Agent Starling’s debut album, European Howl releases on all the usual digital outlets on May 4th, 2021. The ten-track album is full of catchy hurdy-gurdy tunes, new songs, hypnotic drones, live bass grooves & strings, all with an experimental edge. Here Quentin Budworth (one half of Agent Starling) tells us about how the album came about:

I live in Bridlington at the edge of the water. I’d spent most of the pandemic floating in a government sanctioned state of inertia unable to perform and reluctant to create, when I got the call from Lou Duffy-Howard asking me if we should do a collaboration album. I felt like dipping my toes into composing again. I was ready to find my submerged creativity and to dig below the surface of my musicianship to find the earworms I knew were lurking around in my subconscious, the practice room and studio. 

We were making something new so we had the freedom to experiment and do whatever interested us. Agent Starling is a brand-new collaboration, but Lou and I have played live music together for 25 years, so we had a clear view of our musical spirit and what we wanted to achieve. It was a joy to bounce ideas around. 

The process of recording the album was straight forward and grew easily and naturally over the three months we recorded it. Sometimes, because we were recording during the Lockdown, the process was tricky as it required deep focus and very intense periods of creativity. We were both working away in our own studios, swapping ideas, chatting about it daily online, and getting on with shaping it without distractions or time limits. This was a joy. 

Most of the songs started with a conversation about the essence of the track. Then, typically, I recorded the hurdy-gurdy tune in my studio in Bridlington. I usually spent a few days working up the tune before I sent it to Lou. We’ve swapped all sorts of music and ideas as we’ve been recording anything from 16th century music from ‘Playford’s Dancing Master’ to traditional Greek, Iberian and Balkan tunes. Some of the music has a filmic meditative feeling to it especially tracks like European Howl, Requiem and The Parting Glass, whilst others are up-tempo invitations to dance and let go.

The album is called European Howl. It’s named after one of the tracks, a celebration of being European and a lament for that loss. It’s a call for connection in today’s isolationist climate. In 2018 I was lucky enough to get a DYCP award to travel and study hurdy-gurdy all over Europe. I visited and studied with musicians from different countries, made many friends and learnt so much. It breaks my heart to see how we are now so disunited and inharmonious as a nation and our freedoms have been taken away. 

There are other people involved in the release. Guest violinist is Dexter Duffy-Howard and we had all the tracks mastered by a mastering engineer in Oregon, Kevin Carafa. Having a specialist, a third party, to do that is invaluable when you’ve produced the tracks yourselves. He did a brilliant job. The band photography was produced by photographer Richard Duffy-Howard and we commissioned the beautiful cover art by fine artist Anna Kirk-Smith.

We’d like people to listen to the album and feel good. We play catchy hurdy-gurdy tunes, new songs, hypnotic drones, live bass grooves and strings, all with an experimental edge. We like to think that the tunes are immersive. Some of the sounds are unusual and some are thoughtful, but we think people will feel uplifted by the album. Some of the songs are for dancing – always a feel-good thing to do! The album opens with Helicopter Arms. It’s a slow burner which builds and builds until the hurdy-gurdy comes in with a glorious feel-good tune.

We’re planning two sound walks in the summer, one in Bridlington and one in Hull. Details will be on the website and social media. You’ll be able to walk to specific places and listen to a track on your phone at each place. The closing track is about the last drink before you head off home, so that might be in a nice beer garden – we’ll see you there!

European Howl releases on all the usual digital outlets on May 4th, 2021 on the DHM record label, catalogue number DHM028, distributed by Label Worx.