Second collaborative release from duo who work with treated field recordings and improvisations. Make Flames (Joel Derby) and Gavin Laird began working together in 2016. Over the ensuing two-year period they completed the tracks for this release as well as two pieces that were featured on Laird’s 2017 album “Instance” and a further piece for a forthcoming project. The EP will be available in digital format and will be released jointly by Glass Records and Over Records.

The tracks on this EP began life as improvised pieces created by Joel alongside field recordings and mutated ambient sounds. “I was at a point where I no longer had any interest in writing songs of the verse-chorus-verse formula”, says Joel. “I tried but the motivation wasn’t there. At the same time, I wanted to create music that was of and about my life - where I lived and what I heard and experienced day-to-day.”

This led to a period of musical experimentation by collecting sounds and field recordings and then improvising.Eventually, this process helped to form the basis of the tracks on this EP. “By this point,” continues Joel, “I had already been collaborating with Joshua Stefane, a Canadian ambient artist based in Japan on a separateproject. I found working with someone else rewarding, so I decided to try and find more musical partners.”

Joel and Gavin began sharing ideas and then adding new layers of sound and instrumentation until the pieces were completed earlier this year. Gavin comments: “Initially I was looking to provide different mixes on Joel’s material but I started to hear space for additional sounds and I thought it would be interesting to see what I
could do. Everything I did was a first- or second-take improvisation .”

Having more recently been working on the reissue of the Porch Song Anthology album, which has a strong folk influence, and his own (predominantly solo acoustic guitar-based) album “Instance”, Gavin found it stimulating to work on material of a very different nature. “ It's great after a period of working on simple song-based music to have the freedom of using improvisation and thinking more about sound than structure. I love how that approach lends itself to creating a sense of place and mood and gives space to the listener to fill in their own scene or emotions in response. ”

A Map Is Not The Territory It Portrays, was recorded and produced remotely with Gavin based in Glasgow, Scotland and Joel in Whitstable, in the English county of Kent. “ It was the first time I have worked remotely,” says Gavin. “Working this way on someone else's material provided me with space to do what I wanted and
probably allowed me more space to make mistakes. Even the most egotistical and confident musician is inevitably affected by the other party in any face-to-face collaboration. It was interesting to not have that immediate input from my creative partner. ”

Joel said of the collaboration “I’ve been a big fan of Gavin’s work for many years, particularly the Telstar Ponies and Lonecop releases, so to work with him has been an amazing experience. We’ve worked on some very different types of music together already in this short period: our collaboration on the tracks for “Instance” and for Gavin’s forthcoming “The Cup and The Ring” project are more organic and acoustic-based although, fundamentally, they stem from the same improvisation and experimental principles as the pieces on this EP. “

On working with Glass Records, Joel commented “It’s a real privilege to have a release on a label with such stature and heritage. It’s great that they have a strong belief in new music as well as having an amazing back catalogue.”