![]() Other people might, but I can see right through it.” Add in his own self-destructive and abusive tendencies, John reached a breaking point that led to a total abandonment of recording and performing music. I would never allow the industry to kill me. I’ve often found they’ve been exploited, much like battery hens. Anyone can thrash out a C and a G and wank away any fool can play at a party. Martyn saw firsthand what the pressures of the lifestyle could do, recalling: “The pressure of the music industry, the greed exerted on special people has an enormous effect. Kossoff nonetheless died while in Martyn’s care. At the time, Kossoff was in the throes of deep addiction, prompting John to invite him to stay at his home in Hastings. ![]() ![]() ![]() Still recovering from losing his dear friend Nick Drake, he began an ill-fated ‘Live at Leeds’ promotional tour that led to continuous internal conflict with bassist Danny Thompson and his touring bandmate Paul Kossoff of Free. After Sunday’s Child, Martyn was exhausted. Photo by Andy CarlinĪ nervous breakdown was responsible for the meeting. And, of course, both found common ground in the atmospheric and spaced-out world of echo. He called it ‘dub.’ Reinventors by nature, both expounded on the local music of their pasts and forged it into something new. Harnessing traditional Jamaican roots music and reshaping it with his laboratory of effect units, Perry tapped echo and delays to warp reggae, ska and roots music, and in the process he created his own unique sound. In Kingston, Perry was the first to use the studio as an instrument, transforming the recording potential much like the Musique Concrete movement in Paris. In England, Martyn created a new brand of English folk with his heavy use of the Maestro Echoplex tape delay, fusing the singer-songwriter style with jazz elements and improvisation. But both shared a similar approach to making music by reimagining their homeland’s traditional sounds. In theory, it seemed ridiculous to place the two together, with their music and geography stretching so far from the other. Truly a “worlds collide” pairing, in 1976 UK folk musician and ISC patron saint John Martyn was introduced to the experimental reggae icon Lee “Scratch” Perry. In January he wrote on Instagram that Switzerland was “too cold” and the “energy was bad”, saying he needed the sun of Jamaica.How “Scratch” inspired John Martyn’s 1977 classic proto trip-hop recording ‘One World.’ In 2015 Perry’s recording studio in Switzerland was also damaged by fire – his “secret laboratory” had been destroyed again, he said at the time.ĭespite spending the last 30 years of his life in Switzerland, he recently moved back to Jamaica. Einsiedeln plays a major role in the film: the monastery of Einsiedeln, the Black Madonna, cows and mountains appear repeatedly. In The Vision Of Paradise Schaan accompanies Perry all over the world. In Einsiedeln Perry’s life and work found expression in, among other things, a 15-year documentary film project by director Volker Schaner. Perry moved to the US, then on to Amsterdam, London and finally Einsiedeln in Switzerland, where he married Mireille Campbell-Rüegg in 1991. It all came to an abrupt end when a fire destroyed his studio. Mr and Mrs Perry in Einsiedeln, August 2016 Mehdi Benklerįrom poverty in Jamaica to meadows in Switzerland, 2016 Mehdi Benkler With a joint and a mobile phone in Einsiedeln in 2016 Mehdi Benkler Perry's wedding to Mireille Campbell-Rüegg in 1991 Ullstein Bild - RDBĪ family photo in 1991 Ullstein Bild/RDB/Getty Imagesīackstage in the Netherlands in 2018 2018 Paul BergenĪt home in Einsiedeln, 2016 Mehdi Benkler The remains of Black Ark after a fire Alamy Stock Photo Perry performs in London in 2018 (left) and in front of the entrance to his Black Ark studio in an undated photo Getty Images On stage in the UK around 2000 Universal Images Group Via Getty / Pymca Taken around 1980 Getty Images / David Corio Recording in the studio around 1980 Getty Images / David Corio Lee "Scratch" Perry with his band, The Upsetters, during a studio session in the late 1960s Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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