The Golden Apples of the Sun

Claude Mono takes a Roadtrip to explore the music of Lake Ruth, Vanishing Twin, and Death and Vanilla – plus other nearby but far out sounds.

The headphone journey…

In 2015 Cathy Lucas put together the band Orlando on her own cassette label RAM Tapes (‘Re-Alignment of Magnetic Dust’). The double-artist cassette ‘Play Time: Music for Video Games’ featured her band Orlando and the duo Tomaga featuring the percussionist Valentina Magaletti. Cathy and Valentia moved forward together to assemble a stellar line up of musicians and creatives all connected in interesting ways to form the band Vanishing Twin. Cut back to 1970 and ‘Zabriskie Point’ the film from legendary Director Michelangelo Antonioni shot on location in Death Valley and featuring a soundtrack by Pink Floyd. Meanwhile in the future in 2010 the band Death and Vanilla was formed in Malmö, Sweden by Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson. Death and Vanilla love to emulate the sounds of 60s/70s soundtracks, library music, and have recorded a few soundtracks themselves as well as some beautiful mixtapes available on Mixcloud. It was on one one that I discovered Deux Filles – they were a reclusive arthouse duo comprising Colin Lloyd-Tucker and Simon Fisher Turner, aka the two fictitious French girls Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule. Vanishing Twin have a unique but also deeply arkestral jazzy vibe – no doubt driven from the artists in the band especially Cathy Lucas and Valentina Magaletti but there is sometimes a similar otherworldly feel to Malcolm Catto and The Heliocentrics. He also is a legendary drummer and his ear and production assistance adds to the magic of Vanishing Twin commencing with their 2016 debut on Soundway and the creation of ‘new’ sounds that recall Sun Ra and his Intergalatic Infinity Arkestra. For Hauntological balance there is a 1977 BBC Bristol production for The World About Us series that captures a vanished world of crofting in the Outer Hebrides as well as beautiful atmospherics and grainy film that would now be seen as ‘pure’ Hauntology – a movement unheard of at the time. The ‘folk’ of Eighteenth Day of features Alison Cotton (viola) as well as the early work of Allison Brice (vocals, flute, dulcimer, harmonium) who in 2015 became a member of the band Lake Ruth. Alison (Cotton) was originally one half of the duo/band The Left Outsides also well known in her own right popping up with bewilderingly bewitching turns on the viola. Alison Cotton’s ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ excerpt is from side 1 of a 10 inch EP on one of the Golden Apples favourite labels Clay Pipe Music. One of the artists in Vanishing Twin is library music obsessive Phil M.F.U. (Man From Uranus, Broadcast). He plays “strange sounds” while Elliott Arndt is the band’s filmmaker/visual artist as well as performing flute and percussion. The Vanishing Twin sound also provides a reminder of the overarching influence of Broadcast including the some of their overlooked drumming and rhythm anchored tracks. The band Auramics features another library music obsessive Kristi Scarvelis. Their name “Auramics” was inspired by Daphne Oram’s works. The track Mysterious World only available as a Soundcloud demo features heavy use of Serge Gainsbourg’s 1968 Requiem Pour Un Con. The Imajinary Friends is a 2017 self-titled LP featuring a who’s who of connections from the Brian Jonestown Massacre to Tipsy, and includes a 12 minute track Baby’s Bathwater featuring vocals from Marleen Nilsson of Death and Vanilla – it also has a pretty amazing video…

Restream the show here 

MIXCLOUD MIXTAPE here –>> Extra tracks and no talk – just the music!!

MIXCLOUD TrackListing

Orlando – Submarine Dance – Play Time: Music for Video Games

Cyril Cusak – The Song of Wandering Aengus

O.D.D. Hvb3rts0n – The Song of Wandering Aengus – Wander

Orlando – The Race – Play Time: Music for Video Games

Orlando – Theme for a Telephatic Amphibian – Play Time: Music for Video Games

Tomaga – Futura Grotesk – Futura Grotesk

Zabriskie Point (excerpt) – Zabriskie Point OST

Pink Floyd – Come in Number 51 Your Time Is Up – Zabriskie Point OST

Death & Vanilla – A Flaw in The Iris – Are You A Dreamer

Pink Floyd – Pink Floyd – Heart Beat, Pig Meat – Zabriskie Point OST

Death and Vanilla – Lux – From Above EP

Deux Filles – Oakwood Green – Double Happiness

Sun Ra – I’m not really a man…

Sun Ra and his Intergalatic Infinity Arkestra – The All of Everything

Vanishing Twin – Floating Heart (Live on KEXP) – Choose Your Own Adventure

Sun Ra & His Myth Science Arkestra – Angels and Demons at Play [Original Tape Master]

Vanishing Twin – It Sends My Heart into a Spin – Choose Your Own Adventure

Lake Ruth – Empty Morning – Intervention, Displacement & Return

Phil MFU (Man from Uranus) – Moonbase Muzak – Muzak from the Square Room

Phil MFU (Man from Uranus) – How Long Have I Been Asleep For

Auramics (featuring Kristi Scarvelis) – Mysterious World (demo)

Receivers – No One is Listening – The Air on the Set

Alessandro Alessandroni – Aspetti Musicali

Vanishing Twin – You Are Not An Island (excerpt) – The Age Of Immunology

The Imajinary Friends – L’Outsider – The Imajinary Friends

Vanishing Twin – Planete Sauvage – The Age Of Immunology

Stuart Crombie – The World About Us BBC TV Ident

The Corncrake and the Croft music excerpt

The Eighteenth Day of May – The Highest Tree – The Eighteenth Day of May

Alison Cotton – The Girl I Left Behind Me (excerpt)

Lake Ruth – Dry Salt in our Hair – Intervention, Displacement & Return

Broadcast – The Sacred Marriage (excerpt) – Berbarian Sound Studio

Broadcast – Dave’s Dream – Extended Play EP

The Heliocentrics – The Uncertainty Principle – A World Of Masks

Broadcast – Test Area – Echoes Answer EP

The Heliocentrics – Burning Wooden Ship – Infinity of Now

The Imajinary Friends – Baby’s Bathwater