Longstone - Yaki

Yaki is the brand-new studio album from Cheltenham-based electronic musicians Longstone. Featuring 18 tracks on CD, 17 new Longstone compositions and the band’s first ever cover version.

As a project, Yaki evolved during ongoing research into the history, mysteries and personalities associated with the iconic Winchcombe Pottery, exploring the pottery’s cultural links with Japan, St Ives and beyond.

Using location recordings, analogue synthesis, and prepared acoustic sources, Longstone have created a sequence of evolving textural soundscapes, evoking stories, history and connections spanning more than 150 years. Some of these pieces are also augmented with words spoken by potters and artists associated with Winchcombe Pottery (including a reading by Gwenno Saunders, in Cornish, of a transcription taken from a ceramic cider jar). The composer Cornelius Cardew (son of the famous Winchcombe ceramicist Michael Cardew) was born on site at the pottery, and a performance of his 1969 composition “Unintended Piano Music” forms a centrepiece for the album – Longstone’s first ever cover version.

Over the years, the core duo of MIKE CROSS and MIKE WARD have expanded the Longstone line up for both live and recording work. When not playing with the band, the other members are equally busy performing, recording and collaborating with many other acts:
CHRIS CUNDY: Guillemots, Cold Specks, Grace and Delete, Gannets, Courtesy Group, Nik Turner and many more.
KEV FOX: 90 Degrees South, The Serpents, Brickwerk.
STUART WILDING: Numerous improv groups and performers, including: Keith Tippett, Lol Coxhill and Hugh Metcalf.