Q&A

Do you have a burning question to ask Sanguine Hum? Want to know a dark, intimate secret about the 'Now We Have Light' storyline? Curious about who was playing the Bassoon on 'Leave Us A Message'? What's our favourite colour? Ask away, we'll do our best to answer!

19th Dec 2018 - Is Weight Part of the Trilogy?

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the question.

Originally just the title track, The Weight of the World, was going to act as a prequel to the main story on Now We Have Light and Now We Have Power alongside a VERY loosely sketched out final part called A Suitable Heir that we have yet to work on.

But that plan expanded somewhat and we realised that there was more of a story to tell in terms of how Don actually got to where he is at the start of NWHL. So basically, Don is a scientist about to unveil his solution to world energy problems - a giant machine for harnessing the energy of the Earth's core called the Detract Tube. It's pretty standard sci-fi stuff... just think of the Dr Who story Inferno for example.

Day of Release describes the anticipation before the machine gets switched on and Phosphor sees Don in the control tower overseeing things. Then it all goes horribly wrong leading to an environmental catastrophe causing Don to hide from the world in shame.

Side one of the Weight album is a little harder to describe but it does connect with everything and there are a few clues here and there as to what is REALLY going on. But we'll keep it ambiguous for now!"

12th Nov 2018 - Trilogy?

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your question. Indeed there is a trilogy… or perhaps two trilogies depending on where you count from. Or maybe even a quadrilogy. Let us explain.

We had always envisioned Light & Power to be concluded with a final story called ‘A Suitable Heir’. However, not many people have discovered that ‘The Weight of the World’ album, in its entirety, is in fact a fully fledged prequel to the events of Now We Have Light.

The Now We Have Power story does have an element of conclusion to it but this doesn’t rule out us returning to the story another day.

The new album we’re working on however is entirely unrelated to the story.

11th Jan 2018 - Posters?

Hi Jason,

There are currently two A1 posters of the Now We Have Light artwork available from our webshop. Having other album art posters is a great idea and you’ll to pleased to know that we’re currently in the process of making that and other merchandise available in the not to distant future.

Look out for announcements on our website’s news page and our facebook site.

30th Nov 2017 - Flac Downloads?

Hi Laurence,

Thanks for your question. We do have downloads of those releases that we administer available in lossless and uncompressed formats. All the releases that are available to download can be found at Bandcamp where you can specify the quality of your purchase. 

The releases that are administered by Cherry Red  Records are also available as downloads from retailers such as Amazon and iTunes, although the quality of the download is subject to the limitations of these platforms. 

Hope this helps.

Best, Joff

16th Oct 2017 - Band Names?

Hi Steve, good question. 

Antique Seeking Nuns came about whilst listening to Mark Radcliffe and the Boy Lard (Marc Riley) on BBC radio 1.

I was driving on the Banbury road in Oxford listening to the radio whilst Mark and Marc were talking about the art show that Sister Wendy Beckett was having much success with at the time. The Boy Lard came out with the priceless utterance "What ... the antique seeking nun?" I almost crashed the car calling Matt in that very moment! And thus Antique Seeking Nuns was born.

Best, Joff

The name Sanguine Hum came about after Carl Glover had been sending us images of very cool looking sonic weapons and other bizarre communication devices - this led to a bit of research online where we stumbled upon a certain "Project Sanguine" that apparently was an attempt at submarine communication via subsonic transmissions sent below the ground. Various people claimed that they were being made to feel ill as a result of the so called "hum" that they were picking up on from these signals. And so Sanguine Hum was a name that I jotted down based on all of that, and then also wrote lyrics on the subject which became There's No Hum. It was a fairly arduous process finding the name...I think we were nameless for a good 18 months or so, and there was a whole bunch of choices that we very nearly adopted - and we'll keep all of those to ourselves:)

Cheers. Matt.

16th Oct 2017 - Future Gigs?

