Duncan Browne:Tribute

Duncan Browne | The Wild Places

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Duncan Browne | Fauvette

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Duncan Browne | The Wild Places Video

admin — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 22:11:44 +0000

A clip of the great Duncan Browne performing the Wild Places, one of his greatest songs, from the album of the same name.

Journey: The Anthology 1967-1993

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:29:52 +0000

Journey: The Anthology 1967-1993
2004

Disc: 1
1. Here and Now
2. On the Bombsite
3. Alfred Bell
4. Give Me, Take You
5. Ninepence Worth of Walking
6. Dwarf in a Tree (A Cautionary Tale)
7. Ghost Walks
8. Chloe in the Garden
9. Cherry Blossom Fool
10. Resurrection Joe
11. Final Asylum
12. Journey
13. Ragged Rain Life
14. Country Song
15. Babe Rainbow
16. Last Time Around
17. Send Me the Bill for Your Friendship
18. Black Lace Shoulder
19. Paris
20. Precious

Disc: 2
1. Criminal World
2. Wild Places
3. Roman Vecu
4. Kisarazu
5. Planet Earth
6. Fauvette
7. American Heartbeat
8. Streets of Fire
9. Theme from “The Travelling Man”
10. Day for Night
11. End of the Line
12. Wild Places ‘91
13. Scull Twins
14. Rainer
15. Berceuse
16. Toys
17. No Name Girl
18. Journey ‘93

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Songs of Love & War

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:22:10 +0000

Songs of Love & War
1995

with guest musicians:
Ron Aspry
Colin Blunstone
Chris Cozens
Debi Doss
John Giblin
Sebastion Graham-Jones
Tony Hymas
Nick Magnus
Simon Phillips
Nic Potter

Scull Twins
Misunderstood
Suddenly Last Summer
Berceuse
Love Leads You
I Fall Again
The Small Hours
Wild Places
Journey ‘93
Sarabande
Rainer
High Windows
Romantic Comedy
Barry’s Lament

Here is Duncan Browne’s long awaited new album; Songs of Love & War.

In addition to his innovative solo albums, he loved interpreting, inhabiting and contributing to other peoplesâ€™ schemes - Richard Dentonâ€™s films, our own work in the theatre and television, the sustained fertile relationships with Nick Magnus, Colin Blunstone, Nic Potter, Terry & Mandy Oates and John Boughtwood at Eaton Music, Dave Mackay, Geoff Hannington, the BBC World Service and many more - all part of a creative life, cruelly curtailed in May 1993.

All of us seeking the unsentimental, cool commitment on which Duncan himself would have insisted, have worked to complete this collection, with his often hilariously ruthless instructions echoing through our collective senses, defining and re-defining the process at every stage.

His tireless self criticism, his passionate, uncompromising, inspiration support of hid colleagues, and his uniquely subjective musicality have inspired us all. His beautiful, humorous talent and unforgettable companionship in art and its fierce fires, have encompassed us all. Listen to this, then. Enjoy, celebrate and remember.

From all of us, a dedication of love to Duncan Browne.

Sebastion Graham-Jones

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Travelling Man

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:14:17 +0000

Travelling Man
1984

Duncan Browne and Sebastion Graham-Jones

with guest musicians:
Malcolm Duncan
Nic Potter

Max’s Theme
Steve’s Theme
Lament For Billie
Andrea’s Theme
Berceuse
The Family
Winter
The Chase
Day For Night
Morag
Zoot
Travelling Man
Old Flames

End Of The Line

The album of the music from the Granada TV series “Travelling Man” came about through a series of associations, coincidences, happy accidents and probably divine interventions.

Duncan Browne and I had been very close colleagues, collaborators and friends since the late sixties, in which time he contributed to some of my work at the National Theatre. When I joined Granada Television in the early eighties, one of the first experiments I got involved in was an early video version of his beautiful song “China
Girl”. Granada noticed it. I was invited to set up, cast and direct the pilot of “Travelling Man” with my great friend Leigh Lawson in the leading role. Roger Marshall, the author — and a magnificent one — and I had clear ideas about it all, but, largely due to my own inexperience, the pilot was not really right.

