Imagination School Press
Excerpts from various Imagination School reviews, interviews, press announcements, etc., from over the years.
Imagination School – To The Level Of Light Album
Harmonie Magazine April 2009 (translated from original French)
The Sussex group, which last brought out albums (now unavailable) eight
years ago, is essentially comprised of Laurence Harwood, who was previously
guitarist in punk group ‘Buzztonic’. ‘To The Level Of Light’ maintains
a small relationship to progressive music, and like a lot of groups can be
given the vague but useful title of ‘post-rock’. If the influences
claimed are, among others, Cardiacs and Mogwai, then it is necessary to imagine
these groups under the influence of sedative and marked dissatisfaction to
get an idea of what lies behind To The Level Of Light.
The piano often structures and directs the instrumental pieces (one exception
being a graceful female voice in ‘Temporal’), in a misty layer
of loops, sequences and discreet electronic sound effects. An electric guitar
sometimes comes to nervously and briefly ‘stripe’ the resonant
and weightless landscape, nearly always without drums. The group say that
they have included samples of a nuclear reactor. The power suggested by the
music comes from an incomparable melodic sense and intimate arrangements,
like murmured music. This systematically touches the heart like secret sadness
performed with a discreet nostalgia.
If there is a ‘progressive’ dimension it is above all in the
orchestration of some of the pieces, which is enriched by a progressive layering
of themes, like Mike Oldfield, which invokes more than a melody. Imagination
School knows to allow a place for slowness and also silence.
It is a work of poignant sobriety and inexpressible charm, which at base
succeeds where Radiohead in its synthetic colour of several years had partially
failed, in alloying a sadness with a wish to speak intimately to the heart
of the listener. Very surprising and very moving.
Review by Philippe Arnaud.
Reproduced with kind permission from Harmonie
Magazine.
(Translated from original French)
Imagination School – To The Level Of Light Album
Organ Magazine Jan 2009
IMAGINATION SCHOOL – To The Level Of Light (Sonic Junction) - Shimmering treats, glowing treasures, encompassing atmospheres, the new Imagination School album is something rather special. Washes of warmth and such delightful detail... Lazy reference points would put this somewhere near the Affection Friends side of relaxed Cardiacs/Sea Nymphs and the goodness of early Mike Oldfield. Spring-like and winter-full all at the same time, seeds pushing up through the warmth of the ground, those first brave shoots in to the light, magical boxes and trinkets that catch the first rays of sunlight to reveal themselves. All instrumental save for the beautifully voiced Temporal – now that really is Sea Nymphs heaven born and ever bright good. Lawrence Harwood, for he is Imagination School, would be the first to admit to a love for all things Cardiacs, he lets that influence flow in such a gracefully positive way on this, his finest release yet. To The Level Of Light is a wondrous album, an album that invites you in and reveals a little more with every must-come-back listen, an album you can leave on repeat for hours and hours and let it soothe with such radiant beauty. Look, I know we enthuse about so much around here, but this really is pond-vital shiver-up-the-spine good, glorious glowing clever simplicity, Cardiac-good, absolutely beautiful, if you touch it you will believe it, heart-lifting beauty...
See the review at Organart.
Imagination School – Stardance E.P.
Organ issue 69
“a magical, life-affirming very Sea Nymphs creature, like some appallingly rare, small but very strange orchid with a bizarrely complex life cycle involving fungi and ants that only grows on one patch of chalk down in Sussex. Like the Sea Nymphs there are influences of Gentle Giant, Henry Cow and the better, weirder bits of Oldfield…. It’s beautifully bittersweet instrumental music for the worlds that lie just behind the surface of things. Apart from the Sea Nymphs and Cardiacs, there’s absolutely nobody else doing this, and you may not know it but we all need this in our lives.”
Reproduced with kind permission from Organart. Link
French magazine ‘Harmonie’ reviewed the first Imagination School albums back in December 2001...(translated from the original French).
Imagination School are artists who work on the edge of the progressive microcosm, yet they should be in the centre of it. They do everything: compose, record, mix, design the sleeves and take care of the mail-order. All that doesn’t make promoting their albums very easy. So, it was by chance that I discovered the music of this English composer whilst exploring the huge amount of music on mp3.com.
Three Imagination School albums are available via mail-order. The first, IS1 (1994) is a short album, only lasting 30 mins, but it is enough to engage you. In effect, it is a homage to Cardiacs, obviously a favourite band of Imagination School’s. Totally home-produced, it sounds like a good Cardiacs demo, containing certain mannerisms of the cult band. The songs are dynamic, a bit mad as is right and proper, but in the course of the album, one already detects some more personal ideas that will be developed in the next releases. After having ‘paid their tribute’, the next Imagination School albums find them ‘going their own way’.
“IS2 (1998) is therefore radically different (from the first IS album), dominantly instrumental, in quite a calm style approaching occasionally the work of Mike Oldfield (Hergest Ridge) or The Enid (In The Region Of The Summer Stars). A prevailing atmosphere of melancholy dominates the album.”
“…this is sincere music with a fascinating beauty, surreal, but
which in places can grab you by the throat (‘South Circular Tension’,
and above all, ‘Stardance’.) Reminiscent of Kurt Rongey (IS 2 occasionally
brings ‘Book In Hand’ to mind), the harmonic progressions are
a real feature in the instrumental music. Many of the melodies are formed from
scales which make them sound folky in nature, perhaps even medieval (‘Stacey’s
Lair’, Downsland Drinking Song’)
“All of the above comments apply to IS3, but this album has even more
influences (some reggae touches here, some jazzy there). The album seems
to be a melancholy reflection on modern life, and is more refined, like a
musical painting. The melodic lines are interlaced, the sonorific colours
are stacked up (‘Harvest’, ‘Monkey’, ‘Moonman’).
There are vocals, but these are disguised/distorted systematically, the voice
becoming another sound in the mix.”
“Imagination School certainly deserve more recognition than the seeming
confidentiality in which the band is at the moment enclosed”
Another Organ review, this time of the first ever Imagination School demo, back when we were known as ‘Hannah’s Imagination School’…
Hannah’s Imagination School – Demo
Organ issue 45
Oh, this makes it all worthwhile, a tape like this. More than a demo, with samples of instrumental creativity at the end of the songs. Youth in a bedroom with a four-track sometimes make the best sound in the world, when it’s fresh and naïve and immune to fashion… Now it must be said that this Imagination School has been worshipping heavily at the church of the big ugly shark a touch too devotedly in places, but sod it, the creative force of Hannah’s Imagination School will burst through the influences. You can hear that in the irresistible pop of ‘Jesus In The Kitchen’ already… what a breath of fresh air. The hymn-like instrumental of ‘Dig My Grave’ stands proud as something to be treasured… in other places it goes on a whirling rickety fairground ride. An excellent first offering.
Reproduced with kind permission from Organart. Link