Erith by M Plummer Fernández

This album was made during March - May 2010, in an eerie place called Erith, on the outskirts of London, using piano and homemade instruments using software and scrap electronics. A rusty old signal generator features a lot on the recordings, rewired to produce its microtonal wailing.

I lived in the old General Electric Factory, salvaging materials and surviving post 2008 poverty. A piano mover had abandoned a slightly out-of-tune upright. The space had no windows but frosted skylights -the top floor that used to be a lunchtime cinema for workers.

The isolation and dread took a toll on my mental health, but gave me space to experiment and discover my own way of playing the piano whilst also controlling the signal generator, along with a laptop running scripts I had botched together in Chuck. The three came together, echoing off the walls in the empty warehouse. Everything was recorded in single takes and mostly improvised.

For years I couldn't listen to these tracks because they recreated those feelings, but now I enjoy them. They seem fitting for our current period of isolation and emerging recession.

Colombian-British artist based in the UK. Software instruments (using the livecoding software Chuck), a signal generator, homemade electronic devices, and piano feature in his music.

plummerfernandez.com