Sieben – ‎Our Solitary Confinement
Label: Dark Vinyl Records ‎– DVLP09
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 03 Feb 2017
Style: Neofolk

This record was recorded at Redroom Studio, Sheffield, England, during 2002. It was written, performed and produced by Matt Howden. The original CD (TRI 151) came out on the Trisol/Iceflower label.

This was the first Sieben album to be a solo endeavour, but was before the looping phase of my Sieben career. That would come next, with the release of Sex & Wildflowers. Songs on this album were inspired by, or written in conjunction with photographs by Danish photographer Kristine Haffgaard. We inspired each other. This record has been mastered for vinyl by Bobby Bachinger at MAG Studio, Germany. Sleeve design by Martin Bedford.

This vinyl edition runs to two records. All songs from Our Solitary Confinement are included, plus an unreleased work, The Sound Of His Horn. Written at the same time, The Sound Of His Horn was intended to be a book CD release through Tartarus Press. The idea was that it would accompany the book the music takes its name from, by author John William Wall (pen-name Sarban). For some reason this never quite happened. It is possibly one of my most ambient works – though has its scary moments, principally because it was written to accompany a spooky tale. The music to the Sound Of His Horn pinches and intertwines musical lines and beats from Our Solitary Confinement, Voyager (an album released under my own name that I was also working on at the time), and Hellfires (Redroom 002, released 2001). I’m often working on quite a few projects at the same time. With those that aren’t central to what I do, as with the Sound Of His Horn, I enjoy being free of ‘writing from fresh’, and will lift and re-use material. So strange to come back to these pieces I’ve never re-listened to, and hear echoes of Our Solitary Confinement peek through the soundscape.

Matt Howden – February 2014