cindytalk.It would seem virtually impossible to compete with Liz on the vocal level, and to his credit Gordon Sharp doesn't try to emulate Liz' parts. Instead he delivers some straightforward but extremely effective background vocals, mostly consisting of the single line "to the outside.... "
The band apparently chose to gradually shift the emphasis between the two vocalists, which works wonderfully well.In the first parts Liz is singing on her own, but Gordon gradually increases his contributions.
Midway through the two have a mesmerizing vocal exchange, and in the final parts Gordon gives a fabulous demonstration of how to end a song with some desolate vocals.The result of all these vocal fireworks is an incredible version of an already great track".
(Eric Roosendal)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Hazel" hammers the dance floor at reportedly two-hundred-seventy beats per minute (quite fast for that time...very few drum machines could do that) and sounds less dramatic than the BBC version, the nagging guitar sounding more minimal and less important, and Gordon Sharp's (Cindytalk) countering vocal entirely not there. I imagine this sounds great before listening to the BBC version, but once you have heard that, then one cannot think the same again about the studio version of "Hazel" since it feels suddenly lacking.
(Comment by property_two in rateyourmusic.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Your train-stations are my radio waves..."

touchedRADIO channel list is as follows :

tR 1 : touchedRAWKISSEDsour,a cindytalk compilation (1982-1994).

t/list : muster.cherish.everybody is christ.memories of skin and snow.gift of a
knife.touched.homeless.my sun.the beginning of wisdom.angels or ghosts.a song of changes.prince of lies.disappear.in sunshine.wheesht.still whisper.

tR 2 : FieryPlanetEyes,the dj mix of the "lost" cindytalk album (1996-2001).

t/list: vertical invasion.stars collide.architect/sa.rhizome.total devastation of the heart.this is who we are.rhizome.could that dream be free.my last request.
gabber-isolate.can i be your sister.a flame that flies.rhizome.sada abe.joy is the aim.dead flower or living.

tR 3 : The Freeze Live (1980/1981).

t/list : intro.angel sand.camera code.building on holes.from the bizarre.
a tower in the distance.this is no surprise.quietly burning.location.
lullaby in black.sunday.

tR 4 : After The Fireflies,a cindytalk dj mix.various artists (2005/2006).

t/list includes : field recording.gagaku (ancient japanese court music).cindytalk.autechre.edward artemyev.somatic responses(renegade hybrid rmx).fenno'berg.asmus tietchens.pita.
plastikman.oval.wasteland(renegade hybrid rmx).public image ltd.cindytalk.ryoji ikeda. main.if then do.ryoji ikeda.japanese folk voices.cindytalk.otomo yoshihide.
wasteland vs aphex twin (renegade hybrid).einsturzende neubauten.cindytalk. ryoji ikeda.robert wyatt.

tR 5 : Up Here In The Clouds,a collection of recent cindytalk sketches/ideas (2003/2006).

t/list : surrounded by sky.shibuku.a distant kite.splendid china miniature scenic spot.i walk until i fall.transgender warrior (mistmix).multiple landings.switched to lunar.the anarchist window.cloud symphony no.3.

tR 6 : Dj Fatal grime/dubstep mix from 2003 on deja vu fm,london pirate radio.

(Unfortunately,touchedradio is NO LONGER available.
We are currently working on other audio options).

Live at the ICA ( London),04.05.94

Photography by Steve Gullick

Cindytalk are currently working on a new (band) album provisionally entitled "In A World Without Hope".
The current line-up, also in rehearsal for future live shows
in and around Europe is :
Cinder - voice and electronics ; Matt Kinnison - bass ;
Andie Brown - bass ; Paul Middleton - drums & percussion ;
Shrill - electronics.

