12" vinyl LP due for release late September 2013. Pre-orders being taken now. Email skire.info@gmail.com with any enquiries.

Andrew Chalk & Tom James Scott - Wild Flowers (Album Preview)

Track 3 from the album 'Wild Flowers'. Now available to buy direct -

http://skireone-wildflowers.blogspot.co.uk

Andrew Chalk & Tom James Scott | Hornbeam

Taken from the album 'The Last Swarm of Summer'.

https://skiremusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-swarm-of-summer

https://tomjamesscott.bandcamp.com/

Tom James Scott - Rose Blue Echo (SKR10)

Tom James Scott - Before Sunrise (SKR10)

Taken from the LP edition of 'Teal' originally issued on cassette July 2014. Available to pre-order here - http://skirethree.blogspot.co.uk/

Poppy Seed | Taken from the 'Teal' LP due autumn 2014 (SKR03)

More information and ordering here - http://skire.bigcartel.com/product/ian-middleton-well-of-sorrows-lp-skr02

Ian Middleton - 'Lonely Highway' | Taken from the LP 'Well of Sorrows' (SKR02)

Now available for pre-order on LP + digital: 
Svitlana Nianio & Tom James Scott - 'Eye of the Sea'. 

https://skiremusic.bandcamp.com/album/eye-of-the-sea

Orders ship from 7th July. 

Recorded in correspondence throughout a calamitous and uncertain 2020, “Eye of the Sea" is a collaborative record made by Tom James Scott of the United Kingdom and Svitlana Nianio of Ukraine. Active since the late 1980s, Nianio has released a treasure trove of diverse and beguiling music under her own name, as a member of the legendary Ukrainian experimental unit Cukor Bila Smerť, and in collaboration with the late musician and instrument maker Oleksandr Yurchenko. For his part, Scott has steadily published solo recordings since the mid aughts on labels such as Bo’Weavil, Students of Decay, and Where to Now?, and worked often in collaboration with kindred spirits like Andrew Chalk and Timo Van Lujik. 

“Eye of the Sea” began as a series of intimate, muted piano sketches put to tape by Scott, which Nianio embellished and re-contextualised with voice and instrumentation before returning them to Scott for further overdubbing, editing, and mixing. Listening to these recordings, I’m struck most by their patience, frailty, and beauty. Soft piano lines unspool alongside Nianio’s weightless voice on tracks such as “Slowly Turns the Spring,” which achieves a richly devotional air, and “Lotus,” a piece that all but halts the passage of time as it slowly blooms into expression. But despite their elusive, gauzy palette, there is a startling directness to these recordings that feels unique in the oeuvres of both musicians. Much like Nianio’s wonderful “Lisova Kolekciya,” (reissued by Scott on Skire in 2017) there is the sense that this music, particularly the vocal arrangements, is firmly rooted in some hermetic, primordial tradition. Ultimately, “Eye of the Sea” is a work of romantic, phantasmagoric beauty shot through with morning light; one which draws deeply on 20th century classical, chamber and liturgical musics, and ambient minimalism to arrive at a distinctive voice of its own. - Alex Cobb (Students of Decay/Soda Gong)

Svitlana Nianio: voices, sound effects, keyboards
Tom James Scott: keyboards
Timo van Luijk: bowed string on 'Eye of the Sea'

Engineered by Sergii Khotiachuk and Tom James Scott
Mixed by Tom James Scott
Mastered by Noel Summerville

Design by Chris Bigg
Photograph by Kieran McPeake

Catalogue number: SKR11
Label: Skire
Year: 2023

Svitlana Nianio & Tom James Scott - 'Chains' (SKR11)

Tom James Scott - About Today

Taken from the album 'Teal
Available to order direct here - 
http://skirethree.blogspot.co.uk/

Tom James Scott - Ariel

Tom James Scott - Samphire

12" mini-album due for release in September 2015. 

http://www.skire.net/releases-shop/4590183774

Andrew Chalk & Tom James Scott - Calluna

“Then, from some primeval forest, comes a treetop-one such as the child has seen already thousands of years ago, such as he has seen just now, for the first time, on the carousel.” - Walter Benjamin

Taken from 'The Carousel'. Due for release May 2016. Order here - 
http://skire.bigcartel.com/product/tom-james-scott-the-carousel

Tom James Scott - Rowan Oak

From 'The Carousel' - http://skire.bigcartel.com/

Tom James Scott - Hiding Places

Title track from the 12" EP 'Hilldrop'. Available to order direct here: http://skire.bigcartel.com/product/tom-scott-hilldrop-12-ep-skr06

Tom Scott - 'Hilldrop'

Taken from the 'Hilldrop' EP.

Recorded by Tom Scott.
Autoharp played by Kristina Liulia.
Mastered by Sean McCann.

http://skire.bigcartel.com/product/tom-scott-hilldrop-12-ep-skr06
http://www.skire.net/

Tom Scott - 'Dewpoint' (SKR06)

Taken from the album 'Nocturnes'. Due for release March 2017.

