When You’re With Emily – The Aleph [Official Video] from Laura Spark on Vimeo.
A couple of weeks ago The Quietus was lucky enough to see a new work by Ex Easter Island Head play a new piece on treated guitars that sounded like sunlight off water in the heart of spring. Now, news reaches us of a second project featuring two members of that excellent group – and it’s a very different kettle of fish. The Aleph make terrific weird and wonky pop music, which you can hear via the video for ‘When You’re With Emily’ above and the Bandcamp for their new Sunspots EP below the interview with the Liverpool duo. The Aleph play Sounds From The Other City over the Bank Holiday weekend, for tickets and information go here.
Can you tell us about The Aleph, when you started and why it started?
"How can I translate into words the limitless Aleph, which my floundering mind can scarcely encompass? Mystics, faced with the same problem, fall back on symbols: to signify the godhead, one Persian speaks of a bird that somehow is all birds; Alanus de Insulis, of a sphere whose centre is everywhere and circumference is nowhere; Ezekiel, of a four-faced angel who at one and the same time moves east and west, north and south." (Jorge Luis Borges)
We have always been The Aleph, soundtracking times, places and people; but it is currently taking a recognisable, continuous form – a crystalization of certain images, sounds, dreams and fears.
What does it enable you to release that you don’t let out in EEIH?
Melody, harmony, words, stories, colour. EEIH creates beautiful landscapes for people to inhabit, The Aleph is situational and wants to talk to you.
Tell us about the new EP.
The Sunspots EP is our third collection (after The Good Eater music/film piece and the Pantomime EP).
‘Emily’ is a love song the size of the universe.
‘Can of Pop’ is the sound of us bubbling over.
‘Moonwatch’ takes place in 1965.
‘Headful of Threads’ is a moment stood on the back step.
‘She Hangs her Coat on the Highest Pin’ features Lucy Mercer (Stealing Sheep) playing the part of a loom operator in the industrial north.
What are the long-term ambitions of The Aleph?
To continue to turn the kaleidoscope.
