Following their first abstract-ambient-industrial jazz collaboration, capturing the rewilding of decayed industries on ‘Romney Marsh,’ the sequel in their triptych, inspired by landscapes of the Sussex coast – where Keith Rodway (Good Missionaries / Column 258 / Necessary Animals / Anthony Moore) and Eugene Kalamari (gloppaddagloppadda / solo artist) reside – is ‘Seven Sisters.’
The Seven Sisters white cliffs and winding Cuckmere River are one of the most unique and distinct landmarks in the world. A series of seven peaks terminating abruptly into sheer chalk cliffs, spanning East Sussex and the South Downs from the Cuckmere River to Eastbourne. It is said that sailors named it such for their resemblance to seven nuns beckoning them safely to land; their white robes cloaked by green habitat. From west to east – Haven Brow, Short Brow, Brass Point, Flagstaff Brow, Rough Brow, Bailey’s Hill and Went Hill Brow.
The people who worked these lands altered little of it. It really shaped them and consequently took on legendary spiritual significance, influenced by successive invaders as the closest landmass of access from the European continent. As well as the land and sea providing sustenance; legal and illegal trade and being the bulwark of national security; all of such required heroic deeds of protection and maintenance by local inhabitants at the behest of successive rulers and landowners. Oral storytelling even speculates a tenuous link between a Sussex farmer and Utnapishtim in the eleventh tablet of the Sumerian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh; the legend of a global flood in which the farmer saves his livestock by building a great boat.
They have been linked with the Pleiades Constellation (seven doves) of Greek mythology – Sister Alcyone (queen who wards off evil / storms); Sister Taygeta (long-necked); Sister Elektra (amber, shining, bright, to flow or run like water); Sister Celaeno (swarthy); Sister Merope (eloquent, bee-eater, mortal); Sister Sterope (lightning, twinkling, sun-face or stubborn face); and Sister Maia (mother, nurse, the great one).
And even to seven demons: “On this very day, as evening approaches, the first is (like) a fox that drags/shuffles its tail, the second being sniffs like a domestic dog, the third, like a raven, (its) bite pecks larvae, the fourth overwhelms like a huge carrion devourer vulture, the fifth being, although not a wolf, falls upon black lambs, the sixth being hoots like an owl, which resides in …, the seventh being is (like) a shark (that) darts across the waves” (Hymn to Hendursag a 46-48, 77-84).
These are the influences encompassed in location recordings and random rhythms generated by natural forces of wind, sea, rock, water, wildlife and light – location recordings: the slapping of sail-mast lines; waves hitting a beach groyne; shale sucked back upon itself; sluicing of bowls in running water; the nettle of metal brushing metal, bouncing steel-plate and a rusting gate. Add to this the spirals of Keith Rodway’s sinuous synths riding thermals, the euphoric and misty horns of Sebastian Greschuk, and oblique rich tangents of Eugene Kalamari’s keys and final onerous choral requiem; we get a feel for the land’s mythical significance. The seven tracks of approximately seven-minute duration originate from a single seven-minute recording by Rodway, stretched and filtered by Kalamari to form the forty-nine minute gently rising ambient substrata, from which the Seven Sisters nuns / stars / peaks rise. ‘On Rocks’ – a poem from ‘Sublimation: a love affair with the sea’ by Kendal Eaton – (https://soundingoffuk.com/sublimation.html) – takes us deep within the mineral compaction and geological origins of this transcendent topography. Individual track information is allusory and derived from varied historical versions. But then the Greeks never let contradictions impede a good myth.
01 Went Hill Brow – Sister Alcyone: (queen who wards off evil / storms). Seduced by Poseidon and gave birth to Hyrieus, Orion’s father. The Pleiades ( Πλειάδες – “daughters of Pleione” probably derives from plein “to sail”) are the seven daughters of the Titan god Atlas and the ocean nymph Pleione. Alcyone is very protective, always on the vanguard, an anchor shoring up her sisters’ defences.
02 Bailey’s Hill – Sister Taygeta: (long necked). Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Lacedæmon, founder of Sparta. In some versions of the story, she was unwilling to yield to Zeus, and was disguised by Artemis as a hind (female red deer). Somewhat winsome, light-hearted and care-free, we can imagine her preparing her vessel for sail against the boisterous waves – our first interlude of Greschuk’s airy trumpet, Kalamari’s slapping sail mast and Rodway’s bubbling synth reflecting the sun-kissed globules of perspiration on her slender bronzed neck.
03 Flagstaff Brow – Sister Elektra: (`amber’, `shining’, `bright,’ `to flow, run’, as a liquid). Wife of Corythus; seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Dardanus, founder of Troy. Electrum is an alloy of silver and gold, and means amber in Latin, as does the Greek electron. Thales of Miletus noted in 600 BC that a rubbed piece of amber will attract bits of straw, a manifestation of the effects of static electricity.
04 Brass Point – Sister Celeano: (swarthy). Celeano had two sons, Lycus (“wolf”) and Chimærus (“he-goat”) by Prometheus. More introspective than Alcyone; preoccupied by domestic and beauty rituals, cleanliness, adorning of precious metals and gems. Percussion here is the same mast as in the previous track recorded from its interior.
05 Rough Brow – Sister Merope: (eloquent, bee-eater, mortal). Married Sisyphus (se-sophos, `very wise’), son of Æolus, grandson of Deucalion (the Greek Noah), and great-grandson of Prometheus. Merope can always be seen closely observing nature with a playful curiosity, dancing barefoot in the grass.
06 Short brow – Sister Sterope: (`lightning’, `twinkling’, `sun-face’, `stubborn-face,’ Indo-European ster – `star’, `stellar’, `asterisk’). Possibly the daughter of Porthaön, and may have been the mother of the Sirens, who lured sailors to their deaths with their enchanting singing. A possible alternate name is Asterië (`of the starry sky’ or `of the sun’), which may also be a name for the creatrix of the universe. More reflective, graceful, intuitive and seductive. Keith Rodway’s transcendent synth lifts us from shore to stratosphere, whilst Kendal Eaton keeps our feet solidly on terra-firma with his poem ‘On Rocks’ paying reverence to the stratification of millennia.
07 Haven Brow – Sister Maia: (`grandmother’, `mother’, `nurse’; `the great one’). Eldest and most beautiful of the sisters; a mountain nymph in Arcadia. Seduced by Zeus and gave birth to Hermes. Her wisdom and experience peruses the bigger picture in every situation, sober and perceptive, always with her finger on the pulse. Maia has observed the consequences of hedonism with a somewhat jaded perspective. She circles the activities of her sisters with a supervisory eye, withdrawn to a place of security, on hand to give comfort and respite. A subtle choral requiem recalls the devastation she has seen wrought and the mourning of all mothers of tragedy. Cest-la-vie for a serene seasoned pragmatist.
08 (bonus) Short Brow – Sister Sterope (reprise). We revisit Sister Sterope, who is by now reclined on the beach, letting the sun’s rays, the waves, gliding seabirds and Sebastian’s French horn serenade her into a hypnagogic stupor.
Now: ‘Seven Sisters’ (Bandcamp release) – https://soundingoffuk.bandcamp.com/album/seven-sisters
Discounted pre-release available from the artist – (320kbs mp3 £5 / lossless wav £8 / lossless +mp3 £10) – https://kendal.gumroad.com/l/utjnt
Previously: ‘Romney Marsh’ – https://soundingoffuk.com/kalamari.html#sokalamaribookmark
Coming soon: ‘Devil’s Dyke’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3qDx91U3GA