Projects
In this section we detail the work being undertaken on some projects such as album re-issues.
Album Re-issues
The Geese & The Ghost, Wise After The Event and 1984
Now that the re-issues of these albums have been released, we've revisited this section and have updated and amended it with further details of how the re-issues were put together. A brand new article, completing the chronicle of the work that was undertaken, will be published here soon. We've also updated the article on the different recording formats used for these albums with further information that has come to light.
In the latter half of 2005, the release rights to The Geese & The Ghost, Wise After The Event and 1984 reverted to Ant's control after the contractual period with Virgin/EMI Records ended. The plan was that these albums would subsequently be made available through Voiceprint Records in a newly re-mastered form. Work began on putting these re-issues together in the Spring of 2005 and occasional progress reports and related information were published here.
At the outset, we considered the idea that each album could be a 2 CD set, with an additional CD of extra tracks, demos and so on accompanying each album.
Progress report - December 2005
The exhaustive (and exhausting!) process of checking all the relevant tapes for the albums continues. All of the original 4-track master tapes from the original sessions for The Geese & The Ghost have now been transferred to a digital format and the contents are currently being evaluated. Similar material from Wise After The Event and 1984 has also been transferred and catalogued with a view to assembling a shortlist of possible extra tracks to include with the album re-issues.
Progress report - July 2005
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Currently we are concentrating on checking through all the available tapes for the albums that are held in Ant's archives. The good news is that so far a large number of tapes have now been located but it is taking some time to go through all of them in order to identify the format and content and then transfer them to a digital format. This picture shows a batch of tapes that are being checked and transferred. These are a mixture of 2-track and 4-track and include most of the original tapes from the initial sessions for The Geese & The Ghost, Ant's demos for Wise After The Event and unreleased tracks from the 1984 era. |
Background articles
Recording Formats
The on-going work on transferring various analogue
tapes has given a good opportunity to
start the process off by establishing exactly what material for each album is
currently held. This is not a straight forward process as each of the
albums made use of different recording formats...
Wise After The Event
One discovery
has been the master tapes for Wise After The Event in it's original form
(complete with the link pieces that were later released on Back To The Pavilion)
Archive Collection Volume 2
The work on compiling a second volume of Archive Collection is now completed. As work has progressed on putting the final selection of tracks together, we've been including more details of the different stages of production in the special production journal, which you can access below. In addition we're also including some background information which may be of interest.
Production
Journal
Journal entries: |
Read Ant's track-by-track commentary on the Collection
Background information
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From Analogue to digital
A major project that has been underway for some time now is to transfer many of Ant's original analogue reel-to-reel tapes to a digital format. Since the release of Archive Collection, the contents of many reels of 1/4" tape have been transferred to DAT and at the same time a catalogue of their contents has slowly been compiled. This has been very useful with a view to compiling future releases such as a second Archive Collection as well as locating potential extra material for album re-issues. So far the recordings transferred have been mono and stereo masters but we have recently started to investigate various multi-track masters with a view to transferring them into the digital domain.
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A small selection of Ant's tapes that have been transferred
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