In Order To Know You Deep Throat Choir SKU: BELLA1229V Barcode: 5400863050993 19.00 £19.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Bella Union Released Date: 7th January 2022 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info “I’m reeling, I’m restless,” sing Deep Throat Choir from the heart of their second album. That restlessness manifests in a set of tremendously abundant, original songs from the east London female and non-binary vocal collective, founded by Landshapes member Luisa Gerstein. Released via Bella Union in December, In Order to Know You is a multi-layered assertion of freshly expansive range, driven by two core virtues: a sense of strength in unity and an open embrace of its singers’ personal experiences, shared through collective, supportive vocal expression. After 2017’s largely covers-based debut album, Be OK, the choir recognised the call to evolve. “Having been singing together for five-plus years, and having released an album of mostly covers, it felt like the logical next step to make our own music together,” says Gerstein. “This album is the alchemy of all the specific voices and players that make up the choir, and a collaborative process of writing and sharing music and ideas. Sonically, I wanted to move beyond just voices and percussion, to see what richness could be brought with acoustic instruments and electronics, and to transition from a choir that does covers to a band with loads of vocalists.” The rewards of that leap are immediately evident on ‘Alchemilla’, named after the herbaceous perennial. A testimony to the strength in vulnerability, it celebrates an openness to emotion across buoyant harmonies that “ebb and flow” like cool waves; with words by Heloise Tunstall-Behrens, Alice Freedman and Holly Turnbull, the song emerged from a jamming session in Margate and a conversation about masculinity. On the jazzy ‘Firefly’, Sarah Parkes’ saxophone adds flavour to a song of palpable feeling. ‘Picturing’ is a spun-silk reflection on shared tenacity before tough circumstance, while the forceful voices and folksy guitars of ‘Uvas’ frame a lyric that testifies to the choir’s depths of personal experience. “This song is about my mum,” says Gerstein. “In Colombia (or maybe it’s a Catholic thing?) you eat 12 grapes (uvas) at New Year’s to make 12 resolutions with. I was thinking about her resolve to move and travel to a faraway place, and a resolve and hunger that I feel she’s passed down to me. It’s about looking back at the generations before you, finding common threads that run through those histories, and all the bigger histories that are part of that tapestry, like ships on the sea and emeralds in the dirt (early conquistadors traded glass for emeralds with indigenous people).” A rolling piano buoys up ‘Lighter’, which channels Sun Ra’s influence into a song that upholds the support found in mutual connectivity. Meanwhile, the gorgeous swoon of ‘Patience’ again illuminates how individual singers’ experiences can take shape within the choir, to become something held by all. “I wrote ‘Patience’ as a kind of eulogy for my mum’s funeral,” says soloist Rosa Slade. “Music for me was the easier way to express a combined and confusing feeling of grief and celebration of life. I joined Deep Throat a few months later and found the choir space brought such deep holding through song and collectivity. When Luisa began to compose and gather for the second album, it felt natural somehow for the song to be held by those voices too; so it could live by transforming into something new and shared; becoming multiple stories existing in unison.” Elsewhere, the restless, reeling surfaces of ‘Camille’ foreground the shape-shifting potential in Deep Throat Choir: between its effusive voices and bubbling arrangements, the song blurs the lines between boundaries and singers, leaping off from Björk’s influence to mount a declaration of band intent. “It felt like a real line in the sand for encapsulating a new sound for us,” says Gerstein, who co-wrote the words to the song with Tanya Auclair while listening to lectures by science and feminism professor Donna Haraway. From there, In Order to Know You heads towards its climax without seeming to touch the ground, from the title-track’s devotional exhalation to the stealthy, smoky shimmer of ‘Unstitching’. Its lyrics drawn from a poem by Emma Cleave, the sublime ‘Field of Not Knowing’ closes the album in a vivid tapestry of folk-gothic images (moon beams and pipistrelles) and serene-to-soaring arrangements, revelling in possibility: “It’s the place where I begin,” sing the choir. For Deep Throat Choir, the result is both an exquisite culmination of journeys taken so far and a lustrous, exquisite springboard for further adventures. Their travels began in 2013, when the collective took shape from a desire to strip music back to the basic elements of raw female voices and drums, united in a fashion that both honours and transmogrifies personal expression. A small group of four or five singers steadily expanded, with Zara Toppin’s drums providing a propulsive energy. Cathartic live shows and collaborations followed, ranging from team-ups with Peggy Sue, Stealing Sheep, Horse Meat Disco and Matthew E White to performances at Green Man, Wilderness, the Southbank Centre’s WOW festival, London’s Scala and beyond. Be OK provided a gutsy showcase for the band’s close, collective strengths, bolstered by weekly gatherings at a church in east London to blow the roof off. A fruitful collaboration with techno-pop duo Simian Mobile Disco on the 2018 album Murmurations followed: a testament to the choir’s alchemical abilities. At a residency at the Prah Foundation, Margate, seeds were sown for the new songs. An increased confidence bloomed as the band pushed at its boundaries, an evolution aided by engineer Andy Ramsey, the vast range of contributors’ musical talents and the innate strength of their shared foundations. Removing the first album’s boundaries of voices and drums, the choir freed themselves up to explore musically, with the emphasis on voices remaining a central constant. Emerging organically, the songs reflect the experiences and worlds of the singers who contributed to the writing process. Alongside soloists Tanya Auclair, Liv Stones, Holly