''Field of Reeds'' is the third studio album by British

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

band

These New Puritans These New Puritans are an English band from Southend-on-Sea, England. It consists mainly of Jack Barnett (principal songwriter, vocalist, producer, multi-instrumentalist) and his twin brother George Barnett (drums, electronics, producer, artwo ...

, released on 10 June 2013 on

Infectious Music Infectious Music is an independent record label owned by BMG, whose bands have included Alt-J, Ash and the Subways. History Infectious Music was established in 1993 as Infectious Records by former Zerra One drummer Korda Marshall after lea ...

. Produced by Jack Barnett and

Graham Sutton Sir Oliver Graham Sutton CBE FRS (4 February 1903 – 26 May 1977) was a Welsh mathematician and meteorologist, notable particularly for theoretical work on atmospheric diffusion, boundary layer turbulence, and for his direction of the UK Mete ...

, the album features prominent contributions from over thirty-eight session musicians, including

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

singer Elisa Rodrigues, and finds the band "reinventing themselves as a neoclassical ensemble." The album is the band's first without keyboardist Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, who departed from the band in 2012. Released to widespread critical acclaim, ''Field of Reeds'' reached number ninety on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Background and recording

During the recording of ''Field of Reeds'' the band worked extensively with classical musicians and singers, including two large ensembles: the Stargaze Ensemble and the Synergy Vocal Ensemble. Regarding the recording process, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jack Barnett noted, "We pissed off a lot of people making this album, and drove a lot of people mad. We worked long hours of the day, every day. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Maybe some of the musicians thought, 'It's some popular music project, we can all relax, put our feet up.' But it was a big challenge."

Release

On 13 June 2013 the band released a music video for the album's second track, "Fragment Two", directed by

Daniel Askill Daniel Askill (born 1977) is an Australian filmmaker and artist who uses film, photographs, video installation and sculpture in his work. He has directed short films, music videos, commercials and fashion films. He is currently based between Sydn ...

. Videos were also made for "Organ Eternal" and "V (Island Song)".

Critical reception

''Field of Reeds'' received highly positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, the album received an average score of 82 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In 2016, ''

Fact A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...

'' placed ''Field of Reeds'' at number 26 on its list of the best

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

albums of all time, with staff writer Chal Ravens describing the album as "one of only a few records that could claim to be a successor of

Talk Talk Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981 by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass), and Simon Brenner (keyboards). Initially a synth-pop group, Talk Talk's first two albums, '' The Party's Over'' (198 ...

's majestic strand of post-rock".

Track listing

Personnel

These New Puritans

*Jack Barnett – vocals, piano, electric piano, organs, bass guitar, vibraphone, chromatic gongs, unpitched percussion, magnetic resonator piano, sound design, field recordings *

George Barnett George Barnett (December 9, 1859April 27, 1930) was the 12th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He was a pioneer of amphibious warfare and the U.S. Marine Commandant during American involv ...

– drums, percussion, glass *Thomas Hein – bass guitar, roto-toms

Additional musicians

;Singers *Elisa Rodrigues – vocals *Adrian Peacock –

basso profondo Basso profondo (, "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo or contrabass, is the lowest bass voice type. While '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' defines a typical bass as having a range that extends downward to the second E below middle C ( ...

*Elizabeth Turner – field recording vocal ;Soloists *Nicholas Ellis – clarinet and bass clarinet soloist *Henry Lowther – flugelhorn and trumpet soloist *Lindsay Kempley – French horn soloist *Daniel West – tenor trombone and bass trombone soloist *Pete Smith – tuba soloist *Elspeth Hanson – viola soloist *Chris Laurence – double bass soloist *Toby Kearney – vibraphone soloist *Faith Leadbetter – piano and electric piano soloist ;Stargaze Ensemble * Andre de Ridder – conductor *Nikolaus Neuser – flugelhorn, trumpet *Matthias Gödeker – French horn I *Stefan Most – French horn II *Florian Juncker – tenor trombone *Till Krause – bass trombone *Sebastian Kunzke – tuba *Paul Valikoski – violin I *Daniella Strasfogel – violin II *Justin Caullet – viola *Zoe Cartier – violoncello *Kristjan Orii Sigerleifsson – double bass ;Synergy Vocal Ensemble *Micaela Haslam – director, soprano *Julia Wilson-James – soprano *Heather Cairncross – alto *Rachel Weston – alto *Phillip Brown – tenor *Andrew Busher – tenor ;Children of St Mary's Church of England Primary School *Charlie Dyer *Daisy Farthing *Maddie Farthing *Amber Motti *James Norris *Jacob Scotford *Bethany Scriven ;Others *Ben McLusky – additional pipe organ *Andrew McPherson – magnetic resonator piano setup and calibration *Shiloh – hawk *Alan Vaughan – hawk handler *Roy at TGM Glazing – glazier *Stool Trinovante – saxocone

Recording personnel

* Graham Paul Sutton – producer *Jack Barnett – producer *

Phill Brown Phill Brown (born 1950) is an audio engineer who has worked with a number of well-known musicians, including: Traffic, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Bob Marley, Babasonicos and Talk Talk. He is also the younger brother of Terry Bro ...

– recording engineer (ensemble recordings) *Ben McLusky – assistant engineer *Christian Bader – assistant engineer *Campbell Duncan – assistant engineer *Geoff Swan – assistant engineer *

Mark "Spike" Stent Mark "Spike" Stent (born 3 August 1965) is an English record producer and mixing engineer who has worked with many international artists including Madonna, Marshmello, U2, Beyoncé, Björk, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grimes, Ed Sheeran, ...

– mixing *Stuart Hawkes – mastering

Artwork

*George Barnett – artwork, other photography *Matthew Cooper – artwork *Paul Steet – artwork assistant *Jack Barnett – drawings *Willy Vanderperre – band photography

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums These New Puritans albums Infectious Music albums Post-rock albums by English artists Neoclassical albums Classical albums by English artists