Delius was inspired to make music by ‘late swallows’ at Grez-sur-Loing, Vaughan Williams by a lark on its ecstatic flight. Just about everyone else has tried to work out what exact interval a cuckoo sounds. By contrast, pianist and composer Matthew Bourne has his feet firmly on the ground, to the extent that he is able to take inspiration even from situations that most recording musicians would regard as a maddening distraction, like the drone of a lawnmower.

That most English of inventions makes a fitting appearance on Matthew Bourne’s solo debut Montauk Variations. One of the highpoints of the record is ‘The Greenkeeper’, which came about when Matthew was recording at Dartington Hall in Devon. There, the grounds are kept as immaculately as the pianos, and one of the groundsmen made an unintended appearance just as Bourne was preparing to play. “The lawnmower’s distant drone I found to be a D,” he deadpans. “So in the spirit of improvisation I went with it rather than waited until it disappeared!”

CD in 6-panel digipak – BAY 77CD

BAY 77E