The new Ashley Reaks album “Compassion Fatigue (1-8)“  is out now.  The record was born from an idea where the first song would be exactly one minute long (no fades) and in the key of A, the second song would be two minutes long and in the key of B etc… The other rule was not to use pre-existing ideas, but instead collage the music together out of whatever riffs and words were floating around at the time. “Compassion Fatigue (1-8)” features odd time signatures, Eastern motifs, prog-punk polyrhythms and at least two songs about psychopaths.

Long-term collaborator Maria Jardardottir contributes her wonderful, improvised vocals, Dave Kemp plays saxophone, accordion and voodoo guitar, Ian Peak carved out a clarinet collage and Nick Dunne played some prog-tastic guitar and keyboards. Recording began at Ocean Studios in London and was completed and mixed by Dan Mizen at his excellent Active Audio Studios in Harrogate.

Norwegian film-maker and animator Ulf Kristiansen made a suitably dark and creepy video for ‘Cold Body Pussycat’.

Reviews of “Compassion Fatigue (1-8)” at Stereo Embers and Louder Than War.

Album available at http://ashleyreaks.bandcamp.com