creeping dawn / students of decay

There's a new release in the pipeline on Ohio's Students of Decay as part of those lovely Creeping Dawn box sets of 3" cdrs. My cd will be part of volume 3 and is called "The Other Room" and has me looping and fiddling with a variety of string instruments belonging to Chris Hladowski, bouzouki-player extraordinaire of Nalle and Scatter, and a wonderful backwards-playing pedal borrowed from Drew Mulholland (Mount Vernon Arts Lab).

by the way ... pingle pangle is out!

There's a truly wonderful review on Deep Water webzine by Lee Jackson.
Pefkin’s Pingle Pangle sounds almost like a distant cousin to Outer Dark (Nether Dawn), which might make sense given it comes courtesy of Milton’s PseudoArcana label. Gayle Brogan runs a wonderfully tuned in mail-order called Boa Melody Bar and made a vivid impression in the late ‘90s as one half the underrated shoegaze / minimal pop duo, Electroscope. I’m always excited when I get a chance to mention Electroscope anywhere because at a time when everybody seemed to sound like everybody else, Electroscope had no real equal. On this, Pefkin’s second album, Brogan proves that she’s lost none of her knack for melding fantastic dream voyages from primitive electronics, guitar, bowed strings, organ, effects and voice. Pefkin is actually something of a stripped down, modern day counterpart to some of Electroscope’s ideas, but everything is lent a slightly more isolationist slant that makes me think of Alastair Galbraith and even Nico. For all its experimentation and oblique structures, Pingle Pangle is an incredibly warm and engaging listening experience.
Thank you!

pefkin Yes tribute shocker!

Not quite! I was asked to record a long track for the Foxglove / Digitalis Wailing Bones series. I recorded the track in one take using a looping machine and a Vox electric lap steel and it's a staggering (for me) length (i forget the exact length but it's over 10 minutes). In deference to the epic length I decided to rip off a Yes title (suggested by John who recorded and mixed it I hasten to add!) "Heart of the Sunrise" and call the track "Heat of the Sunrise" or "Heart of the Sunset" or something but forgot which was the real title and which wasn't so any prog fans expecting a cover of the Yes song may be disappointed! I would recommend donning a Wakeman-esque cape while listening to it though. It appears on Volume 8 of the series.

pingle pangle pefkin out now!

that's right. the 'pingle pangle' cdr is out now on pseudoarcana. This is what label boss Anthony Milton has to say about it:

Pefkin is the Scotland based solo project of Gayle Brogan (ex Electroscope member and owner/operator of the amazing Boa Melody Bar mailorder). Pingle Pangle is the 2nd album for this project and picks up where the similarly astonishing "Asa Nisi Masa" (Foxglove CDR) left off.
Pefkins music flows easily between swirling melodic psychedelic 'almost-pop' songs, tonal electronic experimentation through to eerie whispered ancient forest folk. Melodica, violin, percussion, guitar and voice are built up with a crystal clear use of delay and other effects to produce a fragile beautiful whole. Pefkin has been compared favouably with Nico and Alastair Galbraith. Such comparisons are well deserved.

Nice!

Also another review on the Robots and Electronic Brains website by Laurence Dillon:

Pefkin, Asa Nisi Masa (Foxglove) cdr On a night-out on the town you somehow walk through some un-noticed doorway and find yourself climbing a staircase as you follow some people somewhere, you’re separated from your friends but it doesn’t matter as you sink into a soft deep chair in a dark windowless room with the other invited guests. The lights go down and the show starts, ah it’s a magic lantern show and at first you smile indulgently, impressed with the anonymous operators dexterity. It’s very warm in here, stiflingly warm almost, and there’s a thick heavy perfume in the air. The sickly scent saturates the atmosphere and there’s a brief puzzlement before intoxication comes. A wheezing drone forms a shifting backdrop as the shadows seem to come alive and dance languidly amongst twinkling, glittering lights. Whispered echoes caress your ears whilst a baleful song is sung by the saddest shadow of them all, you feel that you could reach out and touch it but something tells you that if you did ruin everything – meanwhile the show concludes rather strangely with a lullaby. The audience disperses and the cold air outside eventually causes your head to clear, but too late as now you can’t remember just exactly where you’ve been or how you’d get back there again.

new cdr on pseudoarcana

Coming very very soon ....
My second release, on the wonderful Pseudoarcana records of New Zealand. It's called 'Pingle Pangle'. 12 new songs featuring guitar, vocals, melodica, old organs (including a clavioline) and synths, harp, violin, clarinet, flute and percussion.

pefkin interview

yes, there's an interview on the Foxy Digitalis site.

coming very soon - new cdr on pseudoarcana of New Zealand.

appearance on finnish compilation

There is an unreleased track of mine on a new compilation on Finnish label 267 Lattajjaa. The track is called 'Peek Out Poke' and features Phil Rodriguez on grass-blowing. That's the sleeve on the left.
It's a pretty impressive line-up: Robert Horton, Alex Neilson & Ben Reynolds, Pumice, Rameses III, Zelionople, Felipe & Forte, Sean Og, Grey Park, Vapaa.
The full line-up can be found here:
http://www.dlc.fi/~hhaahti/267lattajjaa/ltj-43.htm
The compilation will be available from Boa Melody Bar or direct from the label.

pefkin

welcome to the world of pefkin.
i used to be one half of scottish psych-folk duo electroscope until we decided to go our separate ways in 2000. john, the other half, still records as phosphene and has just released a wonderful intriguing collaborative album with lol coxhill.
my first release came out in May 2005, a cdr called 'asa nisi masa' on foxglove recordings of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
i've had a few tracks on compilations:
'Very Badpipes': a remix of Aube on Elsie and Jack's 'Rewriting the Book' compilation
'Blast Beach': on Digitalis' epic triple cd collection 'Gold Leaf Branches'
'Autumn and Glow Lamps': on the '10p a Go' sampler for the Robots and Electronic Brains zine
i've got some of these for sale at my mail order site Boa Melody Bar
next up is a full-length album release on NZ label Pseudoarcana in February / March 2006 ...
more soon ... and hopefully a 'proper' website in the next few months

photograph taken by phil rodriguez of elsie and jack recordings