Experimental British composer Ben Chatwin aka TALVIHORROS released his fifth studio album, Eaten Alive, earlier this year via Denovali Records. The album marks a move away from Chatwin’s signature guitar sound into a wide-ranging electronic sound palette, featuring his most direct and uncompromising work to date. When Chatwin met Daniel Crossley, owner of Fluid Radio, in late 2010. The pair visited areas in East London where Daniel had lived for much of his life, also the same area Ben found himself living. They shared stories and memories, looking back at a past that featured loss, isolation, addiction and abuse. As Ben explains:
We spent a weekend going to places where Dan had grown up, places that had stuck in his head for various reasons. Dan shared with me some harrowing and heartbreaking tales that eventually culminated in him battling with drug addiction. I think Dan was incredibly brave to get out of the situation he found himself in, get out of London, and live the life that he is living today.
TALVIHORROS‘ Eaten Alive is the result of this encounter, as Chatwin looks both introspectively and into the community where events like this can so readily happen. An album that focuses on the darker recesses of life, where bold melodic ideas fight with harsh noise and glacial ambience to create something organic, evolving and physically arresting. Now that TALVIHORROS will play Denovali Swingfest Berlin, one of Europe’s the best small festivals, NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION took the chance to ask Chatwin about the sources of his inspiration. Seven songs that were either listened to a lot or a source of inspiration during the making of Eaten Alive.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: NINE INCH NAILS – At The Heart Of It All (APHEX TWIN Remix)
When thinking about what I wanted Eaten Alive to sound like, it was kind of like a machine fighting to surviving in a human world, abrasive yet somehow soulful or warm. I listened to a lot of 1990’s Isolationism but really it was this remix made by Aphex Twin of a Nine Inch Nails tune that was exactly the sound I had in my head.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: ARVO PÄRT – Cantus In Memorium of Benjamin Britten
At first I considered using a lot of strings on this album as I had worked with a string quartet on the previous effort (And It Was So), for me strings can be the most emotive instrument and really represent human pain and suffering like no other instrument can. In the end I decided against it and tried to make the electronics sound as human and emotive as I could – largely because nothing can ever be as beautiful as this track by Arvo Pärt, so there is no point trying.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: BEN FROST – Theory Of Machines
‘Eaten Alive’ eventually became about the struggle of man vs machine with the machine representing the city of London and also in some ways the struggle with addiction. I think its this area of music where the analog and the digital cross is what excites me most with music. This track is from an album that had a profound impact on me when it came out and I think Ben Frost is one of those few people whose work is blurring the lines of what is possible in electronic music.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: MAX RICHTER – On The Nature Of Daylight
HYPERLINK “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs
Max Richter is someone Ive returned to recently, 10 years have gone by since being moved by his first two albums and although music has changed a lot in those 10 years, there is something timeless and inherintly beautiful about Max’s music. Like Arvo Part its emphasis on minimalism and high emotional content is something that I am responding to more and more. Trends come and go but I always return to emotive music, its been a real pleasure re-visiting this material.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: APPARAT – Tod
I came across this album by Apparat made for a theatre performance midway through making my album and it really blew me away. The use of electronics is stunning – Apparat really creates an intense and complex sound world that also is at once alien yet inviting and familiar.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: BONNE PRINCE BILLY – Another Day Full Of Dread
After long days in the studio, generally the last thing I want to do is listen to music but one record a would put on to relax in the evening was Bonnie Prince Billy’s ‘I See A Darkness’. Im not quite sure what it was that resonated with me so much but I could listen to this endlessly and always enjoy it. Just direct and brilliant songwriting with no messing around.
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TALVIHORROS source of inspiration: ROBBIE BASHO – Blue Crystal Fire
If it wasn’t Bonnie Prince Billy on my record player it was this track by a guy I was introduced to who I know little about. Incredibly unique songwriting.
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