All of the releases below are available to listen to and to purchase (unless otherwise stated) on my Bandcamp page –
http://www.vincentcarrssumic.bandcamp.com
You can also listen to some more of my music on my Soundcloud page –
http://www.soundcloud.com/vincent-carr-2
Yesterday Is Gone (2024)
As the sleeve states, this is my fifth E.P. of improvisations and spontaneous compositions. It almost came about by accident (all the best stuff does though doesn’t it?) but I was so pleased with the results I released it pretty much straight away (as I have done with all of my previous spontaneous E.P.s). It has a lovely symmetry to it and also a nice balance between the light and heavy musical elements.
Pastoral Progressive / The Moment Is The Muse – 10 Years of Vincent Carr’s SUMIC (2024)
A personal selection to mark a milestone! – 10 years since the release of my first ‘proper’ solo release, ‘(all things) bleak and beautiful’. I’ve taken my personal favourites from each of the ten releases I’ve made in the last ten years, mixed them up, sequenced and segued them into two 30 minute-plus suites of songs, tunes and improvisations. There’s new mixes, alternative versions and material culled from non-SUMIC projects. For SUMIC beginners, this is the place to start, and for longer term fans, there’s something new here too.
Jupiter Wrens: Fantasias (2023)
The second album in the Jupiter Wrens series (after 2020’s ‘Macrocosm & Microcosm) and I feel a high point in my music making. Everything comes together here – composition (of a spontaneous kind, that nevertheless feels written), improvisation, atmosphere – into two cohesive long form improvisations. The first piece is a suite in three parts is inspired by the famous ‘The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ chapter in ‘The Wind In The Willows’, the second long-form piece is based on a biblical painting and is possibly the darkest thing I’ve done. Lacking in energy, 2023 was shaping up to be a bad year of music making for me, but this suddenly found me focused again. Never under-estimate the powers of inspiration!
The Spring of ’22 (2022)
My latest improvised E.P. and an absolute delight to make. Spontaneity in my music has always been important – even on the composed music on my albums, the solo space is always a space for improvisation. The E.P.s give me a chance to do something different, and although mostly electric guitar based, it continues my ongoing development in an improvised setting.
Strolling Early Morning (2021)
This album that was created in a slightly different way to the previous ‘Rekindled’ and ‘New Paeans’. Where those two records were planned in advance, there was no plan in place for this one, and for the last two years I had simply been recording pieces of music, new and old, that I wanted to get recorded. Eventually it became clear that I had a nice collection of pieces that worked together as an album, and worked just as well as its more thought-out predecessors.
This album also finds me integrating more improvisation into the compositions, and that’s something I’d like to do more of.
Psych Against Cancer Volume II – Various Artists(2020)
An epic compilation (seriously!) of a broad church of modern psychedelic music from artists across the globe. I was delighted to contribute a piece to this collection, and have recorded a new version of the old English folk song, ‘Death & The Lady’, with new music written by me, and sounding suitably psychedelic.
The compilation is in aid of charity, with all proceeds being donated to Macmillan Cancer Support (https://www.macmillan.org.uk/)
Navel-Gazing – Various Artists (2020)
A compilation by the first year of interviewees from the Navel-Gazers music blog (blog.navelgazers.co.uk), with artists drawn from a wide range of areas and geographic locations. For this compilation I created a brand new composed / improvised-on-the-spot piece called ‘Must I Never Dream?’
The compilation is in aid of charity, with all proceeds being donated to MIND (www.mind.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/).
Jupiter Wrens: Macrocosm & Microcosm (2020)
I’ve given this album the ‘Jupiter Wrens’ subtitle, as it’s in a similar vein to my first improvised E.P. from 2016 of the same name. This time though, this is a full album, and although the basis of the album was initially improvised, there was then additional compositional work, recording and editing to bring it to its final form.
Victories (2020)
My third E.P. of improvised music, recorded in an afternoon. Different again to my two previous improvised E.P.s (that’s the idea) – each of three pieces is based on one of the musical ‘modes’, which are stated in the titles of the pieces.
New Paeans (2019)
An album that felt like it took forever to make, but was definitely worth it in the end!
I feel it builds and expands upon ‘Rekindled’, whilst also breaking new ground. Epic, melodic, pastoral, progressive folk music.
The album won the multi-instrumentalist category ‘album of the year’ in the ‘Independent Progressive Awards 2020’ at Friday Night Progressive, https://fridaynightprogressive.com
Inferno Weevil (with Andrew Ciccone, 2019)
The debut recordings of our improvising duo ‘Inferno Weevil’, available as a FREE download at http://www.infernoweevil.bandcamp.com.
Troglodytes Troglodytes (2017)
A second E.P. of improvised music, following on from the previous ‘Jupiter Wrens’.
A more melodic follow-up, although it’s still pretty intense stuff.
Jupiter Wrens (2016)
A download-only ‘EP’ of completely improvised music. Although it is quite different from the mostly folky, acoustic based pieces that I do, this is still very much a SUMIC release, with some signature guitar playing, just in a different context.
Rekindled (2016)
‘Rekindled’ is an album I’m very proud of. From short, folky pieces like the opening ‘The Hall of the Bright Carvings’ and ‘Starlight’, through the upbeat and slightly funky ‘News just in’, to the message of positivity in the title track and the epic ambience of the closing ‘Norham Castle Sunrise’, it is adventurous yet very accessible music.
(all things) bleak and beautiful (2014)
Although technically this is my fourth album, in reality it’s my first, as it’s the first album that I felt was sufficiently good to let people hear. It’s an album of two halves, with the first half devoted to shorter pieces such as the upbeat, folky ‘The High Hoose’, the lamenting ‘Pause, to reflect’ and the two-part ‘Shapes’. The second half of the album is the longest piece I’ve written to date, the epic ‘The Triumph of Time’ – 24 minutes of ambient folk and rock music with narration, telling the story depicted in an engraving by Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel.
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