Örö, by Rob St. John

Örö

by Rob St. John

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Book/Magazine + Digital Album
100-page artist's book, installation film and soundwork produced through Rob St John's long-term fieldwork and experimentation on the small Finnish Archipelago island of Örö. The book is richly illustrated with Rob’s photographs, cameraless prints, cyanotypes, maps and sketches.

All book purchases include access to the 20-minute installation film plus digital downloads of the film's soundwork plus two singles, 'Midwinter' and 'Midsummer' - ambient washes of melody, drone, found sound and field recordings which were composed from the film soundwork with additional instrumentation from Andrew Wasylyk on piano and analogue synthesiser and Pete Harvey (Modern Studies, King Creosote) on cello.

The 100-page soft-back book (210mm x 210mm) is printed in the UK.

Orders of 'Örö' will include an exclusive CD edition of Rob St John's 'Surface Tension' album, made over the course of a year spent walking, recording and photographing the Lea Valley in East London. An electric-pastoral shimmer of field recordings, analogue synths, fingerpicked guitars, tape loops, tube organs and submerged rhythms.

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Rob St John is an artist and writer based in rural Lancashire, UK. His practice is focused on the blurrings of nature and culture in contemporary landscapes. His work has been shown/heard at Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Barbican, The British Museum, Tramway Glasgow, The Royal Geographical Society, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and many others. He has released a number of records and toured across the UK, Europe and the USA. He plays with the band Modern Studies (Fire Records) and is a regular collaborator with the Folklore Tapes collective.

“One of the UK’s most innovative composers.” – Electronic Sound

“St John’s music is as interesting as the process which underpins it.” – UNCUT

“A man playing the calls of Maltese birds bouncing off an underwater telecommunications cable? Rob St John and Tom Western sound like new wayward Aphex Twins…” – The Guardian

“[His work] lets us hear what happens when we lay our ears to a landscape; the voices and utterances that surface into the skull.” – Robert Macfarlane

Includes unlimited streaming of Örö via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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	1.	Midsummer 04:00		buy track
	2.	Midwinter 04:00		buy track

about

'Örö' is a multimedia project created by artist and musician Rob St John. It was produced through long-term fieldwork and experimentation on the small Finnish Archipelago island of Örö.

Closed to the public for a century after the establishment of military fortifications, the Örö 'fortress' island was reopened in 2016. Through the Öres programme, Rob stayed in former barracks on the island for two midwinter and midsummer periods across this transition, as abandoned military structures fell into ruin and rare biodiversity flourished.

Accompanying the artist's book, film and soundwork is this 2-track single.

'Midsummer' and 'Midwinter' – each ambient washes of melody, drone, found sound and field recordings – were composed from the film soundwork with additional instrumentation from Pete Harvey (Modern Studies, King Creosote) on cello, and Andrew Wasylyk on piano and analogue synthesiser.

/ / / / / / / / / / / /

Rob St John is an artist and writer based in rural Lancashire, UK. His practice is focused on the blurrings of nature and culture in contemporary landscapes. His work has been shown/heard at Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Barbican, The British Museum, Tramway Glasgow, The Royal Geographical Society, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and many others. He has released a number of records and toured across the UK, Europe and the USA. He plays with the band Modern Studies (Fire Records) and is a regular collaborator with the Folklore Tapes collective.

“One of the UK’s most innovative composers.” – Electronic Sound

“St John’s music is as interesting as the process which underpins it.” – UNCUT

“A man playing the calls of Maltese birds bouncing off an underwater telecommunications cable? Rob St John and Tom Western sound like new wayward Aphex Twins…” – The Guardian

“[His work] lets us hear what happens when we lay our ears to a landscape; the voices and utterances that surface into the skull.” – Robert Macfarlane

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released April 14, 2023

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Blackford Hill Edinburgh, UK

Our releases encompass electronica, field recordings, modern classical, spoken word and jazz - all connected to or inspired by a sense of place, created in a variety of audio and print formats.

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