Various
Household Objects (and Sundry Massed Gadgets)
After "Dark Side of the Moon", Pink Floyd were casting around for a new concept for their next release. What they came up with was to make an album using as source material only household objects - though allowing manipulation and Musique Concrete techniques to be applied. They made a start and then moved on to Wish You Were Here. Now William Hayter and Barry Lamb - who brought you Miniatures 2020 - have decided to give it another go, commissioning a wide range of artists to scour their houses for sounds and organise them into compositions. Some of these pieces work because you can recognise the sources, others because you can't. And while many participants assemble small orchestras of objects, a few stick to just one thing (water or an egg-slicer) - and always the objects are meticulously listed. Though many old hands contribute (The Residents, Steve Beresford, Mark Hewins etc.) most are up-and-comers, making this also a useful sampler of new voices. It's informative, left-field and a bone fide curiosity and comes in a beautifully designed and illustrated package with a 32pp booklet elucidating each track, a series of high-end art collages and a foreword by Nick Mason