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This is the page for Fathom, the full length all original solo album by Ian Cuthbertson. For Ian's journalism at The Australian and other writing go here welcome, stranger you are this visitor number since the mid-April 2011 redesign 
well, Bette's song is up on bandcamp as a single, Christmas 2011 - wishing she were here
9 October, 2011 A kitchen table recording - my version of Bert Jansch's version of Davey Graham's AngieAngie2 by Ian Cuthbertson
15 Feb, 2012 A new album is underway, working title: April working, working - will post a realistic date for release when this is known
In the meantime, some funky rarities, as promised, have been added to the secret iPod
1. The Dieter's Song - from Fat C*nt: The Musical (look on the iPod for the title FC)
2. If You Don' Belong great rhythm - short track - no profanity
3. Tubular Universe Me, Mike Oldfield and Neil Finn - a hand played home demo that adds the Tubular Bells opening theme and the main theme from Oldfield's Ommadawn to a live version of Neil's Private Universe.
Please note that the secret iPod only works on actual computers - not available if you are viewing this on your phone
NEWS!!! physical CD copy price SLASHED to just $15 includes next day postage to anywhere in Australia! or you can get the album or individual tracks on iTunes by clicking this little button 'ere
but here at cutho's we believe you should hear before you buy below is our secret iPod if you stare at the middle of the black box it will arrive quite soon...all the tracks on here are from Fathom except Mach1, FC (from Fat C*nt - The Musical), If You don' Belong, and Tubular Universe check back often for rarites in the pod!
2011 has been a great year for Fathom we got news that tracks have been played on college radio in the US! WVUD 91.3 University of Delaware Fathom was first played on WVUD on January 1, 2011 is that an omen, or what?!
and then the incredibly brilliant Eric Lobbecke, who attended the Fathom launch show, asked if he could use some of the music for a seven minute animation of his art. a close collaboration followed, and the result was a seven minute soundscape with lots of new material as well as some recurring themes from Fathom
to find out how bloggers contributed to Eric's drawings used in the animation, go here:
and here it is:
the following animations were created using the State program from Xtranormal. you'll see a New York interview show called Dave Tonight on which avatars for Ian and "found vocalist" Rosalie Higson appear to talk about Fathom
part 1
part 2
A WORD OR TWO ON COMMENTS...
Due to advanced trolling by the usual braindead imps who get their jollies from lowering everything they see to the gutters they live in, comments need to be approved before they appear below - critical comments are welcome, hate mongering is not
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we are very interested in creating soundtacks for other artists, for film-makers, and live theatre
Here are some videos from the Fathom launch on August 4, 2010, at Notes, Newtown
the album closer Wild and Free
Two Cars
and the very silly Wolf at the Door
thanks to the top notch musos who played in the show: Iain Shedden, Danny Holdsworth, Tim McArtney, Mark McKenna, Victoria Fletcher, Kate Adams and Fathom producer John Stuart.
Fathom is a solo album in the melodic tradition of great 1970s one-man efforts like McCartney, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, and perhaps more recently Gotye's Like Drawing Blood. It has, as you might expect, folk, rock and lounge elements. What you might not expect are the danceable electro tracks like No Values (about mixed race/gender/skin colour relationships) and Betrayed, about, well, being betrayed by a lover. There are country songs, piano ballads, songs of the future and songs of the past. There's even a surf instrumental called Warriewood featuring five separate electric guitar harmony parts ("lad's music", Ian says), that Fathom producer John Stuart has dubbed "Scotland on a surfboard". TRACK BY TRACKWolf at the Door As summery a piece of retro lounge as you are likely to hear this or any other year. "I wanted to say to listeners, right off the bat, this guy is NOT entirely serious,' Ian says. No Values Race relations. The idea of falling really hard for someone who barely understands you. This dance tune fairly bubbles with middle eastern flavours, sounds and rhythms - and one of the album's signature sounds - the hand bell. "It's kind of a collision between a disco sound, I suppose representing Anglo values, and this spicy hot middle eastern thing. The idea is to celebrate all cultures through the mantra-progression 'You've got no values, who's got no values? Only one value - love above all'. World peace with a dance beat,'' Ian says Two Cars A real country song, an old fashioned waltz time divorce ballad. "It's about that last moment, when all the fighting is over, and you and the person you've been living with for years and you are standing on the street in the rain, packing the very last of your stuff into separate vehicles. A heartbreaker for the recently separated,'' Ian says. Fathom The sweet sound of rain on a tin roof is joined by a haunting, futuristic piano figure, shaker, clave sticks, and those hand bells before a symphonic interlude. "It's almost a musical palindrome,'' Ian says. "After the orchestral part, each of the figures makes its return in reverse order." Fathom crystallises the album's themes of water, depth and personal attachment. After all, in English law, a fathom was defined as "the length of a man's arms around the object of his affections." District Park A sweet pop song about being 14 in the general haze of wondering if everything is going to turn out alright, yet somehow elevated by an almost spiritual assurance that it will be. The park, in Manly, is personified and addressed in the song: "District Park, how you haunt me through the years, with your head in the mist like a boy's first kiss, you were there at the birth of desire - and though my dreams seemed so far away, you were the breath of something higher, fire." Sunny song with just a wisp of regret. "It's really the song of a much older bloke driving past the park, decade after decade, remembering a time of innocence, a time when "the constant talk (or was that tug?) of girls unfurled," Ian says All We Leave Behind A very personal song. Ian's mother died in May, 2008, and the song is a tribute to Betty Cuthbertson, and to the lasting, eternal nature of love. "It changes you forever