Tom Scott - On Earth Ocean Bellows

From the album 'Nocturnes' by Tom James Scott. Official release Friday 31st March. Digital available from all the major download/streaming sites. Tape+digital edition available for pre-order now from http://skire.bigcartel.com/. All orders will ship from Monday 3rd April.

Tom James Scott - The Roseate Dreamlight

From the album 'Nocturnes'. 
http://skire.bigcartel.com/product/tom-james-scott-notcurnes-skr07-tape-download-card

Tom James Scott - Pick up the Glass

From the album 'Lisova Kolekciya'. Due for release 10th November 2017. Pre-order standard LP and special editions here http://skire.bigcartel.com/. Digital here https://skiremusic.bandcamp.com/.

Artist: SVITLANA NIANIO
Album: Lisova Kolekciya

Svitlana Nianio has been active in the Ukrainian and Polish underground music scenes since the early '90's both as a solo artist and a prominent member of the now disbanded avant-rock outfit Cukor Bila Smert (Sugar White Death). Her music draws on aspects of modern composition and traditional Slavic music, with songs and experiments from that early period culminating in the 1999 album Kytytsi (Koka Records, Poland). Prior to that in 1995, Nianio recorded Lisova Kolekciya (Forest Collection) live in a simple home studio setting with Olexander Yurchenko and Konstantin Nazarenko. 

Less indebted to folk tradition than Kytytsi, Lisova Kolekciya was performed using Casio keyboards, electronics, and voice, positioning itself more inline with Terry Riley's Shri Camel in its otherworldly reinterpretation of the ancient through modern means. Retaining aspects of traditional music in its use of spare instrumentation and haunting vocal melodies, this largely unknown album pushes at the edges of what folk music might be, resulting in music previously described as being "deeply rooted in primeval myths, creating a world of magic realism, in which the temporal dimension and the other world constantly move and permeate."

Issued here officially for the first time after an extremely limited private cassette edition handed out to friends in 1996 - where the recording was twinned with the album Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhi (Know How? Tell Me) - Lisova Kolekciya comes packaged in a full colour offset printed sleeve featuring artwork by Svitlana Nianio and is limited to 300 copies. 75 copies are housed in special edition thick board slip-cases handmade at Faraway Press and are available to order direct from the label only. Each edition features a unique and original painting made my Andrew Chalk to reflect the album and to compliment the standard edition cover artwork aesthetically. Letterpress texts and de-bossing techniques feature throughout the design.

Svitlana Nianio - Episode 6 (from the LP 'Lisova Kolekciya')

From the album 'Lisova Kolekciya'. Due for release 10th November 2017. Pre-order standard LP and special editions here skire.bigcartel.com/. Digital here skiremusic.bandcamp.com/.

Artist: SVITLANA NIANIO
Album: Lisova Kolekciya

Svitlana Nianio has been active in the Ukrainian and Polish underground music scenes since the early '90's both as a solo artist and a prominent member of the now disbanded avant-rock outfit Cukor Bila Smert (Sugar White Death). Her music draws on aspects of modern composition and traditional Slavic music, with songs and experiments from that early period culminating in the 1999 album Kytytsi (Koka Records, Poland). Prior to that in 1995, Nianio recorded Lisova Kolekciya (Forest Collection) live in a simple home studio setting with Olexander Yurchenko and Konstantin Nazarenko.

Less indebted to folk tradition than Kytytsi, Lisova Kolekciya was performed using Casio keyboards, electronics, and voice, positioning itself more inline with Terry Riley's Shri Camel in its otherworldly reinterpretation of the ancient through modern means. Retaining aspects of traditional music in its use of spare instrumentation and haunting vocal melodies, this largely unknown album pushes at the edges of what folk music might be, resulting in music previously described as being "deeply rooted in primeval myths, creating a world of magic realism, in which the temporal dimension and the other world constantly move and permeate."

Issued here officially for the first time after an extremely limited private cassette edition handed out to friends in 1996 - where the recording was twinned with the album Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhi (Know How? Tell Me) - Lisova Kolekciya comes packaged in a full colour offset printed sleeve featuring artwork by Svitlana Nianio and is limited to 300 copies. 75 copies are housed in special edition thick board slip-cases handmade at Faraway Press and are available to order direct from the label only. Each edition features a unique and original painting made my Andrew Chalk to reflect the album and to compliment the standard edition cover artwork aesthetically. Letterpress texts and de-bossing techniques feature throughout the design.

Svitlana Nianio - Episode 14 (from 'Lisova Kolekciya')

Now available for pre-order: Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko's 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' ('Know How? Tell Me'). Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev in 1995, this is the first official release of 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' outside of the duo's native Ukraine, and is presented in conjunction with Glasgow's Night School Records. 

Pre-order the 12" vinyl edition here: https://tinyurl.com/vw3lgpe

Digital only here: https://tinyurl.com/rzk2ehc

All orders will ship after 21.02.2020.

