WALL OF SOUND
Folk prog collective Kaprekar’s Constant scale new heights on their third album The Murder Wall, telling the stories of success and failure conquering the north face of Europe’s most forbidding mountain, the Eiger. The collective’s founders Nick Jefferson, Al Nicholson and Mike Westergaard explain how they drew their inspiration for the album among the ropes and ice picks.
Words: Alison Reijman
The sum of parts: Kaprekar’s Constant.
Images: Sean Kelly
“The thing about David [Jackson] is that he will research the stories behind the climbs. He wants to get inside the whole vibe of the track he is putting stuff to.”
Nick Jefferson
“It’s basically a load of limestone that’s
rotting away and crumbling,” declares
Nick Jefferson. He’s describing the Swiss
monolith that inspired 75 minutes of
new music on Kaprekar’s Constant’s
third record, The Murder Wall. The album’s
brutal title is the name frequently bestowed
on the Eiger’s perilous north face and its
songs focus on six attempts made over the
decades by brave, but sometimes foolhardy
and ill-equipped, mountaineers to scale it.
Epic storytelling is the hallmark of the musical collective, founded by multiinstrumentalists Jefferson and Al Nicholson, which is named after an obscure mathematical theory. The duo previously played together in folk clubs and recorded songs for other artists but reconvened in 2015 with their friend, pianist and producer, Mike Westergaard, because they wanted to write original prog music from the heart. To achieve their musical aims, they enlisted former Van der Graaf musician David Jackson on saxophones, flutes and whistles and his daughter Dorie on vocals, plus Jefferson’s nephew Bill Jefferson on vocals, and their newest recruit, Caravan drummer Mark Walker. They released debut album Fate Outsmarts Desire in 2017, followed two years later by Depth Of Field, which featured Ian Anderson reciting a poem. Both are full of elaborate musical stories, covering places, people and history, and each contain a track that’s more than 20 minutes long. However, there’s been a deliberate shift towards shorter songs on The Murder Wall .