Estuary English by D Rothon & O Cherer

Estuary English – a collaboration between Clay Pipe artists Oliver Cherer (Gilroy Mere) and D Rothon, and released as a limited edition CD to coincide with a showcase for the label at London’s Cafe Oto – started out as a conversation about Alan Lomax, Harry Smith and Smithsonian Folkways but it soon mutated into something that felt a lot closer to home in mood and theme – despite the dominance of electric and pedal steel guitars in these spare, evocative instrumental pieces.

For Ollie they have a particular resonance: “Having grown up near the Severn Estuary, I have always been drawn to the strange, ever-shifting, no-mans land watery landscape of these places. They’re simultaneously tranquil and charged with hazard and treachery so are both beautiful and frightening. These pieces are an attempt to sketch the essence of these muddy, alien wetlands.”

The two musicians worked remotely on the tracks and, as David explains, “It felt like a very instinctive process. A lot of them started with Ollie sending me something he’d done, and I tried not to overthink my parts – some of them are basically improvised first takes. It was a case of deciding on an approach and then going for it.”


All music is by David Rothon and Oliver Cherer and is performed by them too

Musician, composer, Clay Pipe Music recording artist. Pedal steel player for the Redlands Palomino Co; have also worked with Lost Horizons, Johanna Warren, Marissa Nadler, the Hanging Stars, Emily Barker, Naomi Bedford and others.
For more from me delve into: secondlanguagemusic.bandcamp.com/

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