When it comes to poetry and music combining together, it either turns out to be a great exploration resulting in a beautiful sound or just something you wish hadn't been done or even talked about. This EP is all about the former and not the latter!
Autistic Pieces is a collaboration project between gifted and talented musician/singer-songwriter Alex Patten and one of UK's most creative spoken word poets, Raymond Antrobus. To give you a sense of background, Raymond is an award-winning cultured spoken word poet and photographer who co-curates well-known poetry event Chill Pill and the Keats House Forum. He has performed alongside authors and poets such as Margret Atwood, Michael Horovitz, Lemm Sissay, Benjamin Zephaniah & Kwame Dawes, and has toured extensively in Europe, Africa and the USA.
In terms of his musical collaborative project leanings, he is also one half of Speed Camera Shy; a music project that combines Spoken Word/Rap with Dubstep. This immediately shows you that Raymond has an ear for eclectic sounds that his words can mould around to such a poignant powerful effect, and he has done this again with Autistic Pieces.
Autistic Pieces marries the vivid images from Raymond's words to the subtle atmospheric soundscape and vocals from Alex resulting in an honest storytelling wave that just washes over you with a sea of feeling and emotion. This musical pairing just fits hand in hand. This project blends together so effortlessly. It makes you want to listen to the music and words continuously, because I guarantee you that every time you listen to it - you will find new nuances in its words and sounds that will make you think and look at each track in a different manner.
To me, it's the random moments that seem to capture your mind. Moments like the spontaneous heartfelt lyrics by Alex Patten on Interrogating Depression or the beautiful South African vibrant jazzy instrumental breakdown in One Night At Zula Bar In Cape Town that just grab you in such unexpected ways that you just lose yourself in the musical ambience that has been created around it. It's a wonderful thing to behold when music and words can take you to other places with the smells, sounds and images it naturally evokes. It happens so naturally that you don't even notice until it happens.
Watch the wonderfully stark animated poetry video for one of the EP tracks, This Town In This Dream...
You can listen to and buy the Autistic Pieces EP from Bandcamp below...