Noctorum, a duo comprised of guitarist/singer-songwriter Marty Willson-Piper (The Church, All About Eve, The Saints, Anekdoten) and producer Dare Mason, have announced ‘The Afterdeath’ EP, which is being released in the wake of PledgeMusic’s collapse. The platform was allegedly supporting the release of Noctorum’s fourth album ‘The Afterlife’.
Both releases have been made possible by Schoolkids Records, who, together with Mason and Willson-Piper, have had to shoulder most of the costs of the album’s recording, production, mixing, mastering, artwork, manufacturing and mailing to every single person who had ordered ‘The Afterlife’ album via PledgeMusic in order to honour supporters’ pledges, despite the fact that such monies were never received by the artist. Considering that this artist charted simultaneously in several Billboard charts for sales during its first week should give you an indication of just how many orders needed to be fulfilled.
A GoFundMe campaign has now been set up to attempt to recover the funds lost. But nobody is asking for a handout. In exchange for their support, Noctorum and Schoolkids Records are offering pledgers ‘The Afterdeath’ EP, a digital four-track release that includes two unreleased tracks from ‘The Afterlife’ album sessions and two cover versions – one originally recorded by The Sound and the other by Buffalo Springfield. In addition to receiving these tracks, pledgers can make their own CD by downloading credits and lyrics in a booklet, along with the cover art – the fossil of a mermaid (created by Olivia Willson-Piper and Andy Jossi), which is also available as a poster.
Marty Willson-Piper has been writing and performing for over 35 years. Best known as a member of The Church (from its inception through to 2013), he also was a member of All About Eve and The Saints, and has co-written music with Grace Slick, Aimee Mann, Jules Shear, Susannah Hoffs and Linda Perry, among others. Today he is also lead singer and lyricist with Swedish band MOAT and a member of Swedish Prog legends Anekdoten since 2015. Since the mid-1980s, Willson-Piper has also maintained a steady solo output, with nine releases to date.
Dare Mason was a house engineer at London’s Townhouse Studios, working with Prince, Paul McCartney, Boy George, Tina Turner, Ravi Shankar and Soul II Soul, among others. Since becoming a freelance producer/engineer in 1991, he produced albums for The Grid, The Church, Placebo and AC Acoustics, and has mixed Brix Smith (ex The Fall), Cinerama and Tommy Tokyo via his VIP Lounge studio.
Go here https://www.gofundme.com/ noctorum to view a fact-filled video and text on the GoFundMe page or here https://noctorum.band/2019/08/ 19/a-philosophical-musing- about-artistic-pursuit-in-a- commercial-universe for a more philosophical viewpoint on Noctorum’s own website. Also find ‘The Afterlife’ in all formats via Schoolkids Records or streaming via Spotify.
