Collaborations

Richard Youngs

“Richard Youngs (b. 1966, Cambridge, England) is a singer-composer based in Glasgow, Scotland, whose work is an ongoing experiment in song form straddling the traditional and the avant-garde. He is primarily a writer of extended song, but is also active in experimental music, improvisation, folk and disco.” (No Fans Official Site)

In addition to the progressive rock project, ILK, Andrew and Richard have been collaborating and releasing records together since 2005. The majority of these recordings are long sold out and appeared as limited CDR editions on Paine’s ‘Sonic Oyster Records’ label.

The Wood Is Barren / My Mountain Is Lonely (NFR08)

Released in 2005, on CDR in a limited edition of 10 copies

2. Mauve Dawn (Fusetron)

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – Mauve Dawn (Fusetron)**

Originally released on vinyl (2005) and long sold out at source… this was the original press release:

“For the past eight years Andrew Paine and Richard Youngs have met on almost every Sunday and recorded music. Mauve Dawn is the result of ten meetings during 2004. Its nine tracks feature processed epinette des vosges, glockenspiel, vintage keyboards and guitars, alongside granularly-synthesized household objects hacked together with resonated voices and filtered bells in a stereo field heavy on ring modulation. One part of the Mauve trilogy, this is an instrumental album of classic length.”

The following titles were released on Sonic Oyster Records in limited editions of 50 CDRs. Completists should consult Discogs for rare, unwanted copies. All titles are now sold out at source.

3. Collodion Positives: Volume 1 (SOR01) – released 2006

4. Santos (SORO2) – released 2006

5. 1958 (SOR03) – released 2006

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – 1958**

6. Forest Of Swords (SOR05) – released 2006

7. The Memory Plain (SOR06) – released 2006

8. Roman Concrete: Volume 1 – released 2007

9. Rock Traveller – released 2007

10. Collodion Positives: Volume 2 – released 2007

11. Collodion Positives; Volume 3 – released 2007

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – Collodion Positives: Volume 3**

12. Hot Canyon Butter (SOR18) – released 2008

13. Snapshots of Rural England (SOR19) – released 2008

14. English Channel (SOR20) – released 2008

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – English Channel**

15. Collodion Positives: Volume IV (SOR21) – released 2008

16. The Great Level (SOR24) – released 2009

17. Earthrod (SOR26) – released 2009

18. Tokyo Garden Suite (SOR29) – released 2009

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – Tokyo Garden Suite**

19. Guide To Music (SOR33) – released 2010

20. Robot (SOR36) – released 2010

**Andrew Paine & Richard Youngs – Robot**

“Robot is Youngs’ twentieth collaboration with fellow Glasgow based musician Andrew Paine since 2005 (not including their well-received prog rock project Ilk), and it’s one of their most instant and unusual so far. To those unfamiliar with the workings of the diy experimental underground, 20 might sound like an insane amount of music. Where other improvisatory-sourced acts, for example the harsher, bleaker but very prolific Wolf Eyes, releases can be read as a kind of documentary process, Youngs and Paine seem to treat each release like a mini project of sorts – an idea investigated.

In essence, Robot is a concept release created using Brian Eno’s infamous oblique strategy card system and a further exploration into the duo’s chemistry. For a pairing that’s been so effective with the ideas of musical improvisation within a small dose of self-imposed direction, their choice of Eno’s concept/direction of random selected choices/instructions on Robot might seem a little peculiar. Usually employed in aiding over-emotive stadium rock acts that have hit the skids break the shackles of their own success, Youngs and Paine have adopted this system for Robot more in the spirit of playful exploration.

While the duo are more familiar playing at the left-hand edge of something akin to post-world/post-structure music, the five pieces here are moving beyond even those already hazy limits. Taking in disassociated spoken word, hollow-legged Kosmische, the musical ‘summing-up’ of landscapes in endless melody lines and more than a dash of prog-rock’s audio dalliances, Robot seems to have pushed the pair beyond improv – if such a thing can actually happen. Where improv is often seen as an anything goes environment, it still has the constraint of what a particular artist is comfortable and the added bonus of treading hitherto unexplored paths. The nature of integrating the unknown into this project’s working method has undoubtedly pushed the duo into new territory.

Paine and Youngs may have dabbled in synth-work previously but there has never been anything as joyously weird as the classic Acid Techno of ‘Bad Shark’. Thanks to The South Bank Show’s footage of plastic-bed sheet stadium behemoths playing dreadful sub world music grooves, the oblique strategy series is more of an amusing idea than a system that’s produced a massive amount of great music for anyone other than Eno himself. Where many would flounder at directions like commands like “Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them”, Youngs and Paine have adapted perfectly to these leaps into the dark.” (Daniel Spicer)

21. 4trackcassettemachine (SOC001) – released 2010

Limited edition of 50 cassettes