Reuben Wu – AmeliasMagazine

SEAMING album COVER
The long awaited solo album by musical maestro Seaming opens with the quietest of hums… (o sing at me) before introducing the listener to the full range of her inimitable operatic style: there are many influences on this album but the one constant is Seaming‘s extraordinary voice. In Sodaslow (sipped) her dulcet tones are backed by strings, in a tune that tracks the journey of a drink. Such idiosyncratic subject matter is typical of Seaming, whose career and musical development has traced an interesting arc, taking in time with such musical luminaries as Herbaliser and Cinematic Orchestra and countless performance related collaborations including an animation for surrealist theatre company Forkbeard Fantasy and soundtracks with the film-maker Michael England. For her third tune it’s out with the strings and in with Moog-ish noodlings for I’m Going To See. Mermaid is an off kilter love story, bleeps and staccato hammerings on Bee evoke the subject with canny musicianship and Strelizia relies on the more traditional use of a clarinet. As her self titled album reaches a finale Seaming draws on her beloved piano to provide a floating voice-less melody for Deer, ending on the clashing slowed beats of Humid.

The album works well as a beguilingly hypnotic whole that can be listened to again and again. I cite as an example: on rotation it was the perfect soundtrack for my journey up to Centre Parcs in Nottinghamshire a few weeks ago.

Seaming by Nicola Porter.

It’s been awhile! What have you been up to over the past 8 years? Any highlights?
Hello! Oh, I got a bit more wrinkly, bit more wiser, bit more silly, and have finally returned to my place of birth, a familiar yet completely new landscape!

Seaming by Reuben Wu.

You’re both an opera singer and a classically trained multi-instrumentalist – what other musical abilities do you have that helped in the creation of the album?
I recorded most of this at home, in my Womb (my studio), I would not call myself a whizz engineer, but I am happy to sit and tweak and listen, so quite a bit of the album was mixed at home also.

Seaming by Jacqueline Valencia.

What instrument do you always return to when you’re creating songs?
The piano.. usually my mother’s Steinway at her house..

You’ve excelled in the more experimental zones of classical and avante grade electronic music – what attracts you to a particular piece or type of music?
Have I?! What attracts me to a piece of music, how sonically it touches; a solo instrument; the melody; or orchestral harmony: textures, structures; otherworldy electronic sounds: words that trigger imagination, emotion; and how it manifests physically (I threw up after a friend’s gig once..)

Seaming To by Shy Illustrations.

What inspired the lyrics and feel of your new album?
The feel, well, I had not planned to make it feel a certain way. inspiration? They are love songs, inspired by people events dreams, songs to trees, grinding teeth, dancing, sea sorcerers, lying on your back looking down onto the sea, sitting next to someone you love..

How long did it take to put together and who else were your closet cohorts in its creation?
It took a few years to release, and the closest cohorts include Paddy Steer, Graham Massey, Semay Wu, my mum, my gentleman and Sonia Mangwana.

seaming HAIR MACHINE
Your album has an incredibly striking cover, what was the inspiration behind its creation and who made the artwork?
Michael England created the artwork (and all the artwork to my previous EPs, Mermaid and Sodaslow), check him out, I think he’s a genius. He always has a story/narrative behind every image he creates. Someone said recently that the cover artwork looks 70s disco, I am not sure if that was Eng’s intention! For the rest of the album artwork (and there are quite few images, he really went to town with it, which is typical Michael England) I am sat in my music room in the towers at a place called Mingdom.

It’s been said that your music would work well as the soundtrack to other performances, for instance ballet – is this something you would like to work towards in the future and if so what kind of collaboration would you like to do?
I do love working to narratives, creating music for moving image and have previously been asked make music for films, and theatre. I have not yet worked with dance but would absolutely love to. There are future plans to work with Butoh dancer Sayoko Onishi, based in Sicily.

seaming MINGDOM
In terms of other contemporary artists, who do you enjoy listening to? Any top tips for us to seek out?
Leila, Leon Michener, Andrew Plummer’s World Sanguine Report, Sofia Jernberg and Juice Vocal Ensemble.

What are you up to for the rest of the year? can we see you on tour or similar?
I am preparing for my album launch which will be at Vortex in London (Gillett Square, Dalston, Hackney), with my newly formed band (made up of avant-garde pianist Leon Michener, Double bass player Olie Brice (played with Evan Parker/Mulatu Astatke), and drummer/electronics Tim Giles (Nostalgia 77), what remarkable musicians they are, come down can you? It’s on Thursday 22nd November. We will make a European tour next year too. I shall keep you well informed! Also I am to go on a UK tour, in March 2013, with my mum, pianist Enloc Wu, performing ‘Songs for My Grandmother‘ involving spycorders and vintage electronics, and supported by electronic artist and film maker Kira Kira.

