Chilled By Nature is the title for musical projects by Big Chill co-founder Pete Lawrence.
STATE OF GRACE - Remix by The Beauty Room scheduled for release in February 2007 on Big Chill Recordings. The launch party is at The Big Chill House in Kings X, London on Thursday February 15th at 7pm, with a live performance from Chilled By Nature and The Beauty Room as well as DJ sets from Pete Lawrence, Dollboy and Al-pha-X. Visuals by Amukidi
State of Grace : "An instant classic, and definitely the most played song at The Big Chill this year." Mixmaster Morris
UNDER ONE SUN
Pete Lawrences Chilled by Nature debut album, 'Under One Sun' was released in late summer 2006. The album features a number of live guests, including The Swingle Singers, and Mozez of Zero 7 fame, who collaborated with Pete on a brand new track. The album has been in progress since The Big Chill's inception in the mid 90s, though Pete has been kept pretty busy with all things Big Chill, so his music-making has certainly been a labour of love when he's been able to prioritise it. "This approach has certainly had its benefits", suggest Pete, "in that it's given time for the tracks to evolve naturally and draw on a wide variety of influences from certain time periods, ensuring that the end result shouldn't be tied to any short-term vagaries of fashion. My aim is to make timeless music that will still sound good in 30 years."
Pete combines his diverse influences to produce haunting, cinematic music of quiet beauty, which plays out in widescreen in the mind's eye. Chilled By Nature's music illustrates a love of cinematic orchestral textures, drawn from components of musical traditions and forged ahead in new directions, perhaps best described as a new kind of electronic chamber music.
Feedback so far has been very positive :
Rob Da Bank - A timeless mellow mash up of all my favourite styles. Sublime
Ben Mynott - A beautiful album, which captures just about everything I love about music. It breathes beautifully, and totally reaches out to you and pulls you in. Gorgeous
Nick Luscombe - A magical and highly musical journey full of great arrangements with many cool and unexpected twists and turns along the way.
Pathaan - An album thats emotive as well as nicely provocative; in short a beautiful listen
Phil Mison - Great sunshine music
Df Tram - A really gorgeous album. Perfect music for chilling out
Lol Hammond - It goes with me everywhere at the moment - a truly magical record
notes on the album tracks
1.The Otherworld - The first sound you hear on the album is The Swingle Singers dark and brooding a cappella intro, followed by a solid, funky groove laid down by Andy Gangadeen and Nick Cohen. Theres something of a John Barry influence here, with The Swingles counterpointing the melody alongside Dave Nobles Floyd-esque slide guitar.
2. Rondo Mondo - A joyous hoedown of roots meets electronica a bluesy groove, with Gangadeen and Cohen providing funky syncopation for a trombone and accordion led theme which develops into a jam with Jessica Laurens storming barrelhouse piano.
3. Musical Box - The classic winters fairy tail is remixed for the album, accentuating the haunting glockenspiel theme, simplistic rhythm box and live horns.
4. Rolling - Upbeat, evocative modern soul music, starting with dubbed horns and an off-kilter marching band, moving into a sunny strummed guitar-led instrumental. Neil Yates adds the flute solo, as it builds to a climax with a fiesta of brass, a joyous interplay between saxes and trumpets.
5. Mirage - A deep mysterious, panoramic soundscape conceived by Pete in Cairo around the time of The Big Chills landmark event in the city. The interplay between instruments is sparse and poignant, with Egyptian quarter-tone keyboards played by master musician Fathy Salama.
6. The Fire On The Mountain - Acts as an interlude, lifting the graceful classical string theme from Go Forward as a backdrop to Alan James reading an excerpt from his piece Fire, written in Naxos.
7. State Of Grace - Its hardly a secret that Pete rates the Mozez-inspired Zero 7 track This World as one of the greatest songs ever written. This new track took shape as a musical and lyrical collaboration between the pair. Its the albums pivotal point. State Of Grace is about sacrifice, resolution, and hope - a spiritual for modern times.
8. Where Did You Go - An intimate lament for lost love, with Pete stepping forward to sing for the first time, with Boomclick Soundsystems Rosa Fernandez, backed by Dave Natureboy Nobles sunny Spanish guitar.
9. Butterflies - Conceived on a hazy August day in the Llanthony valley on the Welsh borders, close to the Big Chill site in 1997. Pete then asked Andy Waterworth (London Elektricity, Instrumental) and Gill Morley (Echo) to play double bass and viola respectively, both parts complimenting the lazy pastoral Englishness of the composition.
10. Green Shade - Petes most ambitious musical exercise on the record. Written in three parts, starting with free-wheeling ambience over which Howard McGill plays some moody tenor sax, followed by a darker chord progression contrasting with simple acoustic piano and, which builds into Michael Mantler-esque solo codas from flute, and then sax with trumpets playing in unison, before the final massed percussion ensemble chases the fade.
11. Cumulonimbus - A minor key sky-gazers lament, starting with dreamy electric guitar picking from Dave Noble, before submerging itself in a shimmering wash of synths, with a simple piano part working with it.
12. Go Forward - has already surfaced on Petes first EP, Solar Powered and has already been hailed a classic. Starting with a mesmeric harp and ukulele exchange, the bass and drums then kick the groove into gear, which builds to the dubbed piano breakdown. Its a fitting climax to Petes debut album.
State of Grace, the song co-written with Mozez, will be released as a single in September, and the CD release will feature a specially commissioned remix by The Beauty Room. Pete says Their album, which I received in late spring and is scheduled for August release on Peacefrog, is the freshest new music I've heard this year, a stunning blend of craftsmanship and melodic grace. Melody and harmony in perfect sync, drawing on a rich heritage of influences to make timeless pop music. The remix is something really special and they were clearly inspired by Mozez awesome vocal performance.
Chilled By Nature will be taking it live at The Big Chill festival on August 5th. The last semi-live shows were back in 2002, using live horns and cello. This time, Nick Cohen, who plays bass on the album, is musical arranger and its his intention to play the whole set completely live. Hopefully more live dates will follow.
Pete is interviewed on The Big Chill website
http://www.bigchill.net/story/1777/petelawrenceonunderonesun.html
Discography (Releases):
Solar Powered EP (Big Chill Recordings)
- Go Forward (Love Bubble Mix)
- Cumulus
- The Unfolding
- Funky Pie (Reheat)
Musical Box (Big Chill Recordings)
-[Includes original mix and remixes by Alucidnation (Lucid Dream Mix)
and Ulrich Schnauss (Out Of The Box remix)]
