Unstill by Andy Cartwright

Unstill, from Andy Cartwright, sees the musician break away from the guitar as his standard instrument. Old field recordings - taken whilst on his travels - have been inserted, manipulated, and layered with synths. Other instruments, such as a guzheng, tongue drum, kalimba, autoharp, cymbals, and reel-to-reel tape noise also populate the record, along with a selection of live radio samples.

Chants echo out from a plethora of diverse locations, including the Sikkim Monastery (recorded in 2012), and listeners walk once again through the deep snow of the Nepalese Himalayas, a field recording originally taken in 2008. The Tunisian Desert comes into view, just as it did in 2014. The Paris metro recalls a specific sound recorded in a single moment back in 2019, and nuns populate the Alpine Church, which was recorded as recently as 2020. The cover photograph was taken in Cairo in 2004, giving a sense of sporadic-yet-connected moments in time and covering much of the globe.

Unstill’s music is worthy of its title, as the music is frequently frenzied and scattered. Not only is it diverse in location, but the multiple instruments help in giving the music no real centre or definition, leaving it in a state of glorious instability. In Cartwright’s music, instability piques interest and makes for surprising music. Despite its rapid movement and high levels of activity, one will find a bunch of melodies breaking through the dissonance like a sunbeam. The radio samples are also room for reprieve, and the music slows in pace whenever these interludes appear, bringing a tiny slice of stillness to its unstill foundations. Unstill is a record of multiple directions, twisting, turning, morphing. It’s always in constant motion; change is as inevitable as the tide.

Made by hand,

1 x vintage (circa:1886-1955) hardback clothbound book (re-assembled / screwed / bolted together into CD covers
1 x glass mastered CD **(Not CDR)**
15 - 20 pages of writing / images
19 x A7 polaroid prints on luxury uncoated paper (designed by Craig Tattersall)
1 x library card
2 x vintage photographs
1 x vintage book-mark
1 x vintage numbered photo negative
1 x antique 35mm glass slide
1 x film strip
1 x Incense
Stamped / hand numbered / scented
All of the above rests inside glassine bags
Download code (includes 20 PDF prints)
Limited to 150 copies

Made with love...

fluidaudio.co.uk