Ghostwriter - Dimensions

by Benjamin Howarth

published: 27 / 3 / 2013

Label: Chaffinch Records
Format: 7"

Spiritual limited-to-200 copies vinyl only single from Ghostwriter, the moniker for electronic artist Mark Brend

Review

More than two years after releasing ‘The Continuing Adventures of the Strange Sound Association’ – a limited edition album that is now almost impossible to find – Ghostwriter’s next move is a vinyl only EP on Chaffinch Records. Again limited, this time to 200 copies, it is likely to become equally collectable. I missed the album, but have managed to get my mitts on this EP – my first experience of Ghostwriter (aka Mark Brend) having been his collaboration with Darren Hayman on his 'January Songs' project in 2011. He was the only artist to ‘cheat’ during that project, explaining that he simply didn’t work in a way that allowed him to record a whole song in a single way. Instead, he produced an instrumental piece at his regular, unhurried pace in advance, with Hayman then adding his vocals on the allotted day. The EP is centred around its eleven minute title track, split onto both sides of the seven inch vinyl. It is the soundtrack to an imaginary walk around 1930's London, in the company of Christian mystic writer Charles Williams (whose work in quoted on the sleeve). The piece begins with a refrain, played on an ominous sounding piano, which gradually fades out, replaced by the same melody played on electronic instruments. In the background, you hear the echoes of a sermon and possibly organ as well. The first half of the track ends with a church choir, singing plainsong, ‘Amen’. The second half begins with a heavily echoed acoustic guitar, with electronic effects bubbling out of the echoes of the chords, before a synth passage begins – different sections merge into one another, some peaceful, some frantic and some disconcertingly strange. I can only imagine Brend intended his listeners to be disconcerted – this is not background music. The complete absence of percussion during what are actually fairly rhythmic passages only adds to this effect. Finally, the church choir returns for a longer passage. Around these, there are two short tracks – one a pleasant lead-in to the main event of the title track, the other reminiscent of the distorted folk instrumentation Four Tet used on ‘Pause’, yet without any beats. It’s a pity there isn’t more than a minute. As a bonus, anyone who buys the vinyl also gets a download only extra track, ‘Bidding Bell’ – on which Brend collaborates with Suzy Mangion and Adrian Ramsey on what he describes as a “pastoral/choral conversation with God”. The track is part Christmas carol, part folk and part ambient. It lifts off when Mangion’s vocals are suddenly layered over each other, before cutting out just as suddenly. Though this track is four minutes long, it is again a pity there isn’t more of it. This is an excellent record, and one can only hope that it isn’t too long a wait for a full length album.