Ambi-dustrial Noise & Hushed Assaults

Back in 1994,a flyer said:

+--------------------------------------+
"CINDYTALK meets dj TERROREYES

 for a night of ambi-dustrial noise exploration

 with maybe just a squirt of ACIDTECHNO

 happening at 121 railton road brixton SE24

 on friday the 21st of october 1994 at 9.00pm until late"
+--------------------------------------+



And here is the text from another flyer advertising a Cindytalk gig in London in 1995:

+--------------------------------------+
| " Lizard magazine presents
| CINDYTALK
| in the first of the hushed assaults of 1995
| plus b a r b e d and s p a c e h e a d s
| good friday april 14th
| kennedy hall irish centre murray st
| off camden rd just past camden sq
| camden london nw1"
+--------------------------------------+




"Hushed" photos by Steve Gullick.

"Silver shoals of light"

New Cindytalk track added to the player.
Been meaning to ask...
The new album will be called "In A World Without Hope" but
what is "Unhinged 200ATCAKE Howl"?

...The spiritS behind the circus dream...

This photo resurfaced a while ago.
The time?
The people?
This?

"Cindytalk was formed in 1982 by Gordon Sharp (Vocals) and David Clancy (Guitar, Keyboards) from the ashes of Edinburgh based punk/new wave band The Freeze.The Freeze (1976-1982) released two 7inch singles,recorded two John Peel sessions and played extensively around the UK supporting many big name bands of the time. After re-locating to London in 1982,Cindytalk began to work towards their debut album Camouflage Heart,with a newer,darker and more fractured sound that drew much from post-punk and early european industrial music.In 1983 Sharp and Clancy were joined by John Byrne who proved to be a crucial component in Cindytalk's deliberately disintegrating sound..."

Soul Crackle

Floating in the net,
a discussion about
music,
noise,
Cindytalk
and
"The Crackle of My Soul"...


"Is it music or noise? Well, I'm no authority... I consider every noise to be music in potential. I liked it though, whatever it was. If life were a stream, this guy would be swimming with the current".
********************************************************************
"Wanted a fresh set of ears, cos to me this really IS so different from most noise stuff whose only concern usually is to brutalise and confuse the listener or even most avant-classical stuff which is usually overly technical or dry. This stuff is completely different I think.
"Soul" music indeed".
********************************************************************
"It sounds pretty brutal to me."
********************************************************************
"To me it sounds "Beautiful". Although I've had my periods of being immersed in noise. This is the thing that interests me about it. The USUAL idea with someone making noise IS brutality. That's why I say that this is completely different. Perhaps we're so used to connecting noise with brutality that we automatically assume it. Jonnyboy saw it as more like "art" which is also something we're used to : noise as art. Noise as beauty maybe is harder to comprehend. Although I'm not presuming my interpretation is the "correct" one. Jonnyboy is right when he says "art" cos this stuff is presented in an "art" way, although there's more to it than that. "Brutal" is also correct. Cindytalk can be very brutal. And "beauty" is also correct.
It's interesting how different people take out of it different things.
Cindytalk is however ALL these things. (And more).
A recurring theme in his career is the juxtaposition of extremes and the collision of opposites".
*********************************************************************
"Music is a pretty abstract medium though,don't you think? Expressing that which can't be expressed in words etc. That's the strength of music. The traditional rock "narrative" form of music would seem to be a denial of the power of music, putting the importance on the words. Now, there ARE Cindytalk songs with words, and I get kinda frustrated when Sharp doesn't sing cos he's one of my favourite voices. There's a double album called "In This World" where even though I love his voice and his lyrics are great, the 2nd disc which is comprised almost entirely of improvised piano pieces is the one that completely astounds me".
*********************************************************************
"My definition of noise as opposed to "music", is that noise is something random and unorganised and music is something that is made by a musician and is something that the musician has organised in order to put across a certain feeling or expressiveness or whatever. These tracks are made up of noise but their organisation makes them music, whereas in this definition someone sitting playing the guitar very badly and cliched I would see as "noise".
(Ever heard a room full of teenage guitarists noodling between songs? noise!).
The difference is the expression or "soul" of the musician or artist".
*********************************************************************
"I posted a while ago some music by Cindytalk that was to all intents and purposes "noise". Except that it wasn't. It was "beauty".The reason why is that it had the order , the symmetry, the proportion.This is what separates it from actual random noise, which doesn't".
*********************************************************************
"An instinctive grasp of what "beauty" is".
*********************************************************************


Photo by Steve Gullick and thanks to Cregan for the insightful words.

