The first two singles from a surviving tape that was buried underground by Scottish composer Erland Cooper 3 years ago were released in line with the Summer Solstice. 

Erland Cooper explained:

“I write music inspired by the natural world. In particular, the birds in the sky, and the soil and landscape of the Orkney Islands. So the idea for this project is that really I’m just sharing my process with the natural world.

“It’s a mediation on time, on patience, on value, and art itself. To reveal we now have music, in all forms of sound and colour, means we can now celebrate nature’s wild contribution to composition, as a sort of collaborative act of resilience or survival of the arts and nature alike” 

This follows a triumphant world premiere, at The Barbican on 8^th June, in a concert like no other, when the ‘unearthed’ mastertape was played for the first time. Remarkably, the audio survived but altered and ‘co-composed’ by the soil. A large string ensemble then performed Erland’s interpretation and re-scoring of the tape, bringing the mystery to life for the first time. Introduced by John Wilson (BBC4 This Cultural Life), soloist Freya Goldmark (Ligeti Quartet) led the now completed violin concerto, in collaboration with the earth.

Speaking about the event, John Wilson said:

“To witness the flowering of his violin concerto was truly magical. The multiple standing ovations for an ensemble led with passion and grace by soloist Freya Goldmark were hugely deserved. The audience, who had taken a collective leap of faith in simply being there, were applauded back from the stage. It was a night which celebrated superb musicianship, the wonders of creativity and the resilience of analogue tape”.

Erland Cooper will be appearing on Fri, 28^thKirkwall, St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney (St Magnus International Festival).

The full album, ‘Carve the Runes Then Be Content With Silence’ will be released on 20^th September (in line with the Autumn Equinox on 22^nd Sep) on Mercury KX. The original tape of this new material was ‘planted’ underground three years ago to be nurtured and manipulated by the soil and ‘grow’ into something new. All digital copies were permanently deleted, and the risk was that the music on the tape could have been completely erased to silence.

Titled With Silence (Mvt. 3) – Pt. 2 “wow and flutter of unearthed magnetic tape”, and originally recorded by solo violinist Daniel Pioro and a large chamber string group called Studio Collective, Erland Cooper delivers a gentle, poignant melody carried by the lone violin in delicate interplay between cello and soloist. The texture of the tape in the soil has added an earthly warmth and additional vulnerability to the performance. Each note is allowed to linger and resonate, creating a potent intensity, followed by quieter introspective waves, bringing us back to the beauty of Nature or the landscape of the Islands that have tinted this piece of work.

The single follows With Silence (Mvt. 3) – Pt. 1 “con la memoria”,a memorial ‘piece’ which acts as a pause and a moment of reflection before the release of this first single. This 2-minute silence serves as an introduction to the first note of music from a tape that has possibly the most unusual release plan in history. It was written as one part remembrance and one part celebration of a landmark time in 2021. This is what the entire record could have sounded like and symbolises a giant leap of faith into the unknown of art and music for both the record label and the audience alike.

The ¼ inch magnetic tape was buried in May 2021, along with the sheet music, near Erland’s childhood home in Orkney. In an unprecedented move the composer’s record label, Mercury KX/Decca, agreed to release the album that, instead of going to be mixed, was going under the ground.

A date for the public reveal, at the Barbican, was also announced as the tape lay, as yet unheard, in the soil – a first for the record industry. Decca Co-President Tom Lewis stated: 

“I think the music industry is crying out louder than ever for true originals, and I think Erland really is a true original. The risk was, paying for a recording that was digitally deleted, that was on tape and being eaten up by whatever is in the soil.”

Apart from the buried sheet music, Erland entrusted three copies of the score to three custodians: musician Paul Weller, novelist Ian Rankin, and radio presenter Elizabeth Alker. The work is a brand-new composition for solo violin and string ensemble. Over three movements (Movement 1: Carve the Runes / Movement 2 : Then Be Content / Movement 3: With Silence), it celebrates George Mackay Brown on his centenary, written 100 years since the Orcadian poet’s birth.

On burying the tape, Erland left a cryptic trail for anyone to search and find it if they so wish, issuing a map, with extra clues released every equinox and solstice. The tape was found in September 2022, and (literally) unearthed by Orkney residents Victoria and Dan Rhodes.

At last, we wait no longer, here is the first recording, co-written, co-produced, and co-performed by the earth.

A percentage of the copyright share of With Silence (Mvt. 3) – Pt. 2 “wow and flutter of unearthed magnetic tape” will go to Brian Eno’s music industry climate charity EarthPercent, as a beautiful way of embedding the planet as a stakeholder in musical creativity and raising money for climate/environmental organisations. The Earth’s share of the song – and its income – will be directed to EarthPercent to redistribute to organisations tackling the climate crisis.