{"title":"Modern Studies","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eModern Studies is a folk rock band hailing from Scotland, specifically Perthshire, Glasgow, and Lancashire. The band consists of Emily Scott on vocals, organs, piano, and double bass; Rob St. John on vocals, guitar, synths, harmonium, and tape loops; Pete Harvey on cello, bass, and piano; and Joe Smillie on drums, mellotron, and vocals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTheir unique blend of instruments creates a captivating sound that draws inspiration from various genres such as folk rock. With *Emily Scott's* enchanting vocals leading the way alongside the mesmerizing melodies produced by *Rob St. John*, Modern Studies delivers an unforgettable musical experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf you enjoy artists like Pictish Trail or Kathryn Joseph or if you appreciate the sounds of Modern Nature or Lightning In A Twilight Hour then Modern Studies is sure to be your cup of tea. Their music has also been compared to Death and Vanilla and Constant Smiles among others.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"we-are-there","title":"We Are There","description":"\u003cp\u003eThrough the hazy daze of a smoky folk opus, Modern Studies craft rich soundtracks, stuttering Super-8 sketches from a washed-out world of melancholy, hand-tinted and tantalising. Lullaby couplets blossom into gorgeous chamber pop melodies, the drama unfolding behind Emily Scott’s plaintive vocal; part Julie London, part Sandy Denny, a little bit Kate Bush, with a hushed sigh of Joni.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSweeping strings carry them into unchartered terrain on their new album \u003ci\u003eWe Are Here\u003c\/i\u003e, flying high above their psych-folk roots, it’s an epic journey that’s exquisitely delivered, transcending categories, nodding to Brubeck, Low, Talk Talk, Jim O’Rourke and Pentangle, making music that is ready to cross over in these modern times with songs of substance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"Orange | LP","offer_id":50427740356939,"sku":"1137909","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50427738194251,"sku":"1137908","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50427737440587,"sku":"1137907","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/ff812687-27b0-451d-9723-293257e890f4_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726827102"},{"product_id":"island-of-noise","title":"Island Of Noise","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the demise of his previous band Ultimate Painting, Jack Cooper – under his Modern Nature guise – has never stopped looking ahead, exploring and reaching for something further. Since 2019, he’s released an EP, last year’s mini album \u003ci\u003eAnnual\u003c\/i\u003e, one full length LP, one 7” and three live cassettes – in the process mapping out astonishing new terrain. \u003ci\u003eIsland Of Noise\u003c\/i\u003e presents an obvious new peak in his discography. Over the last 12 months, Cooper has constructed a beautiful, free-flowing box set’s worth of material featuring a new album, a separate and equally engaging instrumental interpretation of the album and an accompanying book featuring the work of wide-ranging, non-musical artists (including Booker-nominated poet Robin Robertson, mycologist Merlin Sheldrake, illustrator Sophy Hollington, and writer Richard King) that reinterpret, deconstruct or take inspiration from the 10 tracks on the record. \u003ci\u003eIsland Of Noise\u003c\/i\u003e represents an absolute career highlight, combining Cooper’s celebrated songwriting and compositional skills with a free flowing expansiveness coloured by British free music luminaries such as saxophonist Evan Parker, pianist Alexander Hawkins, bassist John Edwards and violinist Alison Cotton, as well as long term collaborators Jeff Tobias and Jim Wallis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2LP - Pressed on 180g recycled vinyl plus \u003ci\u003eIsland of Silence\u003c\/i\u003e (Expanded Instrumental Version of the Album) – also pressed on 180g recycled vinyl plus 36pg Perfect Bound Booklet with 10 contributions from artists \/ writers in conjunction with, and inspired by, a song on the album. Contributors include Sophy Hollington, Evan Parker, Merlin Sheldrake and Robin Robertson and all housed in a slipcase with 100% recycled and FSC approved wrap.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Brown | LP | x2","offer_id":50459290501451,"sku":"1135200","price":59.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Brown | LP","offer_id":50459289223499,"sku":"1144187","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50459289977163,"sku":"1144185","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/223374ec-72fc-469a-93c6-f951ced60dc8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727219492"},{"product_id":"no-fixed-point-in-space","title":"No Fixed Point In Space","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNo Fixed Point In Space\u003c\/i\u003e, the third full-length album by Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature, takes the palette of sound and themes that were honed on 2021’s \u003ci\u003eIsland Of Noise\u003c\/i\u003e and launches them into an expansive world of openness and vivid technicolour.  