This collaboration with Jamie Grimes (stalwart of the Irish metal and hardcore scenes, perhaps best known as a lead guitarist and songwriter for bands such as Vircolac and Drainland) was recorded on a sunny afternoon on the 5th of May, 2012. The balmy weather proved to be something of an influence, as reflected in the unexpectedly warm, bright, and even occasionally pleasant, sounds of this, our first collaboration.

The material on this album was improvised and mixed on the spot, with the post-production involving no overdubs and only very minimal editing.

It was released on cassette by Ian Maleney’s Fallow Media with a launch concert held at the much missed, and fondly remembered, Joinery art gallery and venue in Stoneybatter, Dublin, on the 28th of February, 2013. My thanks to Ian for enthusiastically and supportively releasing this album, and to Emmett Connell of Lost Cosmonaut Design for his wonderful cover artwork.

I shall conclude these notes with a review of the album by Craig Carry of Fractured Air, and I should also note that the sequencing of tracks had to be rearranged slightly to best fit the two-sided cassette format. Here, however, I present the tracks in their original - pre-cassette - order.

“The second Fallow release is by the duo of James Grimes and Brian Conniffe (under the recording title of JG/BC) and is titled ‘Samekh’, another stunning collection of patient, intricate compositions based upon abstract guitar work and manipulated field recordings.

Across its six tracks, ‘Samekh’s canvas is primed with evocative field recordings (like Be Honest’s ‘Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap’) but more guitar-orientated. In fact, the six tracks are improvised, one track-recordings, and it’s this very natural and organic nature of the music that so beautifully combines with the ‘found sounds’ provided by the field recordings. If the record was a painting depicting the Irish ‘landscape’ it would be in the fluid forms and abstract patterns by Sean McSweeney or Barrie Cooke, rather than the meticulous realist works of Martin Gale or Robert Ballagh. Debates between what constitutes “better” art – the “planned” or the “improvised” (for example, the painstakingly staged large format photography by Jeff Wall resembling cinematic stills or the off-kilter “from the hip” street photography by the likes of Frank or Winogrand in all their 35mm grainy glory) will forever rage. Of course, leaving the artist “open” to possibilities is of the most paramount importance, leaving yourself open to change, to “new” avenues and challenges – to mistakes even. As Ian Maleney has said of the recordings: “they’re messy in places but have a real spirit and depth which kept me coming back to them when I first heard them.”

‘Samekh’ opens with the wonderfully titled “The Vision of the Machinery of the Universe”. The track opens with the sounds of chirping birds on a drone-backdrop, building with a subtle layer of short guitar strums after some lovely electronically manipulated sounds (akin to a radio transmitter trying to tune into its frequency, this “tuning” in turn sounds like the breeze especially as the birds are still happily singing). Guitar notes become more pronounced, the sounds come into sharper focus as the track unfolds. Layers combine patiently to its visceral, densely layered conclusion before ebbing into a soft, textured finale (It feels like Benoît Pioulard’s voice will enter at any moment). A stunning introduction. Welcome to ‘Samekh’.

‘Lake risen up to Heaven’ is a guitar-picked piece backed this time by the sounds of a receding tide. As the tides ebb and flow, so does the music. Art and nature become one. ‘Hausos Awakes’ is a more ‘traditional’ guitar-based composition, reverbed notes are left to hang in the air with subtlety manipulated sounds. The piece is as much about the space “between” notes as it is about what is in fact being played. The guitar’s outro is finally matched – and then exceeded – by what sounds like a landscape at dusk. The next track, ‘Black Dwarf’ is more representative of nature as a force; the sounds are more prominent (crashing waves) while the guitar (coming in halfway through) creates a mood of tension and a sense of foreboding.

The penultimate track on ‘Samekh’ is the record’s centerpiece. Entitled ‘Sorath’, the piece is over 13 minutes in duration, building gradually – layer upon glorious layer – until its close. ‘Sorath’ is reminiscent of such luminaries as Stars Of The Lid or the wonderful Brooklyn-based duo of Mountains on the Thrill Jockey label, and is testament to the talents – and ambitions – of both Grimes and Conniffe. The record’s closer is the (fittingly) titled ‘The Last Embers’, where the listener can once again immerse oneself in the mysterious and visceral landscape of ‘Samekh.’

What makes both ‘Samekh’ and ‘Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap’ such endearing beauties is how Be Honest and JG/BC have both made something so beautiful directly from the landscape. We’re used to being presented with a pristine selection of songs (neatly sequenced and polished), any faults or “off” moments are (presumably) left on the cutting room floor. This we take for granted (unless we’re talking 50th anniversary box-set editions of course). Here, the journey entails moments of drifting beauty amidst moments of real depth crafted from a complex sonic palette.

‘Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap’ and ‘Samekh’ are more representative of a “journey” than a destination; not a simple or an easily navigable end-point but a series of beautiful meandering points along the way. Anyone who decides to take the road-less-travelled on ‘Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap’ or ‘Samekh’ will soon find it’s all about the journey in the first place – and what an intriguing, spirited journey Be Honest and JG/BC have created for us.”