The Towers is my new public and collaborative art project. Based on inaccessible, missing and imagined towers in and around Guernsey.
Stream and download the first album from it.
Towers I: Inaccessible.
“Towers I: Inaccessible, An atmospheric exploration of Guernsey inspired by a series of towers that stand just out of reach. Field recordings, cello, cor anglais, spoken word and ambient electronica come together on this journey around Flexagon’s island home, located just off the coast of France. Locations long abandoned come back to life and local landmarks tell new stories in this stunning album.”
Dominic Valvona – Monolith Cocktail – Review extract
“A work of site-specific atmospheric stirrings and timelessness, The Towers I: Inaccessible album translates the off-limits sites of Guernsey into a multi-layered sonic map for inquiring minds. An Island life, history and shared trauma is transduced across a mix of styles and delivery methods as both repurposed and more derelict out of bounds architecture is allowed to breath and to tell stories of the history that’s passed through its doors.”
The Towers I: Inaccessible – Track list/ locations
01 Gazing At The Towers
02 Ozanne Tower: The Folly
03 Fort Saumarez: MP2
04 Loophole Tower No.10
05 Le Mont Saint Windmill
06 St James Clock Tower
07 The Last Trees
08 Communications Tower
09 Water Tower
“Flexagon’s 2020 album 7 Nocturnes East was firmly rooted in Guernsey’s coastal landscape. Since that release he has continued to work on location-based environmental music, sound art and installations. Both in Guernsey and remotely for projects based on places and field recordings in Wales and the Antarctic.”
Extract of Bob Fisher’s review of Towers I: Inaccessible
‘With touching sensitivity, the enigmatic Flexagon pays homage to the forgotten places of his native Guernsey. 2020 album 7 Nocturnes East was an evocation of the coastline’s night-time noises. Now here’s the first of a trilogy exploring the island’s assorted towers and tall buildings. “A brutalist wartime observation tower, a windmill, a clock tower, trees used as lookout posts by German soldiers during the occupation…”
‘It’s gorgeous. While Ozanne Tower: The Folly combines Badalamenti strings and an exquisite, mournful Cor Anglais, The Last Trees is a shimmering electronic hymnal. And Loophole Tower No. 10, with words from local journalist Shaun Shackleton, is a lament for the island’s Napoleonic sea defences. Told partly from the perspective of a press-ganged 19th century watchman. “I curse those baiseurs, the bloody militia. Who drag me away from my hearthside, my table, my woman, my blanket. To this granite birdcage”.’
Bob Fisher – Electronic Sound: (Issue 98)