Weather Warning by Closed Circuits
Having moved to the centre of Portugal, Chris Page aka Closed Circuits kept receiving weather warnings on his phone, as the dry heat threatened fires across the nearby landscape. Planes flying low to collect water to fight the blazes became a common sight. And when moving to news or social media, images of decimation and the displaced multiplied into a steady stream of despair. Against this tide, Chris began work on Weather Warning, the new Closed Circuits album.
Working exclusively with percussion samples and vocals, the songs range from the pulsating din of the title track, to the sardonic balladry of Animals, with its increasingly broken refrain of “I’ll see you at the death camps”. Chris explains, “I wanted to give myself the restriction of only working with percussion - seeing if I could bring its melodic side to the fore, whilst leaning into its propulsive qualities. Perhaps there was an unconscious play between ‘transients’ and ‘transience’. And the attempt to move back towards something more focused, almost in a folk music sense, where even at their most elaborate, the songs could all be pared back if necessary to basic acoustic components. The knowledge that they were going to be placed online, at the whims of a system that will one day fail, was at the forefront of my mind. So they had to be robust enough in their form to be able to survive and be performed from memory after.”
The tracks Animals and Starry Skies were released online on 25th April 2024, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. A bloodless revolution, which overcame a fascist dictatorship, this anniversary was marred by the gains made in elections by the far-right party, Chega. In 1974, it was a song played on the radio by José Afonso that signaled for the revolution to begin. We must always remember the power of art to cause positive change in our world.
This album is dedicated to the displaced.
IN FINITE RECORDS 016
Tracklist
| 1. | Weather Warning | 2:59 |
| 2. | Table Tapper | 3:46 |
| 3. | Kairos | 3:48 |
| 4. | Land Divers | 3:17 |
| 5. | Starry Skies | 1:34 |
| 6. | Animals | 4:31 |
| 7. | No Relation | 4:42 |
| 8. | Hymn To The Fixer | 4:23 |
| 9. | Last Chants For A Slow Dance | 4:28 |
| 10. | Voices On Tape | 3:26 |
Credits
Written, performed, produced, and mastered by Chris Page : Quintinha das Rosas, Tomar : 2023-2024
Cover photo and design by Chris Page
