Imagine the scene: two old men
respectable, the BAC close
the insignificant, yet collapsed late at night
the back of a taxi, on the verge of fainting.
Now imagine the same scene repeated
almost every night for five weeks.
Thus Flood, one of two producers
the ninth album from PJ Harvey, describes the purpose
sessions including himself and his old friend
John Parish emerged, and regularly leached
spun like a pair of old socks.
This artistic threesome with Polly Jean Harvey
goes back more than twenty years (since To Bring You
My Love in 1995), but no routine can not be inviting
at the table where the trio devises his plans, and still
least in the places where he puts them into action. Table,
in this case that of his kitchen, where PJ announced
want to record his next album under the gaze
the public did not even tremble.
Both men know that the devices
are unusual for several years one of
engines excitement they feel about the idea of
meet. "We Let England Shake,
the previous album in a church in Dorset, said
Flood. Before that, a solemn and meditative atmosphere
White Chalk was a lot to do with architecture
Romanesque my studio Kilburn, but this time,
it was still a different story. John and I
have agreed, but we were not sure how
we would be able to manage all that. "
Recording in Progress baptized, these sessions
open registration to the public for months
January and February 2015 (see p. 15) have clearly
conditioning the nature of a marked album
an energy and a particular collective emulation,
in direct contact with the hot nature of its subject.
The Hope Six Demolition Project is thus to
largely the synopsis of various trips
made in recent years by PJ Harvey
with photographer Seamus Murphy, already
responsible for twelve films made minicourts
in 2011 around Let England Shake.
Six-time winner of the World Press, Murphy
especially known for its work in Afghanistan, where
he documented from 1994 to 2006, the effects of diet
Taliban and directed the question the film A Darkness
Visible: Afghanistan. From 2011, he boarded
English musician with him on several
journeys to meet people subject to these
"Darkness" that we would rather not see but that
Polly Jean Harvey wanted approaching frontally.
past or present war zones,
from Kosovo to Afghanistan, to the neighborhoods of
Washington D.C. ravaged by extreme poverty and
violence, that is how it was mapped road trip
which has already resulted last year in a book,
The Hollow of the Hand, with PJ poems and
Pictures of Murphy, and now feeds the texts
High voltage of the new album.
Even before its release, and then that was unveiled Title
opening, The Community of Hope, accompanied by a
signed clip-story Seamus Murphy, Mayor
Washington D.C., Vince Gray, has also posted a
icy contempt discovering how
singer described the song in the poor neighborhood
Ward 7 ( "Now this is just drug town, just zombies / but
that's just life"), while a local pastor invited
to "come and discover a little better elsewherefrom the city".
"This trip marked me a lot, insists
Yet Murphy. She had never been in such
district in the United States. I think this country and
the notion of travel were previously associated to
it to work, a tour bus, interviews, concerts.
Voyager for itself, without being viewed in
constantly and going to meet people, I think
it has released enormously."
With this guide, she was immunized against this
turista that strikes so many rock stars teleported in
unknown land and returning it with couplets
overworked clichés and a relieved conscience
the same weight. The approach is similar PJ Harvey
more readily to that of a war reporter,
observer and narrator precise line, voice
determined, and this is why the setting
in songs such travel required impressions
a special ceremony.
The invisible presence of an audience attending
sessions behind a one-way glass in Somerset
House of London, due to forty-five minutes
the meeting this peep show a bit special, it was
perhaps unconsciously a way for PJ Harvey
to let observed in turn, make some
that she had received offering it as food
has most precious to put the world's
songs. "What always strikes me after so many years
PJ says Flood, is the emotional intensity
she manages to create around each record.
And this time, the emotional charge was even more
palpable because of the looks worn on us. we
smelled like an arena and it was probably
an asset to our investment in this album. "
"The intensity of her experiences during her
travel, continues John Parish, irrigated all his work
of songwritrice and it was to last one way or
another through how this would provide
these songs. "Gathered around the two producers,
the regular army soldiers PJ (Mick Harvey,
the French drummer Jean-Marc Butty and Terry Edwards)
are joined by some gunners from
other battlefields as saxophonist
jazz Mike Smith, architect of a lot of projects
around Damon Albarn, reggae percussionist
Kenrick Rowe, Latin multi-instrumentalists Enrico
Gabrielli and Alessandro Stefana or Chilean
Alain Johannes of Queens Of The Stone Age.
"Very soon, when we discussed the direction
to take to the album, says Flood, we
agreed not to outbid musically
on the dark side and leaden words." "She wanted
a disc removed, joyful, powerful, confirms John Parish.
The goal was not to depress people but the
immerse yourself in the music and subject them to
new sensations. Each album is PJ
a new beginning, but this one would not have emerged
if we had not Let England Shake before.
I also think that this record would not have had the same
physiognomy on arrival if we had made in a
more classical context."
Like the highly pressurized six minutes
The Wheel, first single that darkens all saxophones
out as to evoke ambulances
Humanitarian Kosovo, the general appearance of
The Hope Six Project Demolition cutting fast enough
the breath. The eleven songs performed drum
beating by PJ Harvey cavalry leader, if
reserve a few moments of dreams and
beautiful air holes, have often
a nearby martial power that of Let England
Shake, but fed to wider influences.
"I knew by reading about the countries she
would visit, says John Parish, Polly would be interested
with brass bands, marching bands to Southern Funeral
the United States, and perhaps found a little
these atmospheres in pieces. "" Some titles have
was built around the wind instruments, brass
and almost military rhythm, adds Flood.
There was however no desire to produce music
warrior, we even had to fight against it by
times."
In the end, songs like The Ministry of
Defence, Chain of Keys or The Orange Monkey are
driven by a vital pulsation, rebellious, as
conquering as many processions supported by
manly vocals and a profusion of instruments that
However march in step. impressive
Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln Medicinals
quiver with pride and defiance as epics
thumbnails. A free saxophone sometimes crosses the sky
to disturb the cadence (River Anacostia, The Ministry
of Social Affairs) and often it is the voice of PJ Harvey
which is surprising to float in the air (A Line in
the Sand) over braziers and deserts.
Let England Shake, already, we were quite stirred
and dazzled while repositioning its author in
the melee of players that challenge and stimulate
their art to touch the agitation. The Hope
Six Demolition Project part of the same impulse but
increasing its reach hundredfold. The seat
back of a taxi alone will not rest passage
such a hurricane. Christopher Conte