Maglev

Uploaded to the player,the track "Maglev",
live at Otoya Kobe May 2005,
featuring a sample from Macabre Unit's Shooting Stars.

"Wait, wonder and wander"

MADRIGAL, a film by Rabblewise



Work on the soundtrack,provided by Cindytalk,still in progress

"Dancer,alchemist and warrior,always female"

A: Tell me about your circle of friends that appear in Muster.

G: Well, Muster, in relation to the Wappinschaw, is an invocation of the spirits. Because I'm basically fucked off with the way our world is changing- in the opposite direction- and also pissed off at people's attitude, that they're not doing anything about it. And looking back over history, near and far and seeing how people with true soul and spirit and ideas and poetry try to reach out through their physical and artistic action to at least suggest change, in some instances to directly try to change things that might be forcing down upon them. That ranges from Ulrike Meinhof, terrorist...to Don Quixote de la Mancha who is the world's most wonderful cloud, who I am madly in love with. Each and every character is there for a reason. I wanted to find more women, and I looked really hard, but that was the wrong way to look at it, and I mention it because it's really quite important to me, it bothers me still. But I realized it would be very false of me to actively go and academically search for them- because that's not the same as being inspired by- they inspire me because they're there. They're just people who have some way affected me, in my life. I grew up always having some kind of oppositional attitude to things. As an adult too. It relates to anybody and anything that stands in a separate position instinctively, and creates their own space irrespective of the disruptions and destructions. So when feeling low, and in despair and wanting to conjure up ghosts, I think these are the ghosts I'd like to conjure up in spirit to come and galvanize people into thinking and acting and leaving behind apathy and trying to create beauty and ultimately joy. Because that's what we're after. Joy is the key.

Tear Down the Sky,Volume 12 1995

"Take my hand..."

Melody Maker (October 22, 1994):

"The office stereo's packed up (again), which means I have no way of ascertaining if this semi-spoken, semi-illusional oddity from Cindytalk is half as intriguing as I thought on cursory listen sometime back in the Dark Ages. Probably." (Everett True)

Looking at the other artists reviewed on the page,this must have been an oddity indeed!

"Prince of lies"

take my hand
take my hand
take me...
anywhere you want to
touch my lips
touch my lips
touch me...
anyway you want to

i won't kiss you
if i kiss you
i could be
the queen of heaven

i won't love you
if i love you
i could be
the queen of heaven
the queen of heaven
the queen of heaven

away...
away...
away

VOICESawryPHUTUREsounds...

The thistle:
wild,prickly,pointing upwards.
The journey continues...
Demo version of "For the Benefit of All",
coming release on the Wheest label,
uploaded to the player.

That book...

"He only read from a book & screamed during his set..."
( A Bostonian's reaction)

"What you hear is all that is there.
I see a parallel with Haiku poetry.
The words and the music
are not symbolic of anything.
They are everything."

Cindytalk interview,Melody Maker (April 16), 1988


Photos courtesy of pepe king prawn, live in London 1993/4(?)

NoiseBroken

cindytalk's the crackle of my soul,
bobby august's debut album and
matt kinnison's evenings of ordinary sand
will be released on the touchedRAW label
before the end of the year,hopefully.

Track "Of Ghosts and Buildings" uploaded to the player.

