Name: The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War
Brand: Mick Harvey and Christopher Richard Barker

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

STUMM429

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "STUMM429"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Limited Edition on Green Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with 16 Page Lyric Book and Download.

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-11-09

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5413356000269

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "5413356000269"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

CDSTUMM429

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "CDSTUMM429"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

5413356000252

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "5413356000252"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Mick Harvey and Christopher Richard Barker

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Mute

Please note, some Mute issues also carry an EMI logo. This is not a label and EMI should not be added as a label, it instead indicates that Mute was part of the EMI Group.

Founded in 1978 by [a=Daniel Miller], Mute (also known as [l36339]) releases various forms of music, with an emphasis on electronic and experimental pop. In May 2002 the label was acquired by the [l=EMI Group]. In 2010 Miller did an agreement with EMI to handle Mute as an independent label again, licensing the trademark from EMI via his company [l=Mute Artists Ltd.], but EMI kept the rights over Mute's back catalogue. After the EMI Group was dissolved, in 2012 [l206061] acquired [l636]'s back catalogue.

Branch offices exist in Germany ([l168349]) and in North America ([l36296]). 

Mute has spawned many regional and special-interest sublabels, some of which are still active. One offshoot, [l=Parallel Series], even became independent of [l636] Mute also operates Mute Bank Mail Order, which sells the label's merchandise directly to consumers. Mute Bank published two issues of [i]Mute Statement[/i], a softcover book that details the entire discography of the label and includes band profiles and photos of release artwork.

Another label strongly associated with Mute is [l=Toast Hawaii], run by [a=Depeche Mode]'s [a=Andrew Fletcher].

Label code: [b]LC 05834[/b] / [b]LC 5834[/b]

‘[b]P[/b]’, included to the catalog numbers,
generally stand for promo copies.
‘[b]L[/b]’, included to the catalog numbers,
generally stand for limited editions.

The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War is a collaboration album by Mick Harvey and Christopher Richard Barker. The album examines the work of a long forgotten World War I poet, Edgar Bourchier, through his poetry as put to music in a concept album. Its release coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, on 11 November 2018. The works of this long forgotten war poet arrive in 2018 indirectly from the trenches of the Western Front. The wider narrative takes us from Bourchier’s birth in Warwickshire in 1893 through to his final school days and then his pointless death at Passchendaele in 1917, aged only 24. It continues by virtue of the poetry being posthumously published in 1918, adapted into song via a proposed cabaret treatment influenced by the Weimar Republic, through to an Olympia Press reprint of the poems in the 1960s, and then onward into the late 80s when The Moon Lepers translated his words into song. In 2018, Bourchier’s words were revived when the author Christopher Richard Barker approached Mick Harvey to ask if he could help him recreate the scores that had been discovered for the unrealised cabaret show. Happily, Harvey’s interest was piqued. The route was indirect though, not just because of the twists and turns in the story of Edgar Bourchier and his poetry, but also because Bourchier’s entire backstory and poetry was constructed by Christopher Richard Barker, an author who initially created the character while working on his novel, The Melancholy Haunting Of Nicholas Parkes. Barker paused from this venture to approach Harvey to ask for his expertise with arranging and recording the scores. In response, a 15-track album was written by Harvey and Barker to give life to an incredibly powerful fictional narrative. Created as a concept album describing the horror of war, the project seamlessly brings the fictional poetry to life via myriad possibilities of how a forgotten WW1 soldier’s story might open up and continue to be relevant to new generations – from a barely read initial publication of the poetry that came tantalisingly close to being adapted for Weimar era cabaret with the help of German artist, Otto Dix (The Kindness of Ravens, Further Down the Line, Softly Spoken Bill, through to the 60s, when Mick Jagger was apparently photographed with a copy of the reprint published by the Parisian underground publishing house which then led to the poetry being discovered by a new generation (Listen in the Twilight Breeze, Poor Poor Surgeon Tim); then onward to subsequent interpretations of the work by the fictional 80s band, The Moon Lepers on The Expressionist Tell #2 and Corpse 564; before finally culminating in the creation of three new pieces by Barker and Harvey (I am the Messenger, The Eternal Black Darkness of my Death, Lost Bastard Son of War). In addition to Mick Harvey and Christopher Richard Barker, the album features contributions from J.P. Shilo, a long time collaborator of Harvey’s and Jade Imagine, Simon Breed and Alain Johannes as guest vocalists. The album was recorded primarily in Melbourne, Australia with some additional vocal recordings in the UK and LA.

LP - Limited Edition on Green Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with 16 Page Lyric Book and Download.

The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War

Music GB