LAST WANE DAYS
Last Wane Days is one manifestation of Neil Luck’s Notebook project, setting the texts of the avant-garde American playwright and director, Richard Foreman.
This two-act monodrama for voice, strings, piano, and guitar has been composed in collaboration with the acclaimed singer-songwriter Fiona Bevan, and is performed by the avant-garde string ensemble ARCO.
Cast half in the form of a dislocated language tape, half as a subverted pop album, Last Wane Days is a pile-up of lush orchestrations, radio jingles, noise, sumptuous vocals, MIDI sounds, dream sequences, and deformed rock guitar solos. A head-on collision of the sublime and the ridiculous.
Track Listing:
Act 1: That swoon feverous seven of the throne
Act 2: The last smoke was Romanesque, before your hopes were flung
Performers:
Fiona Bevan: Voice
Ruta Vitkauskaite: Violin
Benedict Taylor: Viola
Richard Thomas: Cello
Sam Rice: Double Bass
Adam de la Cour: Guitar
Satoko Doi: Piano
Neil Luck: Percussion, voice
Composed and arranged by Neil Luck.
Swoon on the Throne of Moans, and The Last Days of Decadence composed by Fiona Bevan.
Most of the texts used in the recording are rearranged fragments from the notebooks of Richard Foreman
The Last Days of Decadence lyrics by Fiona Bevan. Swoon on the Throne of Moans lyrics by Richard Foreman, Fiona Bevan, and Gérard de Nerval
Recorded by Oli Whitworth and Richard Thomas
Mixed and edited by Oli Whitworth
Produced by Oli Whitworth, Neil Luck, Fiona Bevan
Cover artwork by Ayşegül Wilde
The support of the THE BLISS TRUST and the PRSF are gratefully acknowledged.
