To coinside with the release of her new album NEST, acclaimed composer Amanda Feery selects the songs that have left a lasting impression on her work, from Julia Wolfe to Robert Ashley.
Gazelle Twin and NYX – Deep England
Elizabeth Bernholz’s (Gazelle Twin) album Deep England was an important starting point for NEST. Deep England responds to dark currents of English nationalism and conservatism in a Brexit landscape, digging up an England of ancient ghosts, and turning the image of an idyllic Albion on its head. There is a deep rage throughout the album that I attuned to immediately and I was inspired by the concept and realisation. For a long time, I wanted to respond to my own anger at Eamon de Valera’s 1943 radio address, ‘On Language and the Irish Nation’, the inherent conservatism and fantasy in the speech of a ‘picture-postcard’ Ireland, and the contrast to the realities of what unfolded in a Free State Ireland. As soon as I heard the opening choral phrases of the six-piece electronic drone choir, NYX, on Deep England, I knew then I wanted to write for voices with a text that responded to de Valera’s speech. I asked artist Eimear Walshe if they would be interested in writing the text, which led to the first choral elements realised as an opera soundtrack for Eimear’s brilliant work, Romantic Ireland, I composed a vocal quintet for Romantic Ireland performed by vocal ensemble, 4inaBar, and excerpts of this quintet are part of NEST. The tracks that follow outline a sort of musical mood board for NEST – big fan of mood boards!
Julia Wolfe – LAD
A huge preoccupation and dream project of mine over the last few years has been to write for a large ensemble of uilleann pipes, partly thanks to Julia Wolfe’s piece, LAD, composed for nine bagpipes. I’ve accepted the logistic and financial limitations of this dream and settled for a quartet. My new album project, Into the Well, will be a longform work for uilleann pipe quartet taking the pipes in different harmonic directions. I was keen to try out some uilleann pipe ideas for the opening of NEST that build up a wall of sound, with harmonies that veer away from Irish traditional music, but certainly still orbit that soundworld.
Orlandus Lassus – Prophetiae Sibyllarum
NEST is suffused with Renaissance choral influences, specifically settings for smaller vocal ensembles, as I’m more inclined to write vocal stuff with one voice per part – I like that tension! Gallicantus Ensemble are a vocal ensemble I’ve worked with before and I love their recording of Lassus’ Prophetiae Sibyllarum.
Ninfea Crutwell-Reade – Five Letters from Aubrey Beardsley (second movement – ‘To André Raffalovich’)
I’m a bit obsessed with the counter-tenor voice and knew I wanted a counter-tenor as part of the vocal ensemble for NEST. I love this piece for counter-tenor by composer Ninfea Crutwell-Reade, Five Letters from Aubrey Beardsley, particularly the second movement. It’s also such an excellent example of compelling text-setting. You can set any text to music really, but it comes with a lot of challenges!
Sunken Foal – Water from the Wound
ELLLL – Ooze
Drew McDowall – VCDB
The beat material on NEST is a combination of processed recordings of a cow drinking from a trough and samples from an 808 drum machine. I have a very hard time making beats and deciding on sounds I like for them. I end up scrapping loads of material because I’m not satisfied with the sounds. What has helped with this is getting specific with what I do like. I’ve narrowed a few things down: beats that veer towards the industrial in sound, beats that are not too ‘on the grid’, sounds of old hardware/formats/media, and sounds from the natural world or that feel like organic source material. I will always fangirl over Sunken Foal, ELLLL, and Drew McDowall and gravitate to their work for inspiration. Each of them encompasses some or all elements of what I enjoy and aspire to make!
Daniel and Fabian Löwenbrück – Das Lebacher Orgelwerk – Weihnachtsoratorium (LWV 156)
The organ was an important final element on NEST. I wanted something massive for the end of the album and to echo the uilleann pipes opening. There is a lot of classical organ music I enjoy, but I also love artists who are re-imagining repertoire and the instrument itself, transforming it into something that sounds almost electronic.
RÓIS – Caoine
Other inspiration for the fusion of elements on NEST comes from RÓIS. Her album, Mo Léan, arrived when there seemed to be a lot of folk that sounds very nice but I felt didn’t connect musically with the lyrical content of some of the oldest folksongs; the subversive and the confessional, for example. Similarly to Gazelle Twin, I hugely respect ROIS’s excavation of folk and pagan roots, and she has such a gift for drawing out that subversion – the fear and dissent, covert admissions and grievances, but also the dark humour and piss-taking embedded in folklore and folk musics, taking all of those influences to make something so original.
Robert Ashley – The Angel of Loneliness
Finally, closing out the mixtape is Robert Ashley. Not a direct musical influence on NEST but more of a general, always-hanging-around-somewhere influence on my work.
NEST by Amanda Feery is available to buy
is the co-editor / photo editor. She also contributes photos and illustrations to The Thin Air print magazine.
Loreana Rushe