One morning in January
2015, en route to
go see PJ Harvey
Studio in London
the chance would have it
is found in the same
Eurostar car that
Jarvis Cocker (read
below), separated by
a single corridor. As
him but not to the same
time slot was
penetrated into the bowels
Somerset House,
venerable building
Neo the edge
Thames. this makes
then two weeks
PJ Harvey has invested
space of the basement
served in the past
gymnasium and shooting range.
Now gusts
throbbing riffs
replaced bullets.
We set up against a
window, mesmerized by the
agreements that repeat
tirelessly. sigh
relief: one attends
not, as some, to
made battery.
The blinding whiteness
Studio contrasts with the
penumbra public side, where
religious silence reigns
even if no sound
outside can not reach
to the musicians.
In black from head to
feet, smiling despite
concentration
obvious, Polly Jean is
armed with a guitar
White Electric while
Flood that will settle on
a sofa in it
advising to more
Reverb. "Who knows where it
could lead us? "
He loose before
whether the tempo is
good. PJ says she
studio
PJ
Behind a simple window without
tain, was able to attend a
recording session
The Hope Six Demolition
Project. Rare and addictive.
unclear and John Parish
proposes to compare with
the starting demo. Around
of them, instruments
varied pile:
a violin case lying on
piano, trombone,
a flute,
countless
percussion and brass instruments.
Drawn in black, large
blazon way clan
ancestral, created by PJ,
watches over them from
top of a wall.
The guitar takes,
embellished by a small
keyboard set as a
spectral organ which plays
John Parish. In a corner,
drummer Jean-Marc Butty
closes his eyes and shakes
rhythm in mind. At a time
jovial and accurate Flood
proposes to tackle
voice, then autoharp
for the skeleton
of this song,
to which they can
add later part
rhythmic. In addition to the
see play guitar, it
has the chance
hear PJ Harvey
sing entirely on
the music that has been
recorded. It is
Dollar, Dollar, conclusion
The Hope poignant Six
Demolition Project. more
weightlessness those taken
the dark energy,
version of the album
has ultimately not
guitar but
disturbing keyboards
well preserved.
Parish suggests PJ
do a second take
voice, "just to be
safe "and we thank the
internally. She
stuck on a word,
crosses the surprised look
Mick Harvey, who sits
to keyboards, and
both explode
to laugh. At the end of the plug,
Flood said he has a small
low for the first since
it is the second "more
in observing ".
They had not felt too
but the subtle difference
it resumes its
judgment. PJ is preparing to
play autoharp, one
its instruments
favorite since White
Chalk.
This is where
end forty five
unforgettable minutes
the other side of the mirror.
There was live on
genesis of an album, we
seen those little accidents
a song away,
we witnessed
but also the complicity
solitude of musicians
commotion. And although
we be left without
Jarvis, the return
Eurostar was still
nice to meet you. Noémie Lecoq


"The light was very white '
Spectator work of his compatriot, the former Pulp Jarvis Cocker confesses that he would "not supported at all" to expose themselves.

What do you think of the concept of transparency
and demystifying registration
an album that has imposed Recording in Progress?
Is it attractive, scary, interesting?
This is something that the music industry
try much to use for ten or
fifteen years: the albums are often
accompanied by a DVD, a documentary,
videos showing the scenes of the recording.
There are individuals who steal photos of you in
studio, and I find it particularly disturbing.
It does not bother me on stage, because there is a
distance, so I do not make me
account - and I am representing. But when
I record my voice, the voice that will be a
album, I absolutely do not want anyone in the
piece. I do not know how she did,
public. Record voices is something very
intimate. And the fun is to be locked,
only in a small dark room. Thou mayest
drunk a little if you want, you can walk in you
singing, you can lie down on the ground: you can do it
What you want. I want no one can
see this. I'm too aware of myself.
It was interesting to see PJ Harvey at
Recording in Progress, try to repeat
song, save something. The light
was very hard, very white, she remained in
this environment for two weeks, I
would have not supported at all. Through this
glass-way, as the one used for
police interviews, the fact that she knows
people could observe but not
could not, she was also the view
interesting. It is impossible to hide, there is
no mystery. Or rather, it remains a mystery:
he lives in his head, in his ideas. But the
technical process of registration was
debunked by his performance. We can talk about
technology, we can speak of an amp, a
microphone. It is there to capture what you do, not
to improve your ideas: you can give
excellent sound shit, it will not be
less crap, hi-fi shit. We can not
however not speak the same way
what really drives: ideas,
inspiration, these are intangibles on
which is much more difficult to
words. The magic ingredient of pop music
is this: emotion. And it is invisible.
Interview by Thomas Burgel