Music
Test Pieces (2024)
Charlotte the Brave and Larissa the Bold
Flatpicker / Sam Bacon’s Blues
Resolution
Cascade
A Deep Sea Diver’s Blues
Stumpy and The Bear (Will You Not Come Back)
(©℗ A. I. Jackson 2024 - 2025)
Resolution - Test Pieces (ConChie 2024).
Written at the same time and as the companion piece to Songs For Separation, recorded in 2023 and finally released in November 2024, Test Pieces features six pieces of music inspired by people and places made distant by lockdown.
The album takes its cue from the artistry and ethics of climbing. Like a musical line, a climbing line is an expression of the imagination and ability of the climber who first establishes the route, and a Test Piece is the title given to a landmark route climbers then test themselves against.
‘Reflecting my musical imagination and what was going on when these pieces were written and recorded, like climbing each line features a crux,’ explains Aaron. ‘In climbing this is usually the most difficult move, emotional moment, or technical challenge that connects the line. Following climbing ethics, each piece was recorded in the location that inspired it, in one take.’
(Aaron Jackson, November 2024)
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To read more about the writing and recording of Test Pieces, click the busy bee!
Songs For Separation (2024)
Someone Else
Capture The Flags
Numb
Be True
Your Lighthouse
Signs and Symbols
Home For Me
(©℗ A. I. Jackson 2024-2025)
Songs For Separation is Aaron Jackson’s first release as ConChie since 2020’s critically-acclaimed debut Northumbria. Written during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the album explores traditional song forms to give structure and meaning to the pain and challenges of familial separation. Identifying the power of the future’s possibilities as a locus of hope in hard times, Song For Separation is a powerful, passionate and authentic collection of new originals.
Finally recorded in late-2023 and released for review on 31st March 2024, Songs For Separation’s emotional immediacy, melodic gifts and apparent simplicity unfold over seven tracks to present an album of depth, complexity and consideration.
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Critical reaction to Songs For Separation.
‘Recorded on analogue 4-track but sounding anything but lo-fi, this is an album, as footie pundits might say, of two halves. [Side One’s] six tracks [are] emotionally direct [and] richly melodic … while Side Two’s [30-minute] Home For Me is equal parts meditational fever dream and end-of-night comedown. But really, all killer, no filler.’
(Exposed Magazine, June 2024)
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To read more about the writing and recording of Songs For Separation, click the busy bee!
Northumbria (2020)
Endings
No Sailor Leaves The Sea
Peter’s Field
In Sunshine’s Shadow
The Sense of an Ending (Love Song to … )
I Know What You Are
Beginnings
This Green and Pleasant Land
(©℗ A. I. Jackson 2020 - 2025)
Recorded on a 1970's TEAC 1/4-inch reel-to-reel four-track with a single microphone, an acoustic guitar and a 'found sound' approach, Northumbria's eight tracks are powerful and immersive explorations of the ways people, places, past histories and previous identities come together to form present realities and future stories.
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Critical reaction to Northumbria.
‘Intensely rewarding … captivating guitar playing … musically evocative … great harmonies … [Northumbria is] truly authentic, it both connects and communicates with a brutal honesty.’
(Folk Roots Radio UK)
‘Earthy … hypnotic … vivid … brave … a stellar piece of work.’
(Alt-Pulse)
‘A great listen […] Beautiful tunes … The lyrics are stunning … a clear ring to the playing … [Northumbria] takes you on a journey from the dark to the light … it’s a rather good album.’
(Folking)
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To read more about the writing and recording of Northumbria, click the busy bee!