There’s a new Amor de Dias record out on Merge Records
And half the Clientele are on it! James Hornsey plays some lovely bass for us and Howard Monk, who drummed for us for a short while around the time of Suburban Light, is the drummer. When we rehearsed it, we worked out that Howard and I hadn’t played together in a room for about 14 years, which a. makes us shockingly old and b. is a tragedy as Howard is one of my favourite drummers.
This record was recorded in 9 days, the fastest I have ever made a long player. What else can I say about it? Mostly just that the dream narrative that began with Suburban Light is still carrying on, finding new twists and turns and new chapters. After 13 years it’s becoming an epic.
The cover of the record is a photograph of a cracked mirror in Calle Huertas in Madrid. But with its blue filter it reminds me of sails on the sea. Some of my words were inspired by Ian Hamilton Finlay, a poet that I think would have appreciated the accidental sea/mirror/sail imagery.
Another inspiration for me was Ovid, the Roman poet who wrote Metamorphoses, which describes something similar - shapes changing, consistently moving and reforming into other shapes, without any point of rest or ending. I love this book. And then I think if you summed it up in two words, how would you put it? and the answer is ‘Forever Changes.’ And I’m back where I begun.
Our record comes out on January 29th in the US, and February 18th in Europe.