Photo "The Poetry of Decay" by cinder

"Not so fast, just as loud"

"THE FREEZE are a band who,quite simply,deserve your attention.They are David Clancy (guitar),Keith Grant (bass),Graeme Radin (drums),Gordon Sharp (vocals) and,added recently,Tony Wallis (guitar,saxophone and clarinet).
Coming from Linlithgow near Edinburgh,they've worked very hard for the last two years,gigging constantly around Scotland.During this time they've supported a wide range of acts,from Sham 69 to Echo and the Bunnymen,and have progressed from being fairly ordinary to perhaps the most impostant band in Scotland today.They currently possess a set packed with numbers which grab your attention and don't let go.The main indication of their strength is the fact that their best songs are so diverse,making them extremely difficult to categorise and impossible to associate with any of the current muisc-paper invented fads.Unfortunately,this had repercussions,namely very little coverage in the music press.
They've released two singles,the "In Colour" EP of last year and the recent "Celebration" both on their own A1 label.
Although these singles are both excellent,most of their best songs are as yet unrecorded-the new "Perfect Call" with its speedy,hypnotic riff (it would make a great single),the disciplined power of "Lullaby in Black",the rampaging "Closed Circuit" and a great version of Eno's "Baby's on Fire".

The first topic discussed when I spoke to Gordon and Graeme recently was "Celebration".
Gordon:"It's about a silent film star called Louise Brooks who had her peak period from 1927-1929.She was supposed to be an excellent actress,she probably surpassed Dietrich and Garbo,she got some good parts in films but the trouble was that she wouldn't toe the line with the directors and producers and therefore her talent was spoiled by the fact that eventually they'd begin to lose interest in her because she wouldn't do what they told her.She wanted to do her own thing,that's really the basis of her story.
An unusual subject for a song as I am sure you'll agree.The other side of the single is "Crossover",a quiet,delicate piece which seems to be more of an atmosphere than anything else.Gordon agrees.
"It is meant to be very atmospheric,"Crossover" is very much about mood music,it's not really meant to be a definite song,it's a piece of music with vocals on it,in fact at one point,I would have preferred there had been no vocals on it".
This is not to say that the lyrics are meaningless.Apparently they are based around the idea of reincarnation.We talk about how sound is better on "Celebration" than it was on "In Colour",the band seem to view work in the studio as a process of trial and error.How happy are they with "Celebration" compared to the first single?
Gordon:"Much happier than the first one,not 100% obviously,when you get to the stage of being 100% what have you got to work for?I'll never be happy with our sound".
Next up is the question of success,something that The Freeze haven't found easy to locate,although as Gordon says they have been succesful in their own way in that they've pleased a lot of people and sold 3 or 4,000 copies of "In Colour".
I wonder to what extent they desire commercial success?
Gordon:"I'm not really sure if I want to get the same success as The Police,to name a band.I'm not sure if I really want that because every single they release sounds exactly the same.They started off as a good band and they're still a good band but they don't do much..."
Unfortunately,there is one major hurdle to be overcome before The Freeze can ever be commercially succesful.The fact is that most people have never heard their music.Their singles have not exactly exploded onto the Radio 1 playlist and they've had little or no advertising.This leaves the alternative of live gigs which is virtually impossible outside Scotland.
Gordon:"We'd love to go to London to do gigs,to try to break through there but it's very difficult getting in there,it's a vicious circle.The promoters say "we like your records,come down and we'll see you" and we can't get down till they book us and they won't book us until they've seen us,so we're stuck.You've got to know somebody,it's who you know that counts".
One controversial aspect of The Freeze is Gordon's image.It has always been very direct and has led many people to mistake his confidence on stage for arrogance and big headeness and subsequently to dislike the band.Gordon sees his image as being quite natural.
"My image is really feminine at the moment.When I say "at the moment" I don't mean that's just a phase I'm going through but I'm doing that just now.I've been doing that for a long time,I even did that two years ago although it wasn't as outward as it is now.The image is just an extension of what I am as a person.It's not even an image.It's just me.It's not contrived,just what I feel like".
In the future,The Freeze just want to continue making music that they themselves like and that makes people think.They are not a "political" band,their songs do not contain banal slogans.On the other hand,they are not a disposable pop band.If there is an overall message it is don't sell yourself and remain an individual.They are not against compromise,they will listen to suggestions but will not follow orders from anyone.
I suggest that you listen to The Freeze soon.It would be a tragedy if a band this good was ignored.

