Dawn Chorus

The solo studio project of multi-instrumentalist composer and producer Joe Acheson, Dawn Chorus is by turns lyrical, expansive, indulgent and richly detailed. A filigree of found sounds, layered instruments and bird song, this album comes from the lyrical, dubby end of field recording. The birdsongs, as the album title suggests, are like dawn chorales, matins with beaks and claws and wings. Around it, layers of piano, zither, electro-harp, Turkish ney (flute) and cello build up with help from a range of musicians including Poppy Ackroyd, Tim Lane and Jamie Graham. There's found recordings from Acheson's family archive and unlikely incidental sounds recorded en route around the world – an extractor fan in Tallinn, a dripping drainpipe in Innsbruck, a fizzing gin and tonic in a Brighton bar. An archive recording is used of a wren, that most folkloric of little birds, singing on an East London street in 1947. This is incidental mood music without borders – amorphous and introspective. While its focus is dawn, perhaps its best time to be listened to is after the midnight hour.