Electronic Sound Magazine Issue 75 Back Issue

If there’s a point where everything shifted for Hannah Peel, it came on her 2016 album, ‘Awake But Always Dreaming’. There’s a track called ‘Octavia’, which was unlike anything we’d heard from her before. She first caught our attention in 2010 with her ‘Rebox’ synthpop cover versions EP, performed via elaborate hand-punched cards scrolling through a little plinky-plonk musicbox. You have to admire the mind that comes up with that sort of thing. And here it was in action again on ‘Octavia’, an insistent swirl of synths, woodwind parps and choral sighs. While she can write them until the cows come home, hooky pop songs weren’t going to be enough for Hannah Peel from that point on. Next came ‘Mary Casio: Journey To Cassiopeia’, synths meets brass band on a trip to the stars, followed by two soundtracks – the Grammy-nominated ‘Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch’ and the Bernard Herrmann-inspired ‘The Deceived’. And so we arrive at her new album, ‘Fir Wave’, a reimagining of KPM’s ‘Electrosonic’ album, which features library music from Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson. This cover story has been quite a while in coming, then. Best of all, Hannah Peel is a totally engaging interviewee, as you’ll soon discover.We’ve not been slacking elsewhere in this issue. Continuing with the Delia theme, we speak to Caroline Catz and Cosey Fanni Tutti about collaborating on the fantastic ‘Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes’ film, and we catch up with Mogwai, who are increasingly – and brilliantly – occupying our world. We have Mouse On Mars, Jane Weaver and Clark too, as well as a great art project from Late Works, which has served up some amazing hand-made instruments.