It’s a music that hasn’t been heard before; as melodic as anything Cooper has produced but framed by rhythms and instrumentation that reflect the chaos, unpredictability and colour of the natural world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCertain moorings - woodwind, percussion, strings and Cooper’s lambent voice - are still present and recognisable from No Fixed Point In Space’s predecessor, Island Of Noise but the new record marks a shift to utilising musical notation as a point of departure, from which the group explore the space around suggested notes and rhythms to create a semi-improvised, semi-composed ensemble performance.  These explorations of partly organised chance were recorded live and directly to tape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis approach gives the music a remarkably fresh feel; songs pulse and evolve. The changes between movements, verse and choruses are almost all ambiguous. During the album’s opener Tonic, a verse of hushed brevity washes away into a passage of overwhelmingly vibrant orchestration.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50485103231307,"sku":"2029765","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50485104902475,"sku":"2029766","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Modern_Nature_No_Fixed_Point_In_Space_Packshot_dadc987d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727595513"},{"product_id":"swell-to-great","title":"Swell To Great","description":"\u003cp\u003eForming out of a recording project via Scotland and Lancashire, the band first came together in 2015; ‘I played in his band and he played in mine’ composer and singer Emily Scott says of Rob St John. A natural move saw her similarly recruit Pete Harvey (King Creosote, The Leg) and Joe Smillie (Call To Mind, boss of Glasgow’s Glad Cafe). Inspired by an antique Victorian harmonium that eventually found its way from Northern Ireland to Scotland, Modern Studies’ debut album ‘Swell To Great’, aptly named after an organ stop, was unusually written with the malfunctioning instrument at the centre of their songwriting. Recorded in Harvey’s studio, Pumpkinfield in the rural surroundings of Perthshire, the quartet’s songs are embedded in the sea and the landscape of the shoreline. Emily Scott’s tender lead vocals soar over the sweeping cello, bellowing harmonium and gentle percussive crashes on \u003ci\u003eBlack Street, Bottle Green\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSleep\u003c\/i\u003e, while hidden in its depths Rob St John, whose distinctive vocals recall David Thomas Broughton, experiments with tape loops that are buried within the layers of their orchestral arrangements. St John, known for his field recordings and art-science projects, cites as his guiding inspiration Brian Eno’s experimentalism and pop sensibilities. Unfurling bucolic stories come with Scott’s lyrics for each song, \u003ci\u003eSupercool\u003c\/i\u003e sets the tone with an immediate sense of yearning, moving into more contemporary folk-pop on \u003ci\u003eFather Is A Craftsman\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDive-bombing\u003c\/i\u003e evokes images of summer frolicking on the shore. The record includes an exceptional and haunting ode to Shirley Collins’ rendition of traditional song \u003ci\u003eBold Fisherman\u003c\/i\u003e that featured on the Earth Recordings ‘Shirley Inspired’ compilation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Transparent frosted vinyl LP, printed inner, download card included.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50496746684747,"sku":"1018524","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50496748683595,"sku":"1018525","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/1e806ddf-b7a5-4068-8b8a-effb44b42f5e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727723550"},{"product_id":"welcome-strangers","title":"Welcome Strangers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWelcome Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e is the second record by feral pop outliers Modern Studies. Elegiac and haunted, life-giving and triumphant, this beguiling return digs deep into landscapes both real and imagined, internal and external, in a work that might perhaps best be described as “kosmiche choral” or, if we’re pushing it “arts-und-crafts-werk”. Or, put simply, glorious pop music. It is an elemental and often spectral world of contrasting tones and hues that is found within \u003ci\u003eWelcome Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e, one whose lyrical vocabulary is of loss, light, air, sun, growth; of spires, seeds and phosphene dreams. Here is the Britain of