Devon-based musician, writer, and shedworker (and friend of Shedworking) Mark Brend has released a new
album of experimental renditions of evangelical hymns, Tremulant, which was largely recorded in his shed studio/office/writing room.
"Tremulant was
created over several years by singers Suzy Mangion, Andrew
Rumsey and Michael Weston King, and me," Mark told Shedworking, "borne out of a shared love of antique
evangelical hymns and spiritual songs. Using English, Welsh, Scottish
and American source material from the 19th and early 20th centuries, we pieced together our reconstructed hymnal through remote
collaboration, with the singers sending me unaccompanied renditions of
songs as the starting point for each track."
Enjoy the sample below and for more information go to the album's bandcamp page.
Writer, editor and publishing consultant Mark Brend works as Definite Article from a garden office in Devon. The insulated and double glazed 10ft x 8ft hut was custom built by Sheds Direct Devon. Total cost, including a concrete base, wiring and telephone/network connections came in at just over £5,000.
"The hut has been operational for nearly two years now," he says, "withstanding two very cold winters with absolutely no ill effects. Here's a photo of it last winter, and another one of me and my son Gideon applying some wood treatment last summer. I'd been thinking of going into the garden for years. I had a home office in the house, but it never quite felt like my space. The hut, however, does feel like my space - complete with desk, armchair, custom built bookshelves and bakelite phone."
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Writer and musician Mark Brend has just launched his debut novel, Undercliff, on crowdfunding platform Unbound. It's a supernatural thriller set in the 1970s, mainly in Devon, although the book itself was written in his actual shed – 10ft by 8ft (pictured above and below) – also in Devon. It follows a thirtysomething regular guy at a loose end after a divorce. He joins the Vine - a sort of post-hippie free church - and at first embraces it wholeheartedly. But then doubts and suspicions start to creep in. Much of the book’s action takes place at a retreat house in Devon, called Undercliff. Here's a snippet:
I could see, even in the moonlight, that the house was big, and in some disrepair. It presented a plain, almost symmetrical frontage, with two sets of four windows of equal size, two on the ground floor and two on the first floor, flanking the porch. Above this was a single slightly larger window, which was boarded up. The building was coated in a pale render – crumbling in places – which, daylight later revealed, was once powder blue. I learned over the weekend that the house dated from the late 1920s, which accounted for the rusting metal window frames. An architect in thrall to art deco had built it for a gentleman scholar who wanted a Georgian-style country retreat with modern amenities. The result was a hybrid that was not unpleasing. What had once been a sweeping drive was overgrown with weeds and a few small shrubs. At the far, seaward end of the house some roof tiles had slipped and a drainpipe had broken away from the gutter and bent away from the wall. In the wind it waved like a reed.
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Devon-based writer, musician and shedworker Mark Brend’s debut novel, Undercliff, has just been published. Set in the early 70s, it follows Martyn Hope as he gets involved in what might well be a perfectly harmless – if a little cranky – post-hippie community called the Olive Grove. Or might not. As Mark explains, it’s a good shed read.
"Most of the action takes place on a stretch of coast between Sidmouth and Beer, where there are areas of undercliff," he explains. "These are coastal landslips, between beaches and cliff, which often become densely vegetated. All along the coast there are chalets and caravans for rent in areas of undercliff, on clifftops and, at Branscombe, on the beach itself. Without giving too much away, Martyn finds himself in this environment, and it’s not always the idyllic refuge it might seem."
The book will be accompanied by some incidental music due for release in the summer, written and recorded by Fariña, a three-piece band of shedworkers comprising Mark, Matt Gale and Cliff Glanfield.
"The book was almost entirely written in my 10 by 8 insulated, double-glazed shed," says Mark. "It was built about 10 years ago for £5k, and is maturing nicely. As well as serving as my writing room, office and retreat it’s also my recording studio. The Undercliff music was written and recorded here, and also at Matt’s and Cliff’s sheds. We worked separately, swopped files and then convened at Matt’s a few times to put it all together."
The music will be released in a month or so, but until then there’s a taster and promo video below:
You can buy the book in all good bookshops and online here.
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We've featured Devon-based musician, writer and shedworker Mark Brend and his work before on Shedworking and he has just released another album, Morrow (with Michael Paine), which was put together in his shed
Mark says the album references the mid-20th century British writer Phyllis Paul and shares with her novels an interest in the ambiguous territory between natural and supernatural. "Deploying piano, electric and acoustic guitar, flute, percussion, glockenspiel and organ with musique concrète textures and found sounds, we create a cryptic English pastoral noir, drawing variously on folk, evangelical hymns, jazz, Debussy and Maurice Deebank," he says.
Excerpts here and more details here.
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It's always a pleasure to come across new garden office art and particularly pleasing in this case since artist and musician Darren Hayman's atmospheric work is of the garden office of friend of Shedworking, author and musician Mark Brend. You can see more of Darren's art at his Etsy shop.
I'd also recommend Darren's music. Below is the lovely Music to Watch News By.
Devon-based author, musician and shedworker Mark Brend has a new book out today about early electronic music called The Sound of Tomorrow. Of particular interest to Shedworking's readers will be the role that sheds played in early British electronic music. Tristram Cary, the first British composer to experiment with electronic music, worked in a corrugated iron shed/studio in Fressingfield, Suffolk for many years. In the late 1960s he formed EMS, which produced the first British synthesizers, with Peter Zinovieff. Zinovieff too was a shedworker, operating a garden studio in Putney which backed onto the river.
Click the video below from British Pathé to see Peter Zinovieff walk to his shed at the bottom of the garden, go inside and reveal his shedworking setup...
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We covered the launch of Devon-based writer, musician and shedworker Mark Brend's debut novel, Undercliff, earlier this year (see details here) and there is now a release date for the accompanying music which was written and recorded in the three separate sheds of three-piece band Fariña, made up of Mark, his former Palace of Light/Mabel Joy bandmate Matt Gale, and drummer/horn player Cliff Glanfield. Here's what Mark says about it:
"The book was almost entirely written in my 10 by 8 insulated, double-glazed shed," says Mark. "It was built about 10 years ago for £5k, and is maturing nicely. As well as serving as my writing room, office and retreat it’s also my recording studio. The Undercliff music was written and recorded here, and also at Matt’s and Cliff’s sheds. We worked separately, swopped files and then convened at Matt’s a few times to put it all together."
The Undercliff Suite EP
(HPR 044) will be a limited edition cassette tape/DL/digital release on 24 October comprising five short instrumental pieces composed as incidental music for Undercliff.
Originally active until 2005, Fariña released two acclaimed albums on the Picked Egg label and the Undercliff Suite is their first release since reconvening in 2018.
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