Instability of the Signal: Simon Fisher Turner’s Latest Release
Simon Fisher Turner has released a new album titled Instability of the Signal through Mute. This album adds to Fisher Turner’s extensive career in the music, film, and art industries, which began in the 1970s. The album contains 13 tracks and marks Fisher Turner’s return to vocal performances after focusing on instrumental pieces in recent years. Read our interview with Simon Fisher Turner.
Artist: Simon Fisher Turner
Release Date: 2024-08-02
Genres: Art Rock, Experimental Music, Post-punk
Label: Mute Records
Description: Simon Fisher Turner's new album Instability of the Signal, released by Mute, features audio snippets, classical strings, and field recordings.
Featured image by Marta Ruly
Instability of the Signal integrates various elements, including audio snippets, piano, classical strings, a detuned Fender Telecaster, and field recordings by Fisher Turner. He reworked tiny sound fragments, provided by Salford Electronics (David Padbury), to create the tracks. The album features unique sounds from Fisher Turner’s field recordings, such as a spinning bicycle wheel recorded in Berlin and percussive sounds influenced by his work with Edmund de Waal. The string sections were recorded with The Elysian Collective, known for their live performances with Pulp.
Produced by Francine Perry, the album was recorded in a small studio setting. The cover photo shows filmmaker Isao Yamada, a regular collaborator of Fisher Turner, listening to the album for the first time.
The album is accompanied by a video for the track “Toast,” directed by artist, dollmaker, and filmmaker John Lee Bird. The video portrays Fisher Turner in blue pyjamas, interacting with various props. Bird describes the video as a playful creation made during a brief session with a friend.
Other tracks on the album have visual interpretations by different filmmakers. “Barefeet” has a video directed by Sebastian Sharples, “Turning Slowly” by Isao Yamada, “I Can’t Hear Anything” by John Lee Bird, and “Bless Your Hands (Part 1 and 2)” by Chris Newby.
The lyrics on the album combine cut-ups from William Burroughs based on Harold Pinter‘s poems, words from a book on Czech filmmakers Breda Beban and Hrvoje Horvatic, and Fisher Turner’s own memories. These lyrics convey his emotions and frustrations without overt political messages.
Simon Fisher Turner, born on 21 November 1954, is an English musician, composer, producer, songwriter, and actor. His career began in the 1970s as a teen idol, and he later became known for composing music for films and television. Notably, he scored Derek Jarman‘s films such as “Caravaggio” and “The Last of England”. Fisher Turner has worked under various aliases and collaborated with numerous artists, and his work is characterized by its experimental approach and diverse sound influences.
Instability of the Signal is available now on vinyl and digital formats via Mute.
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