Holden, Elly Condron, Miryam Solomon, Fikir Assefa, Maddie Rix, Rosa Slade, Heloise Tunstall-Behrens, Fran Lobo and Gerstein, new contributors included brass players Marcus Hamblett and Emma Gatrill, plus pianist Sam Beste. From within the choir, Kate Burn played cello, Sarah Anderson played violin/viola, Tunstall-Behrens played bass and Auclair contributed synth parts. Recording took place before lockdown; Gerstein produced, while Jimmy Robertson (Anna Calvi, Peggy Sue) mixed the record. From these deep roots, fresh growths blossomed. The album is instrumental in the formation of the multi-disciplinary Amorphous Sounds collective, named after the lyrics to ‘Camille’ and launched by Gerstein with long-time friend and collaborator Anika Mottershaw. As Gerstein puts it, “Amorphous Sounds is a continuation of the collaborative processes that started on this album. It’s inspiring to have so many artists within the group, and the idea of the label is to have a space where people can collaborate on songs or more extended projects, both within and outside the choir. It’s giving a name to something that already exists, and a structure for it to grow. As things start to open up we’re plotting some Amorphous shows, and I hope we’ll be able to jam and make tunes together again soon!” The album title reflects that drive towards a kind of questing togetherness. “We made this music in order to know and understand each other more fully,” says Gerstein, “and that’s what music is in general. We’re saying it to each other, and to the listener.” Getting to know this most deep, rich and mutable of records is, we’d wager, a journey well worth the taking. Artist Deep Throat Choir Genre Rock And Pop Label Bella Union Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings 1 Alchemilla 2 Firefly 3 Picturing 4 Uvas 5 Lighter 6 Tremelo Train 7 Patience 8 Camille 9 In Order to Know You 10 Unstitching 11 Field of Not Knowing Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Rock And Pop View Product Quick View Gogol Bordello Seekers and Finders – Indies Only Marbled Vinyl Rock And Pop | Cooking Vinyl | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Includes Download Code Released 25th August 2017 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Gogol Bordello Seekers and Finders – Indies Only Marbled Vinyl £22.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Cooking Vinyl SKU: COOKLP674M Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Includes Download Code Released Date: 25th August 2017 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Blow Monkeys, The Together/Alone Rock And Pop | Last Night From Glasgow | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve Released 24th May 2024 £25.00 Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders Blow Monkeys, The Together/Alone £25.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Last Night From Glasgow SKU: LNFG144 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 24th May 2024 Read More Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Bruce Springsteen The Rising Rock And Pop | Sony Legacy | 2LP Released 21st February 2020 £23.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Bruce Springsteen The Rising £23.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Sony Legacy SKU: 19075978911 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 21st February 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Wild Beasts Boy King (Deluxe) Rock And Pop | Wichita | 1LP, Includes 7" Released 3rd August 2016 £20.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Wild Beasts Boy King (Deluxe) £20.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Wichita SKU: WIGLP348X Formats: 1LP, Includes 7" Released Date: 3rd August 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Taylor Swift 1989 Rock And Pop | Virgin Records | 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 2nd December 2014 £26.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Taylor Swift 1989 £26.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Virgin Records SKU: 4709268 Formats: 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 2nd December 2014 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Akron/Family Akron/Family II (The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT) Rock And Pop | Dead Oceans | 2LP Released 9th March 2011 £13.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Akron/Family Akron/Family II (The Cosmic Birth And Journey Of Shinju TNT) £13.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Dead Oceans SKU: DOC045LP Formats: 2LP Released Date: 9th March 2011 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Here Lies Love Rock And Pop | Nonesuch | 2LP Released 11th August 2023 £39.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Here Lies Love £39.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Nonesuch SKU: 0075597905557 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 11th August 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Tigercats Isle Of Dogs Rock And Pop | Fika Recordings | 180g, 1LP, Includes Download Code Released 30th March 2015 £13.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Tigercats Isle Of Dogs £13.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Fika Recordings SKU: FIKA015LP Formats: 180g, 1LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 30th March 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Bullet For My Valentine Fever Rock And Pop | Sony Music | 2LP Released 28th April 2010 £18.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Bullet For My Valentine Fever £18.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Sony Music SKU: 88697639473 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 28th April 2010 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Jamie Lawson The Years In Between Rock And Pop | Atlantic/Gingerbread Man | 1LP Released 29th March 2019 £18.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Jamie Lawson The Years In Between £18.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Atlantic/Gingerbread Man SKU: 0190295469412 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 29th March 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Rock And Pop Start again
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