In an unexpected but certainly welcome news, Obverse Books has launched Obverse Music, a range promising the best in audiobooks, readings, and music.
This has actually been long in the making: almost since Obverse Books first popped into being with Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus way back in 2009, there was talk of an audio line under the Obverse umbrella. But life gets in the way and the plans were shelved. Until, that is, the Covid-19 pandemic!
Stuck indoors for much of the past two years, Obverse owner Stuart Douglas and Edinburgh-based photographer and writer Scott Liddell have finally created Obverse Music.
The first title in the range is The Eleven Day Empire, an album by electronic artist, Mike Dickinson. Douglas and Liddell first came across Mike on Bandcamp, and his mix of ambient, electronica, ’70s komische, and synthwave was enough to convince the pair to drop him an immediate line to ask if he’d be interested in doing Obverse Music’s maiden release.
And this CD is actually inspired by the mythos of Faction Paradox, the time-travelling, mask-wearing tricksters who first appeared in the BBC Doctor Who novel range, and have since launched book and audio ranges of their own by, amongst others, the BBC, Mad Norwegian Press, and Obverse Books.
Mike says:
“I can still remember the first time I encountered Justine [McManus, a Faction recruit who first appeared in Alien Bodies] and the Faction.
“She was at an auction in the Unthinkable City and at that time still possessed her own shadow. I followed the growth of her career as a prominent member of ‘The ritualistic time-travelling guerrilla organisation’ with considerable enthusiasm from The Faction Paradox Protocols through The True History of Faction Paradox and beyond.
“A dark and terrible fascination that became the inspiration for this album.
“Borrow a shadow and tread the dark and tangled streets of a twisted and hidden London.”
Written at the start of lockdown in 2020, The Eleven Day Empire has been fully remastered for this CD release and features artwork created by Obverse graphic design wizard Cody Schell.
