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.
From Analogue to digital
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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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