Underachievers avert your eyes. The past nine years of Matthew Herbert’s career have been as wildly ambitious as they have been absurd: there was his One Pig project – in which he recorded the lifecycle of a pig from birth to slaughter, his various production work and albums released under numerous alternative guises, not to mention becoming the creative director of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, directing a play at the National Theatre, debuting his opera at the Royal Opera House, scoring a film for the BFI and recording an album in seven days live on stage with an audience at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.
His latest album – under the name Herbert – finds the prolific and inventive creative force returning to his dance roots for an album that aims to both challenge and comfort its listener. “At a time when inequality is rising to unprecedented extremes and when the system we have created is designed to destroy rather than nurture, music’s propensity to noodle inconclusively can seem unhelpful at best,” Herbert says of album The Shakes. “Who needs diversion when action is required? However, music can’t only and always be a call to arms, it can also tenderise and engulf when comfort is needed. This album then is an attempt to find a middle ground between those two positions.”
Released on 1 June via Caroline International, one track and a short accompanying film will be made available on streaming and video platforms each week leading up to its release. Directed by Herbert alongside fine artist and cinematographer Margaret Salmon, we’ve got the premiere of the tortoise starring Strong below. Take a look and let us know your thoughts.
