POST -ISOLATIONIST - Investigating a new form via the "MURDER BALLADS" series ( Drift and Passages) by M.J. HARRIS/MARTYN BATES. A few brief words on ISOLATIONISM - ( a definition: "Isolationism is the sound of an innate respect for silences......a symbiosis between Rapidly Advancing Technology, the Sampler, and the Alchemical Isolation of the recording studio environment... "whereas New Ambient looks to sidestep the uncomfortable, Isolationism functions as a hermit-like Self-Confrontation"....). September 1994, and Virgin Records issue "Isolationism: A Brief History of Ambient Vol. 4", a release tantamount to a "coming out" for this strangest of musics. Definitively post-noise/post-rock, ISOLATIONISM has taken at least three years (taking care not to overlook the many important and varied signposts along the way) to reach the point where this pivotal compilation is released, signaling tacit approval for the genre to experience an emergence of sorts, from twilight underground to an inquisitive overground. M.J.HARRIS continues to be at the centre of all this activity, innovating and iconoclastically instigating. Working with collaborator MARTYN BATES, Harris has evolved "MURDER BALLADS (DRIFT)", a subtle yet forward moving development which was released on Musica Maxima Magnetica on November 1994.Essentially the birth of a new form, it is clearly a "POST ISOLATIONIST" music, dealing with the unique concept of mixing archaic folk-song with isolationist strategems. The POST-ISOLATIONIST position is one where the solipsism of Isolationist music is transcended beyond the parameters of the purely INSTRUMENTAL: i.e. it is the marriage of MUSIC and WORDS in the context of digital abstraction, dizzily spiralling sampling technology, and NON-BEATS. 1997 sees the release of the 2nd volume of collaborations by HARRIS and BATES, entitled 'MURDER BALLADS (PASSAGES)'. Whilst still deploying a basic tenet that is POST-ISOLATIONIST in nature, this new work constitutes both continuation and development of this still as yet underexplored area. A richer and more lyrical approach is evoked in the panoramic, slow and purposefull evolutions within Mick Harris' voluble sound-scapes, whilst Martyn Bates' treatment of the English folk-song form is subtly both more attenuated and more ornamental than on the first volume of 'Murder Ballads'. 'PASSAGES' is a particularly apt subtitle, describing as it does the notion of Journey, from a clearly defined Point A to an equally definite Point B - via an investigation on a gradually evolving and shifting dynamic. 'MURDER BALLADS (PASSAGES)', further resolving a marriage between a 'new', digital world....the purposefully solipsistic neutrality of the Isolationist with the 'old' organic world.....the wraith like residues of long-forgotten, ancient folksong - the result, a kind of 'dark catharsis'...a confrontational move beyond both of these genres.
		M.J. HARRIS/MARTYN BATES "Murder Ballads (Passages) "CD catalogue number: eee 36
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