Svitlana Nianio and Oleksandr Yurchenko are musicians with a long history in the still-mysterious Kiev Underground. Nianio’s first group Cukor Bela Smert [Sugar, The White Death] were active from the late 80’s through to the early 90’s, and following an intense period of touring, collaboration, experimentation and a string of mixtapes and self-published recordings, Nianio’s first official solo album ‘Kytytsi’ was released in 1999 by Poland’s Koka Records. Oleksandr Yurchenko, a longtime collaborator and a pivotal figure in the Kiev music scene, was instrumental in creating the Novaya Scena, a loose conglomerate of artists who encouraged each other to excavate both the sounds of the West and Ukrainian tradition. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ (‘Know How? Tell Me’) is the duo’s most fully realised collaboration, an enchanting, complete world in which Yurchenko’s instrumentation and playfulness with form frames Nianio’s otherworldly soprano, recalling Liz Fraser steeped in contrapuntal melody and hymnal improvisation. Originally made available on a self-released cassette in 1996 (re-issued in 2017 by Ukraine’s Delta Shock label) where the album was twinned with ‘Lisova Kolekciya’ (re-issued on LP in 2017 by Skire) this is the debut release of ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ outside of Ukraine.

Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev during a fertile period for artists and musicians following the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ sees Nianio and Yurchenko combine Casio keyboard, hammered dulcimer, percussion, and Nianio’s unmistakeable soprano vocalisations to create music sympathetic to the specific locations in which they chose to record. Yurchenko’s contribution is perhaps more present on this recording than anything else we have heard from the duo. His percussive dulcimer playing provides the basis on which Nianio can weave delicate keyboard lines while playfully contorting her voice, shifting from a low register reminiscent of Nico to what could be perceived as the call of a bird or an animal in distress. Whatever the intent, the effect is haunting and beautiful in equal measure.

There’s a prevailing earthiness on the recordings, found in the warm hiss of the lo-fi means of recording or the grinding, unspecified sounds that occasionally accompany the melody, like drones created on the fly by hands trying to keep warm in the ice. A prevailing mood of fragility and beauty seeps from these melodies, delicate moments of clarity spun by the two musicians. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ is a dream spun in twilight, a crystalline, private world where the listener feels both alien and welcome. 

Recorded in Kiev, Ukraine, May 1995
Produced by Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko
Mastered by John Hannon, 2018

Artwork by Svitlana Nianio
Design by Tom James Scott

Untitled 

Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko - Untitled 1 (from 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' 12" + digital)

Now available: Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko's 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' ('Know How? Tell Me'). Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev in 1995, this is the first official release of 'Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy' outside of the duo's native Ukraine, and is presented in conjunction with Glasgow's Night School Records.

Order the 12" vinyl edition here: tinyurl.com/vw3lgpe

Digital only here: tinyurl.com/rzk2ehc

All orders will ship after 21.02.2020.

Svitlana Nianio and Oleksandr Yurchenko are musicians with a long history in the still-mysterious Kiev Underground. Nianio’s first group Cukor Bela Smert [Sugar, The White Death] were active from the late 80’s through to the early 90’s, and following an intense period of touring, collaboration, experimentation and a string of mixtapes and self-published recordings, Nianio’s first official solo album ‘Kytytsi’ was released in 1999 by Poland’s Koka Records. Oleksandr Yurchenko, a longtime collaborator and a pivotal figure in the Kiev music scene, was instrumental in creating the Novaya Scena, a loose conglomerate of artists who encouraged each other to excavate both the sounds of the West and Ukrainian tradition. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ (‘Know How? Tell Me’) is the duo’s most fully realised collaboration, an enchanting, complete world in which Yurchenko’s instrumentation and playfulness with form frames Nianio’s otherworldly soprano, recalling Liz Fraser steeped in contrapuntal melody and hymnal improvisation. Originally made available on a self-released cassette in 1996 (re-issued in 2017 by Ukraine’s Delta Shock label) where the album was twinned with ‘Lisova Kolekciya’ (re-issued on LP in 2017 by Skire) this is the debut release of ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ outside of Ukraine.

Recorded in an abandoned park in Kiev during a fertile period for artists and musicians following the collapse of the Soviet Union, ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ sees Nianio and Yurchenko combine Casio keyboard, hammered dulcimer, percussion, and Nianio’s unmistakeable soprano vocalisations to create music sympathetic to the specific locations in which they chose to record. Yurchenko’s contribution is perhaps more present on this recording than anything else we have heard from the duo. His percussive dulcimer playing provides the basis on which Nianio can weave delicate keyboard lines while playfully contorting her voice, shifting from a low register reminiscent of Nico to what could be perceived as the call of a bird or an animal in distress. Whatever the intent, the effect is haunting and beautiful in equal measure.

There’s a prevailing earthiness on the recordings, found in the warm hiss of the lo-fi means of recording or the grinding, unspecified sounds that occasionally accompany the melody, like drones created on the fly by hands trying to keep warm in the ice. A prevailing mood of fragility and beauty seeps from these melodies, delicate moments of clarity spun by the two musicians. ‘Znayesh Yak? Rozkazhy’ is a dream spun in twilight, a crystalline, private world where the listener feels both alien and welcome.

Recorded in Kiev, Ukraine, May 1995
Produced by Svitlana Nianio & Oleksandr Yurchenko
Mastered by John Hannon, 2018

Artwork by Svitlana Nianio

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