In case you missed it, the Quietus Phonographic Corporation released an EP of new material made by six exciting British artists last Friday, and it's now available for free in handily downloadable mp3 form above.

The project is a collaboration with Chris Bye from Arts Council England and the Liverpool International Music Festival. Minor Characters' tracks are based on sideline characters from the artists' favourite films, plays and works of literature, with contributions coming from English Heretic, Forest Swords, Luke Abbott, Ten Mouth Electron, The Lone Taxidermist and Mercury Prize nominee East India Youth.

The project was initially launched this summer, in collaboration with the Liverpool International Music Festival and Arts Council England's Chris Bye at a special event featuring a live performance from Luke Abbott of his piece and artwork inspired by the project by Liverpudlian artist Gary McGarvey. Minor Characters originally came to fruition after Bye, who first began noting down source material of ideas about cultural peripheral characters in a little book, approached Quietus editor John Doran about the idea while the two were in Berlin. "I wanted to do something that gave a platform for decent artists which some may not have had the opportunity to hear," says Bye of the project. "So from the offset the idea was to do something that would be free to download and which would be pushed out through a respected and wide-reaching platform."

"People have been singing stories about characters since year dot. I have always loved tunes that take me on a journey through some sort of narrative. At the same time I've always been fascinated by eccentrics and those on the periphery. The sort of people who inhabit John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, or a Tom Waits number. I'm not saying it's some original breakthrough, I just wanted to kind of expand on it a little and see where it took people."

The EP was recorded in Liverpool and has been funded by the Liverpool International Music Festival. The recording process took place with the help of the Merseyside Arts Foundation. The cover art (pictured above) is by Gary McGarvey from illustration and design studio Horse, while the EP was produced by tQ contributor and recording engineer John Tatlock, with the help of facilities and staff at Parr Street Studios.