With Revisted, we highlight an album from the past to bring it to light again. Why do it? Due to the march of time, that album will be new to many, and we seem to live in a world of not just fast fashion but also fast music, where an album is no sooner released than forgotten in a year or two because of the way that many now listen to music. Many new listeners today have never known the joy of flicking through a CD or vinyl collection; such spontaneous actions now fall to algorithms. That’s where we come in…human curation…Also, some music is just worth revisiting.
In 2011, composer, producer and musician Gerry Diver released Speech Project, an album and live show he began working on in 2008. What made this album so unique was that the music was derived from the melody and rhythm of spoken words – specifically, the Irish way of talking. Naturally, all spoken words have a pitch and rhythm inherent within them, and whilst the music featured did borrow from Irish traditional idioms, it was by no means traditional. One of the project’s interviewees described it as ‘a kind of folk minimalism on the cutting edge of folk crossover’.
“I chose the artists I would like to interview in a very intuitive way. There was no set of criteria, only whether I really felt drawn towards interviewing them. Of course, I am also an admirer of each of their work.”
Gerry Diver on Speech Project
Gerry used Irish trad ‘snippets,’ American 20th-century forms glued together with some of the best-known voices in Ireland. Gerry conducted a number of interviews for the project, and on the album, there are contributions from Shane MacGowan, Christy Moore, Damien Dempsey, Danny Meehan and Martin Hayes. He also used archive interview recordings with Margaret Barry and Joe Cooley; in fact, it was the great Irish accordion player Joe Cooley that Gerry heard while carrying boxes up a ladder one day that gave him the idea…he noticed that the voice sounded like it was in the key of B flat minor. There also seemed to be a slip-jig rhythm to Joe’s voice…something just clicked.
“I suppose that, like many people, I feel that there is music in everyday life and that music doesn’t just occur when one sits down at the piano or the guitar. I’ve always been fascinated with language and the way people speak. Speech project is my way of playing with the uniquely Irish way of talking. Irish people tend to have their own rhythm and cadence. Speech Project is about taking these innate features of the Irish dialect to create something new and (hopefully!) exciting! The two Joe Cooley tracks came about very much in a “what would happen if…” Kind of way. There was no grand plan! I’m absolutely fascinated with hypnosis and have done quite a bit of study and training in that area. A lot of hypno and trance work is about listening to non-verbal cues and using elements such as voice intonation, rhythm and tempo to induce trance. Perhaps my interest in listening in that way (paying lots of attention to the way people talk as opposed to listening purely to what they are saying), coupled with the sheer emotion in Joe Cooley’s voice, allowed the music in Joe’s voice to jump out at me.”
Gerry Diver’s “Speech Project” is a pure gem of an album . I keep returning to it. I get carried away each time. Gerry has produced a very special collection. I feel privileged to be a small part of it. For me, this is essential listening.
Christy Moore
I remember being deeply intrigued about how the music came together and how strong a driver the voice was in the creation of the music.
“The voice was usually the driver behind the music, but not always. It really depended on what felt right when I was composing. The Joe Cooley, Christy Moore, Danny Meehan and Martin Hayes tracks certainly were all very reliant on the tones I teased out of their interviews. These melodic motifs then became the materials with which I used to build the tracks. The only track on the album which did not start with the voice was the Shane MacGowan piece – Music for Tape Loop. This track started life with a very old, eerie-sounding recording of an unknown pub singer in a very noisy pub setting. I composed a string quartet, piano and flute ensemble accompaniment around this old tape recording. It was only after the already-written piece had incubated for a while that the idea of asking Shane to take part emerged. I’m very glad I did! Shane’s voice is filled with character, and the story of a certain aspect of the Irish diaspora in London is captured beautifully. It’s one of my favourite pieces!”
I recently listened to Christy Moore talking about old folk songs and how something almost spiritual happens when singing an old folk ballad… “something happens, not just to me, but to the listener”. There are some deeply emotional moments in Speech Project where the voice and music become one. Gerry spoke of entering an emotional space when writing…
“The words of poet Robert Frost come to mind ‘No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.’ Although he was talking about writing poetry, this certainly would be the approach I try to take when writing music as well. I feel that one must enter an emotional space when creating if they are to convey emotion to the listener. I think that music can convey emotions which we cannot accurately express through words alone – it certainly can provide a gateway to some very emotional, almost mystical experiences. Where that emotion comes from? Who knows!”
The album was supported by Arts Council England and The Irish Arts Council, and the project was taken on a tour. Ahead of the tour, Gerry told me, “Live, there will be specially commissioned video art projected onto a large screen on the stage. I’ve had some amazing filmmakers work on the visuals: Will McConnell, James McDonald and Matt Jamie. The visuals are running in tight sync with the musicians on stage. There are some talking heads, archive footage and plenty of stunning montages.”
Among those musicians performing live was Lisa Knapp – “Performing Speech project is a thrilling experience for me. It’s enjoyable in a different way to what I’m used to, in a ‘not having to be front person’ way. Not that I can sit back or anything, what with the visuals and electronics and the arrangements flying all over the place, there are many aspects to it, so plenty to keep everyone on their toes. All the musicians in the Speech Project band have been so generous in their time and spirit; they’re so professional; we all get on and totally get into the music, which fundamentally works beautifully; it’s full of intensity. There’s lots of atmosphere and movement in there, so you can’t go wrong really. The other musicians are Gaz Wilkins, Francesca Ter Berg, Colman Connolly and Declan Daly.”
Order Speech Project via Bandcamp