visionaries such as Kate Bush, Broadcast or PJ Harvey, a nation of dark magic, conflict, celebration and confusion, all at the same time. Witness the incandescent chamber-pop of \u003ci\u003eGet Back Down\u003c\/i\u003e: underpinned by complex jazz rhythms, and string and brass flourishes, it manages to be both understated and epic as it explores a similar sonic terrain to Wild Beasts. Or there’s \u003ci\u003eHorns And Trumpets\u003c\/i\u003e, a haunting musical perambulation that burrows deep into Britain, a warm-hued hymn for future generations, and \u003ci\u003eLet Idle Hands\u003c\/i\u003e, which abandons restraint halfway through and, in a moment of musical epiphany, runs joyously to the horizon. Meanwhile on \u003ci\u003ePhosphene Dream \u003c\/i\u003ethe honeyed harmonies of Emily Scott and Rob St. John wrap themselves around each other like Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood had they holidayed in draughty Glasgow tenements. Or perhaps – as on ‘Disco’ – they come closer to Kylie and Nick Cave. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Standard Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - 180 Gram Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"LP.","offer_id":50497861255499,"sku":"1031145","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50497859715403,"sku":"1031143","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50497860206923,"sku":"1031144","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6dc313f3-f335-4301-8a76-8a99613ae7d6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727734113"},{"product_id":"how-to-live","title":"How To Live","description":"\u003cp\u003eOn Modern Nature’s debut album, \u003ci\u003eHow to Live\u003c\/i\u003e, urban and rural cross into each other. Plaintive cello strains melt into motorik beats. Pastoral field recordings drift through looping guitar figures. Rising melodies shine with reflective saxophone accents, placing the record somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle between the expansive motorik of Can, the Canterbury progressiveness of Caravan and the burgeoning experimentalism \u003ca\u003e\u003c\/a\u003eof Talk Talk’s Colour Of Spring.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs he began writing songs, Cooper was also tuning to the vibes of \u003ci\u003eEarth Loop\u003c\/i\u003e, an instrumental solo album by Beak\u0026gt;’s Will Young (under the name Moon Gangs). For a long time, Cooper had hoped to work more with Young, who almost joined his first band, Mazes, and was in the touring version of his next group, Ultimate Painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe richness of the ideas in these songs is matched by the resonance of the music. Cooper and Young’s organic compositions gain skin and muscle through the thoughtful cello of Rupert Gillett, the insistent drumming of Aaron Nevue (of compatriot outfit Woods), and the expressive saxophone of Jeff Tobias, from Brooklyn jazz \/ rock juggernaut Sunwatchers. Each track on \u003ci\u003eHow to Live \u003c\/i\u003eevolved as these creative forces joined the group, and it shows. The entire album courses with both precision and vitality. The band is closely tuned to the core of each piece, but also unafraid to throw themselves into every moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s a work of surprising layers and limitless depths, impressing more strongly with each listen. Modern Nature may have been inspired by the line between urban and rural, but with \u003ci\u003eHow To Live \u003c\/i\u003ethey’ve gone a step further, and created their own complete world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50498208465227,"sku":"1064933","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498208170315,"sku":"1064931","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e5e71bec-41c1-4aad-9d54-f072ae9585db_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727741483"},{"product_id":"the-weight-of-the-sun","title":"The Weight of the Sun","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew album from kosmiche folk-rock quartet Modern Studies. A glorious compendium of haunted disco hallelujahs, mercurial krautrock chorales, cosmic pop adagios and euphoric, resilient, anthems. \u003ci\u003eThe Weight of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e sees principal songwriters Emily Scott and Rob St John further their warm, esoteric field studies with Pete Harvey and Joe Smillie, as previously reconnoitred on\u003ci\u003e Swell To Great \u003c\/i\u003e(2016) and \u003ci\u003eWelcome Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e (2018).