Simon Fisher Turner: Shwarma

There are quite a few albums on my shelves that I can't remember much about as my eye skims over their spines. But quite often I get a kind of warm or cold feeling that reminds me how I felt about the album, even if it doesn't tell me what it sounds like. I had a warm feeling with this one.

I think I bought it around the time it came out in 1996, probably on the strength of a good review in The Wire. I used to have it in the office in the Workstation, I think, and that may be why I don't remember it very well: it's not the kind of music you can absorb by having it on in the background. Altogether it's a complex mix — one I can't think of a close relative to — of folk melodies and avant-garde noise, of singing and spoken word (some very well-read poems by Quentin Stevenson/John Quintin). It's not an easy listen, but there's something about it that makes me think it could be rewarding.

Simon Fisher Turner did several soundtracks for Derek Jarman films, but that's about all I know of him.

Kate St. John plays cor anglais and tenor sax — she crops up everywhere.

MusicBrainz entry for this album