Zig Zag magazine,September 1980
Article by Andy Crabb,pic by Hilary Kerr

Protest songs

On November 4th 2005,The Guardian's Culture Vulture blog asked readers about their favourite protest songs.An entry read:

"Circle Of Shit by Cindytalk,a song from 1988 that suggests that the US's disrespectful foreign policies and frightening world policing might bring retaliatory attacks to america.Prophetic."


CIRCLE OF SHIT (From In This World)
ecstasy is...original sin
ecstasy is...original sin
and no favours and no faith
still born into a world filled with fruit and delight

ecstasy is...original sin
ecstasy is...original sin

into a world not safe, a world is crying
eyes red with tears, red-stained blood-shit smears
a world is crying...

'we welcome you america - we are seeking martyrdom'
'generation of anger - generation of anger...may fire pour on america'

...insincere at the very least and beneath the shit he smiles
while he fucks, scaled down to size mr. terrorist himself
shouts and fails to see his own puppet-shit

and the mouth of man is breathing fire down on our heads
and beneath the marble floor, there lies a question
why does my body shudder, why does my body shudder so

ecstasy is...original sin

and escape from death into life can be the greatest mistake
the child sees only the birds, hears only the sound of water
kissing land, the sound of the wind shifting through time
and now it appears with the joy of life...
from the past, covered in the blood of ignorance
from the past, covered in the blood of ignorance


(This song was also covered by Black Rose in The Room Inside,
featuring Gordon Sharp on vocals.)

"Cindytalk: gruppo di frontera, musica unica e vertiginosa"

Contributing vocals,
ideas and inspiration,
Gordon Sharp collaborated
on these two Contempo releases.



"My sun is hanging low in this sky
and beckons me and taunts me
and cries:
(icarus,icarus make love to me)
I'll come to you on wings of snow
I'll come to you on wings of snow
I'll come to you on wings of snow..."

(Words for Black Rose's Moon Love)

"The path of cindytalk is always a difficult one..."

This E.P. "was sent up as a flair during the recording of Wappinschaw to remind people we were still around and active and the tracks are mainly from that body of work".
"At this point the band had become more of a collective,drawing on musicians from the current line-up as well as the past,John Byrne returned and was joined by Kevin Rich and Daryl Moore (Soul Static Sound)".




Review on Fist Five (1992) by Dean Fist:
"On a different level is the sheer atmosphere of the vastly neglected CINDYTALK with their "SECRETS AND FALLING", MIDNIGHT MUSIC DONG 76 12inch. Far from bludgeoning the senses, this EP dips and soars seeped with atmosphere. There is nothing out of place on this record. The only fault I can find is that there isn't more of it. The emotion of the voice blends into the instrumentation without precendents. Dripping with a Romantic sadness it's a shame that more people don't take more notice".

Cover and sample snippets weaved into the songs from the Victor Erice film "The Spirit of the Beehive"



One of the tracks,"The Moon Above Me", has been added to the player.

Still quietly burning

"...in my sleep i'm still falling.
when i'm awake, it's just the same.
be there with your arms out-stretched.
across the blighted sky,
a shining star.
quietly burning...
my arms out-stretched will catch it's fall."


Artwork by Kathy Patterson
1-1st vinyl album cover
2-2nd vinyl album cover
3-combined cd cover


Scottish musician and long-time Cindytalk fan Stuart Kemsley
has made a cover version of the track "In This World".
Click on the music icon in the new player to listen to it.

Loops and Sada Abe

SADA ABE

i was dreaming of decay
dreaming of atrophy
mythical goddess of disintegration
deep-dreaming
of her earthly manifestation
sada abe -
in the realm of the senses
lulled by the most erotic image
ever seen
Sada Abe
hair cascading down her face
knife clenched between her teeth
seconds before she cuts the dick
off her dead lover
for days she carried around
her treasured keepsake
deep deep inside
for days she wandered
dazed-sublime
beyond passion
beyond pain
beyond passion
beyond pain
beyond passion
beyond pain.

