Music From a Walled Garden, the new solo album by Dirk ‘Mont’ Campbell.

Mont was founder member and main composer of the experimental rock group Egg (1969-1972). The CD is a sequel to his 1996 solo work Music from a Round Tower, which was placed third in the International Green Dolphin Critics’ Awards for that year, and continues his exploratory style of composition introducing rare non-western instrumental performance directly into western harmonic and formal structures. Musical contributors include Barbara Gaskin (vocals) and Julia Bishop of Red Priest (violin & viola). Mont’s performances include a wide variety of folk winds, strings and percussion, and keyboards.

This work is Ambrosia for the ears – but make no mistake, this is no rock album – it’s traditional folk music with a twist, ut I make no excuses for including it on Rock Rebels. It is superbly performed and produced, this is music with extraordinary integrity.  It’s lovely to hear those strange timbres play things which sound quite natural to them, although they are from such far-away lands and cultures: the harmonies and rhythms are beguiling. Once again, Mont has produced a beautiful, imaginative and thoughtful work with flashes of the humour that belie his ’serious composer’ persona. All power to Dirk ‘Mont’ Campbell, one of the UK’s unsung musical geniuses.

Elaborate, beguiling and multi-faceted, Music From a Walled Garden is presented as an almost continuous sequence… there are many contrasting juxtapositions of material, presenting surprising twists and turns en route – you never quite know where the music will go next.

Mont Campbell says:  “In the mid-1970s I began to develop an interest in folk tradition and, increasingly, non-western music. Starting with the Balkans and moving through Greece and Turkey into the middle East, and then India and the far East, I gradually discovered a vast Aladdin’s cave of entirely new musical ideas and instrumental sounds. Since that time I have been learning and gestating these various forms of musical expression, and introducing them into western-style composition. I enjoyed writing the music and I hope you enjoy listening to it.”

Music From a Walled Garden (56 minutes) ships in a full-colour Digipak with a 12-page booklet containing track notes, photos and musical information by Mont Campbell. The CD is released on November 20th 2009 and may be pre-ordered now from the Egg Archive online store, operated by Burning Shed.

Tracks

1  Afrasiab (7:15)
2  Armadillo Mythology (2:06)
3  Glass Butterflies (6:09)
4  The Edge of Sleep (1:12)
5  Zeno’s Phantom Island (4:53)
6  The Salmon of Wisdom (3:39)
7  Provlepsi (8:51)
8  The Almanac of Azarquiel (2:21)
9  Calakmul (7:12)
10  Oecinial Reckoning (5:28)
11  Pibroch for the Midwinter Sun (3:00)
12  Sunrise Over Firle Beacon (2:26)
13  (Bonus track) Star Trek Theme (1:23)