about the cd

Sharp Love Slow Faint is Laurie Tompkins new release for Hyperdelia and shows the Sheffield-based composer as a hyperreal crooning entertainer. Backed up by Ashley Paul's smoothly sailing saxophone and Eliza McCarthy's hazy keys, the trio conjures a faux electric lounge jazz band rehearsing for a matinee.

Tompkins’ compositions, initially conceived as little self-contained postcard scores, functioned as short instructions for semi-improvised interpretations. Paul and McCarthy recorded guitar, sax and keys in July 2021 in an empty Café Oto. Tompkins then processed the recordings afterwards and cut his vocals on top. Throughout the record, his singing is mystically effected, sung through delays, echo, noise and takes on the persona of a private lover of karaoke. In these moments, the music is reminiscent of the late Scott Walker, someone who has also always impersonated more than one voice.

Similarly, the lyrics are polyphonous, they have no addressee but are sporadic and sub-conscious expressive ramblings; such as the wonderfully odd 'Fashion', a warped lullaby sung by a hoarse Stuart A. Staples, or the ode to automobile eroticism on 'Car Arses'.

Much of Sharp Love Slow Faint is carried by a ghostly funkiness thanks to the melodic brevity of the tracks and the loopy character of the compositions. Sharp Love Slow Faint is a theatrical mood music – "emotional but out of place" – that lets listeners marvel at its strangeness. Tompkins’ intimate lyricism shimmers throughout.