PRE-ORDER: This item will be shipped with the aim to deliver on release day.
Release Date: 12 September 2025
Label: Gare Du Nord
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 619091684510
Genres: Electronic Electronic
Description
Willie Gibson (the alias of electronic composer George Barker) came across the phrase Patience And Shuffle The Cards in the diaries of Sir Walter Scott, and later learned that it originates in Don Quixote. It is a sort of resigned 'well, let's see what happens' where the outcome is uncertain and possibly not totally under your control.
But unlike his previous releases, Saint-Ex and The Halls Of Piranesi, this collection is not directly based on a work of literature, but springs from Barker's further exploration of synths and sequencers, as well as the landscape around him. The opening track Black Water Whitewater involves layers of cascading sequences of differing lengths, like the mountain stream that inspired it. Barker's base in the East Anglian Fens, the track Fenlandia was inspired by that landscape where he is also a keen photographer of insects in particular.
Top and tailing this are Big Skies, parts one and two, floaty ambient cloudscapes which are a feature of the fens.
Stone Soup - Barker's tracks often begin with a simple sequence which only gradually takes form with the addition of other elements - the title refers to the folk tale where a traveller arrives in a village with no food but just a cooking pot and a stone. Villagers are intrigued as to what dish he would produce by simply boiling a stone, and start to offer other ingredients until a hearty dish is produced.
We Are On This Earth . . . in the face of current world problems, inspired by the wise words of Kurt Vonnegut 'I tell you, we are on Earth to fart around, and don't let anyone tell you many different'.
Creeping Thanatos - mortality comes into sharper focus and you realise that things that you remember clearly, actually happened decades ago, which often leads to . . .
Sleepless - 3am - waking up at 3am with musical ideas and sequences running round your head, but also lots of other unwanted stuff!
What The Moon Brings (Instrumental) - this is an instrumental version of a track from Willie Gibson's H.P.L.E P.
For synth nerds, here's a list of the equipment and devices used: Eurorack modular, Korg ARP 2600, Moog Subharmonicon, Syntrx II Sequencers: Klee, Erica Synths Black Sequencer, Arturia Keystep 37. FX include Wellspring Delay/Reverb, Nightverb & many plugins.
Tracklisting
Ben Reed
Papernut Cambridge
The Last of The Lovely Days
Willie Gibson
Bobby Zodiac and The Clairvoyants
Michael Warren
Willie Gibson
Papernut Cambridge
Willie Gibson
