ROY MONTGOMERY (& JESSICA MOSS) : Last Year’s Man / After Vermeer – 10″

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Description

“ My first deep exposure to Leonard Cohen was the Bird on a Wire documentary by Tony Palmer, which was, against the odds, broadcast on public television in New Zealand around 1974 or 1975. At age 15 or 16 I thought it was too dark. A few years later, in the late ’70s, I wanted things darker. The first Cohen LP was very clever but a little too ‘up’. The second was too public and political for me. Songs of Love and Hate seemed more honest, more about personal failure. I liked it, although Cohen tended to disown it, especially ‘Dress Rehearsal Rag’ and ‘Last Year’s Man’, neither of which he performed live later on. I like ‘Last Year’s Man’ for the same reason I like Nick Drake’s ‘Poor Boy’. It wallows and parodies at the same time. I came across the Suzuki Omnichord OM-27 because it was mentioned in relation to another Canadian, Joni Mitchell. It looked like a mystery box of potentially very good or very bad sounds, like a Bontempi chord organ customized for space travel in a Stanley Kubrick film. Irresistible… I was fortunate to meet Jessica Mossbecause of the 12 hour Drone event at Le Guess Who Festival in Utrecht in November 2017. I thought it would be cool to jam with some of the other people scheduled to play their own pieces so I asked the organisers, Bob Helleur and Jacob Hagelaars, to sound out the other droners a few weeks before the festival. Jessica replied, I sent a sample piece, and we talked, more than rehearsed, a day before the performance. We did our piece live and then some months later I sent her a recorded piece to which she added her magical playing. ”  (Roy Montgomery)


Roy Montgomery : vocal and keyboard (Omnichord)

Jessica Moss : violin

Emma Johnston and Arnie van Bussel : backing vocal on ‘Last Year’s Man’

Recorded

mainly with a first generation Suzuki Omnichord OM-27

onto a Tascam DP-01FX 8-track Portastudio, Christchurch NZ, Jan-March 2018

Mixed

by Arnie van Bussel at Nighshift Studios, Christchurch NZ, May 2018

Mastered

by Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering, Montréal, May 2018

Illustration

Gwénola Carrère, Brussels, October 2018

Additional information

Weight 0,3 kg
Dimensions 31 × 31 × 0,3 cm