Frances Castle
I’m not sure exactly what my plans for Clay Pipe were were in October 2010, I had just finished recording The Hardy Tree’s ‘The Fields Lie Sleeping Underneath’ and decided to self-release it on CD. I hand printed the cover in blue, using a miniature Japanese screen printing machine called a ‘Print Gocco’ and I catalogued it ‘Clay Pipe 001’, so perhaps I was more optimistic about starting a label than I remember? It got picked up by Jarvis Cocker and played on his ‘Sunday Service’ show, the first pressing of 100 sold out, so I quickly pressed up 100 more, this time in Yellow Ochre. A president was set.

I discovered Michael Tanners music on MySpace, and we agreed that I would put out Thalassing which he had just completed with Kerrie Robinson. It came out mid January 2011, and with a second release Clay Pipe became a proper label. This time I created the CD cover from scratch, Gocco printing onto 5”x 5” pieces of card and binding them together with cloth tape.

Neither of these albums have been available in physical form since, I’ve adapted the artwork and they have both been remastered for vinyl by Antony Ryan.

Thalassing
‘Thalassing’ is a self titled LP by duo Michael Tanner and Kerrie Robinson. Michael has made music under many guises Plinth, Cloisters and The A.Lords to name but a few as well as recording and playing live with Mark Fry and Sharron Kraus. As Plinth he created ‘Music for Smalls Lighthouse’ also released on Clay Pipe Music. Kerrie J Robinson is a multiinstrumentalist based in the remote west Highlands of Scotland. Originally from Dorset, she cut her musical teeth working in record shops and playing
in bands, including Red Peal, Betika, and Sancho. Her current solo work fuses field recordings with improvisation, sound design and electronics. Thalassing was recorded live in one night alongside a screening of Robert J. Flaherty’s ‘Man Of Aran’ (1934).