to lose someone so close, and I guess I wanted to address that change, and also to leave behind my own message of what my Mum meant to me, and what enduring love is really about,'' Ian says. The song features Ian on piano, programmed drums, cello, electric bass, french horn and voice. Warriewood Scotland on a surfboard. "I wanted to do a surf instrumental that was pure boys music, you know the stuff that girls are supposed to hate, and guys put on their iPod to listen to at the beach. I particularly wanted the splash cymbals to hit you in the face the way the whitewater does when you are paddling out. I loved doing it, and I particularly loved getting the guitars to scream and howl - not discordantly, but in a controlled way, like these great harmonised beasts of the sea,'' Ian says. The idea was to transport you to the beach from your desk at work, or wherever you happen to be stuck, wishing you were there. Betrayed A third person narrative about a guy who is betrayed by his girl. HUGE drums and a surprise entry of a heavy metal guitar part along with even more clubland drums. A feast of dance rhythms to get even the most sluggish of dudes up on the dance floor. Letters in the Sand When the Fathom sessions were in full sway, Ian says he couldn't help noticing producer John Stuart's pedal steel guitars standing around at sound Heaven. "I always wanted to this song with a pedal steel,'' Ian says. "It wasn't originally planned for Fathom, but it kept playing in my head, so I recorded the backing at home and asked John if he'd play on it. He worked on it one morning before he'd heard the vocal melody, and to our great pleasure the part he recorded worked really well with the vocal lines.'' Letters in the Sand is a young man's song - when you're crazy about someone to the point of writing that you love them in the sand, knowing the message will be washed away before they see it. It's about finding the strength to tell someone how you feel about them, and just stop "writing all these letters in the sand." Wild and Free "I think it's a really upbeat, bright, and optimistic way to end the record - and I love the brass at the end. It's a great full stop that harks back a bit to the opening track Wolf at the Door ." The purchase cost is slashed - only $15 Australian, including next day postage to anywhere in Australia. Extra postage charges apply through PayPal for overseas orders. The high gloss four sided digi pack cover opens to reveal a six page lyric booklet. Your luxury presentation copy is shrink wrapped so you'll know that... Each and every one is a wergin!
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About Fathom |
Fathom was written, devised and initially recorded at home in Newtown over a period of some years, then the near final tracks were exported up to John Stuart's Sound Heaven studios in Wentworth Falls. The final recordings took place between June and December 2009. The sounds were sent through John's MCI J600 36-channel mixing console and though various intriguing processes and effects, including Tubetech, UA, Drawmer, Manley, Amek, API, and RNC1773 compressors, Manley, API, and Millenia equalisers, and Neve, API, and AEA mic pre-amplifiers. All the vocals were recorded at Sound Heaven as it's actually kind of hard to sing while you ride the faders - and also dogs, planes, partners and squeaky floor boards tend to result in less than professional results. When recording and mixing were complete, Michael Lynch, one of Australia's finest mastering engineers, was engaged to master the project. The portrait photography in the booklet (and at the top of this page!) is by the brilliant Adam Knott. The digi-pack (jewel cases are sooooooo last century) cover design, art direction and six page lyric booklet are all by Danielle Powell, and the CD was manufactured by MAD CDs in St Peters. Each copy is beautifully presented in shrink wrap - so each and every one is a virgin! About Process Ian sings and plays everything you hear (except where indicated in the CD booklet) including Maton and Fender acoustic guitars, Guild electric guitars, Kawai synths, a Yamaha piano, Akai MPK49 midi controller, and assorted percussion. Songs were built up in Acid Pro 6 and 7 and Adobe Audition 3.0. Midi instruments such as the string bass, Stradivarius violin, the cellos, some pianos and the French horn were played through the AKAI's incredible expression system via Garritan Personal Orchestra 4. Drums were programmed freehand and also incorporating Sony and Adobe Loop libraries, including Sony's excellent Mick Fleetwood collection. About Ian Cuthbertson Though probably best known for his work over the last eight years as a technology, television and arts journalist at The Australian Ian has been singing, playing and writing music since age 15. His debut performance was at Sydney's Pact Folk in Liverpool Street, Sydney, while still at school. This was followed by appearances at the Journeys End wine bar in Sydney's Woolloomooloo in the mid 70's while training as a psychiatric nurse. From 1978, by then a registered nurse ("don't call me sister, mister") Ian played countless solo shows in pubs, including a 13 month residency at the Royal Sovereign (Now the Darlo Bar) in Sydney's Darlinghurst. He auditioned for and became lead singer and principal songwriter for the 80s punk outfit The Accelerators. After the frenetic early 80s, and a general disenchantment with the more horrifying artefacts of punk culture, such as finding spikes of porcelain where toilets used to be in venues, Ian moved to the Blue Mountains, furthering his career as a psychiatric nurse while developing some soothing, anti-punk ambient music. A return to the city in 1983 led to weekend shows in pubs in Manly and Rozelle. Some of the ambient music made in the mountains was used on relaxation tapes by alternative healers such as Peter De Reuter, and one piece - Ocean Song - was used for some time as the late night sign off music by Sydney radio station 2SER. A turn as Simon Zealots in Jesus Christ Superstar was followed by appearances in cabaret, more folk clubs and a year or two with the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir. From then on it was cabaret all the way, with appearances in New Theatre productions such as Anything Goes. But Sondheim, Cole Porter and Gesualdo were not really where his heart was, so armed with the latest music recording technology and a purpose built room full of much loved instruments, Ian began work in his studio at home on the material that became Fathom.
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