The self titled debut album by Seaming is out on Lumin on 3rd December 2012. Hear her Mermaid EP above.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday October 23rd, 2012 6:19 pm

Categories ,Andrew Plummer’s World Sanguine Report, ,Butoh, ,Cinematic Orchestra, ,Enloc Wu, ,Evan Parker, ,Forkbeard Fantasy, ,Graham Massey, ,Herbaliser, ,Jacqueline Valencia, ,Juice Vocal Ensemble, ,Kira Kira, ,Leila, ,Leon Michener, ,Lumin, ,Mermaid, ,Michael England, ,Mingdom, ,Mulatu Astatke, ,Nicola Porter, ,Nostalgia 77, ,Olie Brice, ,Paddy Steer, ,Reuben Wu, ,Sayoko Onishi, ,Seaming, ,Seaming To, ,Semay Wu, ,Sheilagh Tighe, ,Shy Illustrations, ,Sodaslow, ,Sofia Jernberg, ,Songs for My Grandmother, ,Sonia Mangwana, ,Steinway, ,Tim Giles, ,Vortex

Similar Posts:

Ladytron by Claire Kearns.

Has it really been this long? This long since I first caught the subtly seductive beats of Playgirl on Radio 1’s Evening Session? Hearing Helen Marnie’s coy yet devastating vocals for the first time? And what was the band’s name? Ah, cialis 40mg taken from an Eno-period Roxy Music song. Cool! And how long since I first saw them live, on the South Bank (Queen Elizabeth Hall, I think)? Daniel Hunt drolly announcing that dancing was allowed. Then the one and a half gigs at the late, not necessarily lamented Astoria (the first attempt was abandoned when the mixing desk packed up half way through the set). And now here we are, with a decade-spanning greatest-hits-that-should-have-been in the shops, a new album in the offing and a date to keep in Kentish Town.

Ladytron by Robert Tirado.

Playgirl

Two single green beams of light cut through the Forum’s darkened auditorium as a curious synthwave re-working of the old jazz standard You Go To My Head played over the PA. Then Ladytron (all dressed in black, as ever) appeared – Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo centre stage, flanked by Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu –and launched into Runaway, with those pounding drum beats bouncing round the room. Backed by pulses of blue, green and red light, we then got a blistering High Rise, which gave way to a typically immense-sounding Ghosts.

Runaway

There seemed to be a kind of back to basics approach tonight – recent flirtations with stringed instruments seem to have been put to one side (though from my vantage point I couldn’t make out whether Hunt did tinker with a guitar at all), and it was a return to the straightforward analogue synth sound of old, save for the presence of a drummer behind the quartet.

Ladytron by Michelle Pegrume.

Marnie’s ice queen vocals belie a commanding stage presence (in between vocal and keyboard duties, she was even seen perched on the drum riser!). Her voice really comes into its own, though, on the darkly pulsing Soft Power and the forbidding International Dateline (both from 2005’s acclaimed Witching Hour album). Aroyo also got in on the act, with her stern Bulgarian intonations giving the dark dance beats of Fighting In Built Up Areas an extra edge.

Seventeen

The delicate White Elephant provided a taster for the forthcoming album, Gravity The Seducer, and marks how far the band have travelled since the likes of Discotraxx (from debut album 604, and which also got an airing tonight). Near-hit Seventeen, with its perceptive pop culture mantra (“they only want you when you’re seventeen, when you’re twenty one you’re no fun”) received a rousing reception as we headed, inevitably, towards Playgirl and the traditional set closer, the massive Destroy Everything You Touch.

Destroy Everything You Touch

And so, the lights come up and Ladytron depart for their remaining few shows – apparently our last sighting of the foursome on these shores for the rest of the year. Still, we got what we wanted, a glimpse through a synth-pop past darkly, mixed with a teaser of what is still to come. And it really has been this long, a decade of remarkable music that still sets the standard for the latest wave of synthwave bands to aim for.

Written by Richard Pearmain on Tuesday June 14th, 2011 9:25 am

Categories ,astoria, ,brian eno, ,Claire Kearns, ,Daniel Hunt, ,Destroy Everything You Touch, ,electronic, ,forum, ,Gravity The Seducer, ,Helen Marnie, ,jazz, ,Ladytron, ,Michelle Pegrume, ,Mira Aroyo, ,Reuben Wu, ,Robert Tirado, ,Roxy Music, ,south bank, ,Synth-Pop, ,synthwave, ,Witching Hour

Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Seaming To and review of her new album Seaming

Similar Posts:

Amelia’s Magazine | Ladytron at the HMV Forum: Live Review

Similar Posts: