Interview: Three Cane Whale

So much of today’s music seems desperate for attention: volume, intensity, showboating vocals. Not so Three Cane Whale, the instrumental “folk supergroup” consisting of Alex Vann, Pete Judge and Paul Bradley.  Enchanting melodies are summoned from arcane instruments, while the trio’s subtle, ingenious arrangements nod to early music, European jazz, modern folk and 20th Century minimalism. 

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Pete explains, “and have worked together in various musical contexts on and off over the years. Paul is a huge fan of Alex’s amazing band Spiro, and introduced me to their music while I was working with him in his own extraordinary outfit, Organelles.” Pete – best known for his blistering trumpet work in Get The Blessing – worked with Alex on soundtrack music for Kneehigh Theatre, and Three Cane Whale developed from there.

Pete and Alex write half of the tunes each – “we’re quite strict about it” – while Paul’s ability as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist is crucial in bringing them to life. From zithers and banjos to horns and harmoniums, the range of instruments used is staggering. It “forces us to compose in unusual ways,” says Pete, “to concentrate on melody and texture rather than on technique.”

Their music evokes wilderness and tranquility – rare qualities in these times of ever increasing noise and connectivity. Are they deliberately going against the grain? “It certainly wasn’t deliberate,” says Pete, “but it quickly became apparent that we all enjoyed being allowed to make something beautiful, to leave silence, to make the smallest of musical gestures, and to accept inspiration from unexpected sources. And none of us are fans of showboating.”  

They’re a product of 21st Century Bristol yet their music is typically described as ‘pastoral’. “Urban-pastoral maybe”, says Pete, “Bristol is a city that’s very good at spilling out into its surrounding landscapes, which is always inspiring. None of us are from Bristol originally, so we bring our own childhood landscapes, and our current fascinations and baggages…”

The trio have just released a third album, Palimpsest, which was produced by Portishead’s Adrian Utley at the “fantastic” Real World Studios in Wiltshire. “Our first album was recorded in a single day in a small Bristol church, complete with distant birdsong,” remembers Pete. “Our second, Holts and Hovers, was recorded in twenty different locations – including chapels, a greenwood barn, beside a waterfall, and beneath a flyover. The ambient sounds of the chosen locations, which had inspired the tunes in the first place, became a central part of the final recorded tracks.” 

Why did they opt for a more conventional approach this time? Pete says the intention was to “fully capture the fine details of our ever-expanding instrumentation, and to enable us to include contributions from two guest musicians – Estonian violinist Maarja Nuut and British cellist James Gow.” This time the field recordings – such as the running water that leads into Flowers Barrow and Worbarrow Tout – “have been scattered at key points in the album’s journey, as markers of place and atmosphere…”

The Oxford Dictionary defines Palimpsest as “a manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing”. Why did they call the album that? “A lot of the music on this album is haunted by what the writer Edward Thomas called ‘The South Country’,” Pete explains, “the large sweep of the country from Kent (where I’m from) through the chalklands of Dorset (where Alex is from) via Bristol, where all three of us live, and on into the border country and South Wales.  These stomping-grounds are full of memories and histories for us, and a lot of the new tunes are inspired by these layers of the past jostling under the surface of the present: a kind of psychogeographical overwriting, or palimpsest.” 

All three band members have numerous other projects on the go, although none of them sound much like Three Cane Whale. What keeps them coming back for more? “Paul used the word ‘sanctuary’ to describe the experience of playing in Three Cane Whale,” explains Pete, “and I think that sums up how we all feel. It’s a very personal, fragile, yet robust little beast.” 

Three Cane Whale play St Georges on Thursday, January 21. Palimpsest is out now on Fieldnotes. For more information visit www.threecanewhale.com