Prepared, by Laura J Martin

Prepared

by Laura J Martin

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Streaming + Download

Pre-order of Prepared. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Purchasable with gift card

releases May 17, 2024

£7 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Laura J Martin's fourth solo album 'Prepared' on limited edition "Rose Pink" vinyl

Includes digital pre-order of Prepared. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Includes digital pre-order of Prepared. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around May 17, 2024

Purchasable with gift card

£21 GBP or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Laura J Martin's fourth solo album 'Prepared' on limited edition CD

Includes digital pre-order of Prepared. You get 1 track now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

Includes digital pre-order of Prepared. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.

shipping out on or around May 17, 2024

Purchasable with gift card

£11.99 GBP or more

1.	Prepared 04:02	lyrics	buy track
Stations attract On three days of May At the wheel of new machines Prepare Prepare The list is done for three days of May Just preparing, wondering allowed I turned away again was I ever there Was I ever there, Prepared In days of light, In shades of grey Just locking up, Playing along
2.	Counting Time
3.	Living on the Wall (feat. Iwan Morgan) 04:18	lyrics	buy track
Life in movement, movement fades away To the dances, to the open day A moving shadow, broken at my feet Holds the tune, I cannot lead Words they came and went Fog got in the way Time just fell away The Words I cannot speak Ill-defined mornings so slight In shadow lands we live Clear days, longest time hoping light Hours gone, until it falls, until it falls The day is lost Getting up too late It’s not the best weather Moving in and out, from God knows where I have no gift No life/Eyes in mine No life/Heart in mouth Living on the wall/Seeing to undo (repeat) No life/Eyes in mine No life/Heart in mouth Waiting till it falls/Seeing to undo (repeat)
4.	A Better Story
5.	Three Days
6.	Outside at Night
7.	The Dials
8.	Magic Mornings (feat. Iwan Morgan)
9.	Open Door

about

When the ideas first started to unfurl for Prepared it felt like a wide-open landscape. I’d moved back to Liverpool after being in London for a long time, (so far so predictable?). I moved as I’d had the opportunity to apprentice with Willy Simmons, world renowned flute maker, fixer of pretty much anything and an expert with a lathe. I knew I wanted a break after finishing touring for my last album “On the Never Never” and wanted some time to reconsider what I was doing. Was I still enjoying making music? I wasn’t quite sure.

I was now looking at an instrument I’d been playing all my life at a molecular level. The discipline and repetitiveness of learning a craft freed my mind from thinking about songs for a bit and made me focus on some of the toxic chemicals and blow torches used to make the flutes. I’ve never been a particularly mindful person; I’m usually zipping from one thing to the next and this work had a pace of its own which I had to submit to. So, I would walk over to Willy’s house daily, put the kettle on and watch the MVP at work. At first, I was just observing and occasionally he’d let me do something. I would call this the “sussing out” phase – did I have what it takes? I think that question is still up in the air but what I learned was a new way of thinking and in a way focusing on the small details allowed the big picture to emerge. As well as making flutes, I was also repairing them, and this was the part I most enjoyed – the process of renewal. Taking apart my old tour worn Miyazawa and making it good as new.

In a corny way, I experienced this renewal myself. I’d grown weary and through taking my focus away from Laura J Martin (the artist), I guess things began to percolate without me even realising. I started to put a home studio together, I had no purpose but was intrigued by what could happen If I turned the room with the boiler into a room of my own. Around this time, I’d started to listen to Joanna Brouk and the “I am the Center” compilation of early New Age music on Numero Group. This music was nothing like my own but seemed to extend from the Harmonia records I love and exist outside of the album, gig, tour regime. It was so inspiring and freeing, and I tentatively began to
experiment with the textures of Brouk’s song “Maggi’s Flute” in mind. At this stage there was no plan for an album, but I rediscovered the sense of play which brought me into music in the first place. I was just making ideas, enjoying the process, and then putting them to one side. The palette was infinite and without boundaries. Whereas my previous records had always operated within the instinct/lack of budget axis I now had the possibility to sculpt sound, to remake, blend and remodel it for the first time.

After a few weeks I played these to my co-producer Iwan, and he told me to carry on and go further. We started talking about things that were around us and what we had access to (piano, drum machines), and things I’d see on the way to work and how I could work this into songs. This turned into “Outside at Night”.

In a twisting but circuitous way “Prepared” is my composted scrapbook of the last couple of years, the whittled down then added to, the tempo and key changed cousins of the original ideas and sometimes the looped back to the beginning version after a few misjudged extrapolations in a different direction. I was prepared to follow where the sounds took me, the sonic train left the station and led me on its merry way. It’s not an album about flute repairing but it wouldn’t have happened without learning the discipline of preparedness, the small movement, the tweak and the renewal from Willy Simmons.

credits

releases May 17, 2024

Produced by Iwan Morgan and L.J. Martin
Mixed and Mastered by Iwan Morgan

Laura J Martin – vocals, piano, flute, clarinet, synths, mandolin, guitar
Iwan Morgan – vocals, synths, programming and sounds
Marco Rea – bass guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, mandolin, bk vocals
Mike Lindsay – electric guitar
Lavinia Blackwall - backing vocals
Stuart Kidd – Drums
Vidar Norheim - Drums, percussion
Chloe Kent - violin/strings
Graeme Bell - electric guitar, bass guitar

Design by Hannah Martin
Image (front) by Scott Dulson
Photo (back) by Jess Swainson

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about

Laura J Martin Liverpool, UK

Laura J Martin has so far released three critically acclaimed albums. Her latest, ‘On The Never Never’, was recorded in Nashville with members of Lambchop, Silver Jews and Jesus Lizard. A mercurial and bewitching live performer who interweaves layers of vocals, flute, mandolin and electronics. ... more

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