Alexander Tucker

Previously only released as a very limited CD-r, this self-titled debut from Alexander Tucker finally sees a wide release on vinyl and has been re-mastered by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering. Limited to only 500 copies worldwide and released for Record Store Day 2014 this LP-only release is pressed on virgin vinyl and includes a download code. The download card includes 20 minutes of bonus material not on the LP.

Alexander Tucker’s self-titled debut was released in a micro-edition on CD-R in 2005, a quiet beginning to a solo career that would establish him as one of Britain’s most forward-thinking songwriters and sound sculptors. In addition to establishing frameworks that Tucker would explore and toy with for the next decade and a half, it also lays the groundwork for his work with Imbogodom and Grumbling Fur, showing his innovation as a songwriter and expert sonic collage-maker. It proves that while his methods have evolved, his bold conceptual schema were set into place from the beginning. This incubative work is being pressed on vinyl for the first time ever for Record Store Day 2014, following the acclaim of his duo Grumbling Fur’s breakout LP Glynnaestra. The download code that accompanies the release features over 20 minutes of additional material.

The album was recorded just after Tucker graduated from a 4 year stint at the Slade School of Fine Art, setting out into the wider world in mildly disappointed and unsure of what was to come next. When he set about recording the album, Tucker imagined a collection of sounds that were purposefully out of time, using new technologies and techniques to make sounds that would sound at home on a lost wax cylinder. Tucker populates his soundworld with rudimentary electronics, traditional acoustic instrumentation, field recordings, and free improvisation, presenting himself as a fearless explorer blending styles in ways that would only become popular years after this album’s release.

Alexander Tucker will be celebrating Record Store Day by playing record stores in his home town of London. He is currently in the studio with Daniel O’Sullivan working on a new Grumbling Fur release.

Tucker further explains the process of writing and recording his self-titled debut:

“The first solo recordings i made onto dictaphone soon moved onto the newly introduced mini-disc recorder into which I recorded guitar noise improvisations and field recordings. It wasn't until 2001 that I got hold of my own 8 track machine. Initially I wanted to make a Faust tapes inspired collage of the mini disc improvisations spliced together with the field recordings, this was until i started processing the material through FX and loop pedals to create cut up assemblages.

Around this time I had been on a steady diet of 60's psychedelia, Krautrock, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Bardo Pond, Dead C, Oval, John Fahey, Alexander Spence, Charalambides and Jandek. These influences began to merged to form the basis for my 1st self titled collection of songs and sound worlds. I liked the idea of primitive guitar work next to rudimentary electronics and combining these elements within the same place.”