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50498686746955,"sku":"1088141","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498686878027,"sku":"1088140","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e76db6a4-fa61-43ec-8f4a-9d971d42d84c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727753700"},{"product_id":"the-weight-of-the-sun-love-record-stores-variant","title":"The Weight of The Sun (Love Record Stores Variant)","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew album from kosmiche folk-rock quartet Modern Studies. A glorious compendium of haunted disco hallelujahs, mercurial krautrock chorales, cosmic pop adagios and euphoric, resilient, anthems. The Weight of the Sun sees principal songwriters Emily Scott and Rob St John further their warm, esoteric field studies with Pete Harvey and Joe Smillie, as previously reconnoitred on \u003ci\u003eSwell To Great\u003c\/i\u003e (2016) and \u003ci\u003eWelcome Strangers\u003c\/i\u003e (2018).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"Yellow | LP","offer_id":50499016524107,"sku":"1108045","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6d6eaf1b-b0ed-40cd-9a65-12a873ffe401_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727766119"},{"product_id":"life-flows-in-endless-song-the-body-is-a-tide-double-ep","title":"Life Flows in Endless Song \/ The Body is a Tide (Double EP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLife Flows In Endless Song \/ The Body Is A Tide\u003c\/i\u003e EP is released on vinyl for this year’s Love Record Stores. Following the release of \u003ci\u003eThe Weight Of The Sun\u003c\/i\u003e LP, Modern Studies shift from light to dark over two new EPs brought together as six track 12-inch \u003ci\u003eLife Flows In Endless Song \/ The Body Is A Tide,\u003c\/i\u003e a record that further cements their reputation for innovative craftsmanship. \u003ci\u003eLife Flows In Endless Song \u003c\/i\u003eshowcases the band’s increasingly expansive sound, swelling with orchestrated drama behind the rich vocal pairing of Emily Scott and Rob St John, before their otherworldly dreaminess is pin-pricked at its height by Emily’s beautiful alto on ‘The Failing Light’. \u003ci\u003eThe Body Is A Tide\u003c\/i\u003e hails from ominous darker terrains, scratching further into their own psyche; it’s heady and baroque, ornate and super-detailed, an opus that climaxes with ‘High Hymn Summers’ and its slowly-rolling drone, created by processing all the songs from \u003ci\u003eThe Weight of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e played at once. \"The EP nods at the idea of our collective bodies weathering rough times, played out with massed strings, prepared guitars, slow bass grooves, hypnotic drums, wobbling saw, xaphoon and mellotron. We shook off our usual song structures in favour of something repetitive, slow and heavy; life flows in endless song.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50506131046731,"sku":"1128174","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3e7b0779-be70-46d6-b68f-524e1d2a8eb8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727819448"},{"product_id":"annual-love-record-stores-variant","title":"Annual (Love Record Stores Variant)","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased in August 2019, Modern Nature’s debut album - \u003ci\u003eHow to Live\u003c\/i\u003e - crossed the urban and rural into each other. Plaintive cello strains melted into motorik beats. Pastoral field recordings drifted through looping guitar figures. Rising melodies shone with reflective saxophone accents, placing the record somewhere between the subtle mediations of Talk Talk, the stirring folk of Anne Briggs and the atmospheric waves of Harmonia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe album was met with universal acclaim and featured in a number of publication’s ‘Best Of 2019’ lists. As the group took the album out on the road, Modern Nature became something even more expansive. “It feels like there's scope and room to grow. I want the group to feel fluid and that whoever's playing with us can express themselves and interpret what they think this music is” says bandleader Jack Cooper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir new mini-album\u003ci\u003e Annual\u003c\/i\u003e, recorded in December 2019 at Gizzard Studio in London, is another step towards something more liberated and a world away from the sound of Jack Cooper's previous bands. Will Young sits this one out, concentrating on his work with Beak, but \u003ci\u003eHow To Live\u003c\/i\u003e collaborator Jeff Tobias takes a more central role, alongside percussionist Jim Wallis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnnual \u003c\/i\u003eacts as a companion piece to the band’s \u003ci\u003eHow To Live\u003c\/i\u003e debut but also a pointer to the paths ahead.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bella Union","offers":[{"title":"Green | LP","offer_id":50513461805387,"sku":"1108446","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/94c917bc-09af-4833-8b45-dcb593380ac7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727932015"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_3ee45cc4_thumbnail_4096_314ee658-d711-4dee-8c7c-3bfc49f6e58a.jpg?v=1726827061","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/modern-studies.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}