YONDER LOOP


(Yukata girl by Lisa Onomoto,
author as well of the beautiful drawing
on the Transgender Warrior cover).

Homage to Ashwin Street

"At the beginning we rehearsed on the third floor (i lived in the basement), after i moved up the road we moved rehearsals to the basement.It was an absolute joy to be able to rehearse whenever we wanted and at no cost.
It allowed us so much freedom to explore our live set-up and to keep it changing.It's crucial to have the time to connect musically with each other when live improvisation (but NOT self-indulgence) are the aim".

(Cinder,somewhere else on this blog)

(Photos by spaewaif,circa 2004)

Up here in the Clouds

touchedRADIO tR5 :

"Up here in the clouds",
a collection of old and new
cindytalk idea sketches.


Includes a remix of "Transgender Warrior".

(Unfortunately,touchedradio is NO LONGER available.
We are currently working on other audio options)

We all dream of Cindy

Rare promo poster for Kangaroo






THAT voice




"I felt like it was the end. I was at the point where I hated my voice. I felt I couldn't turn in any direction because I'd exhausted myself with 'Camouflage Heart'. Then I did two songs for This Mortal Coil, and, to me, that was a lie. I'd gone in and used by voice purely technically. I'd never done that before. I'd always been instinctive about it.This Mortal Coil was an interesting experiment, but I could live without "Kangaroo" quite easily. It doesn't mean anything to me. As a vocal performance, it astonished me, but it also disgusted me. As soon as I sang it, I knew it was a lie. I knew it was a hell of a lot less soulful than anything I did with Cindytalk...
People tell me I'm perverse. Or difficult. That I should sing properly. Like with This Mortal Coil. I can't see it like that. It's not even a matter of compromise. I just can't think that way."
(Melody Maker, April 16, 1988)


Two versions of this single were released:
one with a silver border and one with a red border on the sleeve and labels.

The run-out grooves read «I dream of Cindy».

It entered the UK Indie Chart on 15/9/84 and spent 20 weeks in chart,
peaking at number 2.

"The static,to connect"

Trailer for the film Madrigal.

"From the romance of destruction to the devastation of near silence"

"Cindytalk is me",quips Scotsman Gordon Sharp,"plus a cast of thousands".
Including John Burn and Alex Wright,who-with Gordon-form the nucleus of the current Cindytalk incarnation on the "In This World" albums.
Yes-albums:two distinct and distinctively-packaged vinyl LPs of the same name.Confused? you will be (and why not?).
Gordon's previous work has included collaborations with the Cocteau Twins
("They came from the same area of Scotland as me and I've known them for quite a few years",he explains,"and did a Peel session with them"),and the first of 4AD's This Mortal Coil projects,
as well as Cindytalk's previous Camouflage Heart album".
Gordon ascribes the delay between Cindytalk releases to "exhaustion.
Basically,I wanted to collect ideas,throw them into a pile and listen-out for new things.
Finding new people to work with can be painful,so I chose to wait for a purpose to do something else,rather than just supply follow-up product".
Rest,recuperation and rethinking led Gordon to consider as an eventual follow-up an album of piano music."But then I decided to do a one-off single,exploring one noisy idea.
At the same time,I was recording something for a Midnight Music compilation,which I thought ended up too good to lose and wanted to add to the single,which was rapidly becoming a mini-LP.
Things were changing shape and form and almost getting out of control.So that's why there are two albums with the same title,as the material grew up together".
But,Gordon,why not then release a double-album?
"That would have been too conceptual.
This way,each record has a similar,but separate,identity.It's not contrived or meant as a ploy,it just happened.Though I like it being playful and mischievous.
That it might be confusing is a pleasing notion to me".
A confusion resolved on the CD release,which contains all the material on the albums.
And,next?
"I don't know.I like to start afresh each time,it's a process of rebirth with each project".


(From "The Catalogue" Issue 57 March 1988)

Eternity Chaos

Bambule Commando DJ mix featuring snippets from the film
Julien Donkey Boy

Art by Hans Bellmer

"Sounds never seen"

Venture IN without a map...