Tremulant by Ghostwriter

"Tremulant is a really bold and intriguing idea brought to righteous life! Can't think of anything to compare it to. Tonally, maybe the merest touch of Bright Phoebus - but otherwise unique and a spiritually enthralling listen."
Sir Ian Rankin (novelist)
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"A curious cult recommendation"
Monolith Cocktail review
https://bit.ly/47nCX9Q
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"A beguiling masterstroke"
FREQ review
https://freq.org.uk/reviews/ghostwriter-tremulant/
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"superlative third album.. startling arrangements of early 20th spiritual songs"
Bob Fischer
Electronic Sound Magazine review
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"Hypnotically beautiful"
Folking review
https://folking.com/ghostwriter-tremulant-subexotic-subex00162-vinyl-subex00163-digital/
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"A beautiful, very moody tone poem.. I loved the various tracks"
Ralph McLean BBC Radio Ulster
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"9/10 - Moving and uplifting music that defies genre or predictable structure.. A quite astonishing feat"
Americana UK review
https://americana-uk.com/ghostwriter-tremulant
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"even my cynical soul was moved to pray for more"
Bluesbunny review
https://bluesbunny.com/reviews/reviewID/3221/xmps/11123
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"The beauty of the album is that it is reverent yet modern, with wide-open spaces.. it brings church music outside the church, while challenging staid conceptions"
A Closer Listen review
https://acloserlisten.com/2024/09/11/ghostwriter-tremulant/
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Tremulant was written, arranged and recorded over several years by Mark Brend, Suzy Mangion, Andrew Rumsey and Michael Weston King. Suzy, Andrew and Michael did the singing. Mark played the instruments, with a bit of help from Georgia Brend (piano chords on I Stand Amazed) and Michael (rhythm acoustic guitar on Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down).

At no point during the recording was any combination of Suzy, Andrew, Michael and Mark in the same room together.

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down
History records that the South Carolina guitar evangelist Blind Joe Taggart (Joel Washington Taggart) made the first recording of the traditional song Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down in 1931. There have been many interpretations since, including versions by Uncle Tupelo, Willie Nelson and Robert Plant. The banjo on Willie Nelson’s version nods to a recording Frank Proffitt made shortly before his death in 1965, on which he accompanies himself on a self-built fretless banjo.

Michael had performed Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down before and suggested it for Tremulant. I had my doubts at first, as my plan was to record only songs written to be sung by church congregations. But I’m glad he persisted with his advocacy for this song.

I Stand Amazed
I Stand Amazed is an extension of I Stand Amazed In The Presence, by Charles Gabriel. It’s the first song we recorded for Tremulant, starting with an unaccompanied vocal by Andrew. This approach became something of a model, with two other songs also starting with an unaccompanied voice – The Anchor (Suzy) and Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down (Michael).

Charles Gabriel wrote thousands of hymns, often using pseudonyms, which makes it all but impossible to comprehensively document his work. I Stand Amazed In The Presence was first published in 1905.

Here
Here is derived from the Welsh hymn, Here Is Love, Vast As The Ocean/ Dyma gariad fel y moroedd, the words for which were written by poet, preacher and journalist Dr. William Rees in 1847. The hymn was popular in the great Welsh revival of 1904–1905. An account printed in 1907 reports 18 year-old Annie Davies closing a Friday night meeting, singing “… with tears on her face and victory in her voice, the mighty love-song of the revival … Dyma gariad fel y moroedd.”

Often Forfeit
Often Forfeit uses melody and lyric fragments from What A Friend We Have In Jesus, which was written as a poem by Joseph M. Scriven and put to music by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868. Alan Price used the tune in his song, Changes, on the O Lucky Man! soundtrack. Carter Burwell’s soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit references What A Friend We Have In Jesus and several other hymns.

The Anchor
The Anchor is developed from Will Your Anchor Hold (sometimes called We Have An Anchor), a hymn dating from 1882. The words were written by Priscilla Jane Owens, a Sunday school teacher, the music by William J. Kirkpatrick, a writer of hymn tunes and compiler of hymnals. I once heard the hymn performed by a small church band on the harbour wall at Coverack, in Cornwall.

Mark Brend, Devon, 2024

Ghostwriter is a music and sound collage network led by writer and musician Mark Brend. Contributors to date include the author Colin Wilson, Jim Jupp, Darren Hayman, David Sheppard, Nick Halliwell, Matt Gale, Tim Conway, Adrian Ramsey, Michael Paine, Michael Weston King, Andrew Rumsey and Suzy Mangion.