I asked Roger whet the music should be like. After a long pause, he said, “It should be lonely. Like a guy amusing himself, … blowing across an empty milk-bottle … a bit haunted, but not sentimental. Hard somehow.”

I went to Duncan and showed him the “not-very-good” pilot episode. I suggested nothing, but he loved the look and style of Leigh Lawson and Roger’s dramatic ideas. He swooped on it, and not much more than a week later, we shot into a studio and spun out six, perhaps even ideas for a new theme. By an amazing coincidence, he had stumbled over a new sound on his synthesizer. There we were and that was it. The twelve string pad and this pan-pipe. It was perfect.

Entirely his idea. Serendipity, I think… Music was written for every scene, every shot, in the thirteen part series. Probably with mature hindsight, too much. We learned to economize later on, but the tunes, the orchestrations, the atmospheres kept coming. Apart from Nic Potter, with his bass, we played everything, confusing the Granada music department because there were no “scores” to examine — everything was in our own notebooks and heads; everything was recorded to picture, tailored to each moment on the screen. It was an extraordinary creative burst; Duncan writing away, discovering new textures and techniques, me directing actors, cameras and stories, rendezvousing with Duncan and then joining into the musical contribution, which he led, brilliantly, intuitively and wittily.

Enter Eaton Music — Terry and Mandy Oates. Roger Watson introduced us and another amazing close and formative relationship was born. The album you have in your hand was the start of it all.

A deal was done, and it was a hard one. Duncan and I retired into a kind of “purdah” in Hackney constructed a ruthless rehearsal schedule, and did three weeks mind buckling work revisiting, remembering, working everything we’d done for the series. We edited, cut, rebuilt, refined and practiced. We went into Lillie Yard with the astonishing Austin Ince, Nic Potter and Malcolm Duncan.

Ten day later, having worked an unfamiliar 10am to 6pm ‘office’ schedule, the album was finished, on budget and in time. Thank you, Emma, Susan, and Lin.

Every now and then, I hear bits of it in airports, restaurants, other people’s cars. Extraordinary…

I hope everyone whoever hears any of it gets at least same of the pleasure that we had making it.

Tragically, ludicrously, Duncan died in May 1993. This album was the beginning of a new and subsequently remarkable career for him, sadly curtailed. I am more proud than I can easily express to have contributed it.

Sebastian Graham-Jones
December 1994

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Streets of Fire

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:10:30 +0000

Streets of Fire
1979

with guest musicians:
John Giblin
Tony Hymas
Simon Phillips

Fauvette
American Heartbeat
She’s Just a Fallen Angel
Streets of Fire
NiÃ±a Morena
Things to Come
(Restless) Child of Change
CanciÃ³n de Cuna: Street Echoes (for M.)

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The Wild Places

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:07:49 +0000

The Wild Places
1978

with guest musicians:
John Giblin
Tony Hymas
Simon Phillips

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Metro

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:05:27 +0000

Metro
1976

Duncan Browne
Peter Godwin
Sean Lyons
John Dearie Giblin
Simon Phillips
Graham Preskett
Barry Husband
Keith Hodge

Criminal World
Precious
Overture to Flame
Flame
Mono Messiah
Black Lace Shoulder
Paris
One-Way Night
Jade

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Duncan Browne

admin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:03:05 +0000

Duncan Browne
1973

with guest musicians

Robert Henritt
Jim Rodford
John “Rabbit” Bundrick
John Cameron
Tony Carr
Suzi Quatro
Keith Hodge

Ragged Rain Life
Country Song
The Martlet
My Only Son
Babe Rainbow
Journey
Cast No Shadow
Over the Reef
My Old Friends
Last Time Around

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