Composed by Cos Chapman, except: 1, by Michael Phillip Jagger & Keith Richards and 3, by John Winston Ono Lennon & James Paul McCartney.

"I wanted to play lead guitar but didn’t have anyone to practice with, so I started recording me playing a rhythm while I attempted to be Marc Bolan. I was 15 and got an after-school job cleaning at a local shop, washed neighbours cars and did little jobs for my Dad. After several months of saving, I bought a second hand AKAI reel-to-reel, believing sound-on-sound recording would be within my grasp.
Oh dear.
A Winter's Tale was recorded on it without any attempt to overdub.

Several layers of Sellotape over the erase head and I could record over what was already on the tape… with a half second delay between playing a sound and hearing it along with the rest of the track – tricky, but on the plus side careful use of feedback gave an echo effect. Unsurprisingly this led to what I dubbed Accidental Sound Experiments (the ASE series). I did songs like Goodnight Story and Perpetual Motion assisted by friends Stuart, Edgar, Dave and most frequently Mikey who introduced me to the band Can.

Then, through books and vinyl lurking in Lowestoft Record Library, I found Stockhausen. By then I was into Heavy Metal, the heavier the better. Black Sabbath was the gold standard.
But Stockhausen was really heavy, I mean HEAVY. There was kudos in having the heaviest music and this was so heavy grown bikers couldn’t handle it. I wanted to make that sound. Following instructions from the library books, I edited the tape, cut and taped together, flipped the tape over, tried making loops and inserted snippets from the radio, TV and vinyl. No need to learn lead guitar: I bought effects and put everything through them - shouted, hummed and chanted - twanged rulers and hit pots, pans, boxes (and the guitar) with a screwdriver; and got friends to do the same. This could be why forming a permanent band didn’t happen. My bedroom may well have been Southwold’s premier experimental music venue.

With a cheap cassette player and some lo-fi overdubbing, I tried songwriting again, I didn’t know much about structure or anything: Goodnight Story, Love Hate And Jealousy, Perpetual Motion are some of the results.

17 or 18 and more money saved and I got a second-hand Wasp synth. It was my main instrument for a bit. My car was stolen and I got the insurance. It was a cheap car, but enough for a second hand keyboard. Pre-Casio it was an 8-voice Combo-Organ with beat-box. Furniture really. In its own case with legs in the lid; Supposedly portable, I could just about lift it.... You can hear it through fuzz-box and flanger on A Different Sky. Finally, with a brand new top-of-the-range Morantz cassette deck with separate line and microphone inputs, I could “Ping-Pong” with two cassette decks. I finally got a new Columbus Les Pal copy guitar, learnt to play (passably) and recorded things like Life on A Key Ring and Tomorrow Never Knows.

Mikey was my main collaborator when I first started making silly noises – he’s on ASE6. I could never seem to scrape a band together to play what I wanted - people had more taste and sense. I had many friends come round to make a noise and spent every weekday evening and much of my weekend making music and experimenting with sound.
Mikey still plays (bass and sax) and we catch up every few months."

www.coschapman.com

mastered by Justin Paton