31/05/24

Jardins do Paraíso ( 84 )

 


He subsequently carved out a succeful career in the ELT (English Language Teaching) field, but as a student at the University of East Anglia in the late Sixties, the young Jeremy Harmer was a Bert Jansch-influenced guitarist and singer/songwriter.

Accompanied by fellow student David Costa, he played at folk clubs and events in the Norwich area before staging a student union concert that led to him recording the album ‘Idiosyncratics And Swallows Wings’ in single-take sessions at a local BBC studio.

Restricted to 99 copies, the album – akin to a homemade version of Nick Drake’s ‘Five Leaves Left’ – featured some beguiling chamber pop arrangements and self-consciously poetic, exquisitely gloomy songs like ‘People Smile With Ghosts In The Land Of Make-believe’, featuring David Costa on second guitar and Sue Humphris on backing vocals.

Costa was significantly affected by the experience (“I knew from that very moment on that was what I wanted to do … I just wanted to play guitar in a band”), dropping out of university and putting together Trees. He attempted to recruit Sue Humphris as lead singer, but she declined, suggesting instead that they audition her sister Celia.”



( Harmer e David Costa )

David Wells disse acima o que de essencial precisa ser dito a propósito de Jeremy Harmer. “Idiosyncratics and Swallows Wings” é um disco diferenciado que, caso tivesse sido objecto de adequado tratamento profissional no momento de captação de som e posteriormente de produção, seria hoje mais do que já é por via da história que o envolve, um marco da música inglesa dos finais dos 60s.

We recorded de LP late at night at the big studio on Anglia TV. It was not really satisfactory. The equipment was not great and the engineer – who did it for free i seem to remember – was not especially experienced as a sound engineer, but rather a TV programme engineer. I can’t remember any mixing conversations etc. But I guess there must have been. I remember being rather worried about the sibilance in the vocal tracks but there was never a chance to do anything about that. And on top of that i wasn’t really very experienced about that kind of thing.”



(Harmer e Nick Drake no Marlborough College, meados de 1965)

Entre a melancolia endémica de Nick Drake, a tristeza de Robert Wyatt e o folk barroco de Duncan Browne, “Pastiche”, o belíssimo “Sad Song”, “Home of Years”, o tocante “Melanie” ou o “pesadelo utópico” ( palavras do autor ) que é “People Smiling With Ghosts In The Land Of Make-believe”, “Idiosyncratics and Swallows Wings” é um disco que não sendo perfeito no que concerne à forma, é absolutamente essencial do ponto de vista criativo e histórico.

Uma última nota, eventualmente do interesse dos audiófilos: “Due to the lack of master tapes, this reissue has been sourced from original vinyl.” ( do folheto que acompanha a reedição )