Listen to the Loula Yorke Live Compendium

26th December 2024

Time codes are in bold | Track titles are in italics

There is a big red ‘record’ button on my mixer; in one venue I remember to press it fairly near the start of the set, in another I forget completely until I’m a quarter of the way through. Due to this twist of fate, I present you with a beautiful compendium of two sets: the start of one and the end of another. As I played the same set of sequences in the same order for both, I was able to find a natural joining point. (Although the same sequences don’t always sound ‘the same’ each time, as I’m sure you understand by now).

So here we are in the town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire on the 8th November, in a large, warm and comfortable auditorium, with stage lighting and a soundsystem that is much better than it has any right to be considering it’s attached to a secondary school (props to Tom Whiston and his high specifications). We’ve just heard a hardcore noise set from Lucifer Sky, and I’m about a minute into my own … click, fade – – 

00’00 The Open Independence of Her Seas

06’11 The Magician’s Glass

17’50 Success in Circuit Lies

29’06 A cut is made in the fabric of time and space and we all walk through it. It’s now November 23rd, Saturday night at the finale concert of Boundaries Festival. 250 people are held within the imposing triple-height frame of Sunderland Minster. It’s near freezing outside. Victoria Wai is on photograph duties. I’ve got my big coat on and am about to make some even bigger noises.

30’01 Function We Must

36’20 To Crossing Long Distances

43’08 Fin

Neil Mason on the Loula Yorke Live Compendium

Live is where the real magic happens. When Loula Yorke is right there, in front of you, that’s when the doors to her sound world really open up.

You are here for time in Loula’s company. The sharing of her sound like this, to hear her weaving this utter magic into the air, is an intimate experience. You don’t know what’s coming or where it will go. Loula herself only has a rough idea, a starting point, taking to the stage with a series of sequences that have plenty of room for improvisation, for choices to be made.

This Limited Edition release features five pieces: the first three recorded at Make Much Wenlock Weird in early November, and the last two recorded at Boundaries Festival in Sunderland later the same month. The same sequences were used in the same order for both shows, but no two performances are ever exactly alike. The pieces have all been given titles, and, to varying degrees, have featured as untitled tracks in her unmissable monthly mixtapes. They are living, breathing, evolving works, each one finding its way to fruition though constant refinement. Sequences woven together in skillful hands to form new patterns every time.

From the bright unfurling melodies and wide frequencies of The Open Independence Of Her Seas, via the soothing, evolving bass and meandering effervescence of The Magician’s Glass, right though to the final fling of her euphoric four-to-floor closer To Crossing Long Distances some 40-odd minutes later, this is an unique opportunity to hear the music of Loula Yorke finding a life of its own in a live setting. Who knows when these tracks will appear again. One thing is for sure, they won’t ever sound exactly like this.

Neil Mason, Moonbuilding