Eggs from a Varnished Chest

from Dave Brown ‘Eggs from a Varnished Chest’ grew out of a recording process overseen by Myles Mumford. I gave myself no brief but, as is my want, allowed the sonic outputs to follow their own will. The tracks are largely improvisations performed on a slack-strung, tenor guitar with ‘in the moment’, electronic processing dispatched via an array of stomp-boxes. Occasional instrument preparations designed to interfere with the strings and electrical currents were utilised. Additional utensils; motorised, resonant and otherwise, were also brought into play around the strings and pickup. In addition to these methods, while I was improvising, Myles gently embellished the atmospheric milieu. Where these songs are ostensibly solo performances, throughout other recordings from the ‘Eggs’ sessions (yet to see the light of day) Myles played a more forthright role with his atmospheric colouring, sonic generations and transformations, spewing forth another sonic stream whose equality transformed the results into a true two way collaboration. The utilisation of instrument preparations along with numerous other small utensils, employed upon the resonant body of the semi-acoustic guitar and it’s strings, continues the gestation and development, over a couple of decades, of an array of extended instrumental techniques employed ongoingly across solo and various ensemble groupings. Although these extended techniques have morphed and swung across the duration one central premise has held strong, that being the development of a range of tiny acoustic sounds enlarged through microphone use and amplification. Sounds formulated to match the strength and power of ‘Rock’ oriented tones and volumes.