Hi Eliot. Sorry you've not had much chance to catch us live. Live playing is one of the toughest aspects of running the band for us...often there just isn't enough time for us to commit to a rehearsal schedule that would do the music justice. So more often than not we have to prioritise our recording work which is a lot more flexible in terms of chipping away at a project over time. However, we are working on some live plans in various configurations - one of which is an acoustic/unplugged version of the band which is a lot easier to rehearse and can head out relatively easily with 2 or 3 band members. One gig is already in place for Eppyfest in Cheltenham, July 2018, and we hope others will follow. The plan is for full band shows to then start gathering momentum following that...so watch this space, and thanks for your interest in seeing us on the stage:)

Matt.

15th Oct 2017- Favourite Albums & Now We Have Power?

Thanks for the question Thom...we are mastering Now We Have Power this December. After that there's still a lot of work to do to make sure it comes out in the right way and reaches all the people that we hope would enjoy it...but we'll be working hard on all of that so hopefully you won't have to wait too long into 2018 to hear the record:)

As for favourite albums? Well, for me it's pretty tough to narrow it down to one. Growing up, the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was always top of the list. In recent years Boards of Canada's Geogaddi takes some beating. Loads of ECM records, including a really obscure one by Art Lande and Jan Garbarek called Red Lanta that never seems to get a good press, but has always been a really special record for me. Mike Keneally's Wooden Smoke has always been really high up there too. Meddle, Aja, Relayer, Koln Concert, In a Silent Way, Hot Rats, Selected Ambient Works Vol II, Music for 18 Musicians etc etc etc...

Matt.

15th Oct 2017 - Day of Release? 

Day of Release is one of our favourites too...there's lots we could say about it! Firstly, the title originally meant something completely different to what it became to be about and related to the excitement of waiting for the release day of your favourite band's album:) But that didn't last long before the title got absorbed into our Buttered Cat story. In fact, "Detract Tube" is an anagram of Buttered Cat and we imagine it to be a massive drill like device that burrows deep into the earth to try and harness energy from the planet's core - a typical sci-fi scenario. Don, the central character from the Now We Have Light album, has designed the thing and Day of Release tells the story of the excitement and trepidation surrounding the moment the machine is switched on, and needless to say it all goes a bit pear shaped...which leads directly to the world we find at the start of Now We Have Light.

Musically, it's pretty strange. This was written when we were between drummers and so that explains why it is so heavily drum machine/sequencer based. It's basically in 11 throughout, but it makes more sense to count 6, 5, 7, 4 in time with the bass notes. It took us all a while to get the hang of it and make it sound natural! The jam at the end was an unplanned spontaneous thing that happened one night in the studio. Hope that sheds a little more light on the track:)

Cheers.

Matt.

15th Oct 2017 - Now We Have Power Release Date?

Hi Fabrice, thanks for your questions. As for 'Now We Have Power' I can tell you with certainty that the final recording session will be taking place on Monday 23rd Oct and mastering for the album is booked for mid December. The record won't be available this year...best guess is first quarter 2018. 

I'm just turning my attention to the first Sanguine Hum guitar transcriptions, so in the future I hope that we'll be able to move towards something like a songbook. Stay tuned for score updates. 

All the best,

Joff

4th Oct 2017 - Guitar Transcriptions?

Hi John, thanks for the suggestion. It's certainly been something that I've considered doing for a while now. In fact your question has spurred me on to finally address it. It's really nice to know that there are people out there who would enjoy learning to play some of the tunes! I'll keep you posted on developments and please check back on the new site for updates. In the meantime I will get cracking on some charts. 

All the best,

Joff

3rd Oct 2017 - ASN Compilation?

It certainly would be a good idea!! In fact it's always been in the back of our minds to re-release the Nuns material as a standalone album. As the EPs have been out for a while though for us the thing that would make that really worthwhile would be to remix and re-sequence the tracks as a unique album experience. So, yes...we'll certainly hope to do something along those lines soon. As for archive stuff? Well, we pretty much cleared out the cupboards for the What We Ask 2nd disc...but there are a few things floating around. But a lot of the interesting stuff is seriously buried on hard to access old hard drives - we'd need to put our thinking caps on for that. There possibly exists the early Double Egg/Son of Cheese sessions with me on drums (photo evidence is in the Photo Archive in the Media section) and I seem to recall a REALLY early version of Desolation Song that we were working on at the same time as MODAR. So...possibilities!
Thanks for the question! Matt.