Music and Place: ‘Surface Tension’ by Rob St John

By Paul Scraton:

In 2014 the musician, writer and artist Rob St John set off on a year of walking, recording and photographing the Lea Valley in East London. The project was commissioned by the Thames21 Love the Lea charity in order to document the pollution, life and biodiversity of the Lea Valley’s environment. Out of these explorations Rob took with him to his home studio a mix of field recordings, tape loops of guitar, cello and piano melodies – some even deliberately eroded in river water baths – to create an album of electric-pastoral sounds, haunting and melodic, and deeply rooted in place.

The album was called Surface Tension and it was released in 2015 to much acclaim and quickly sold out its original book and CD limited editions. We have long been fans of Rob’s work in general and Surface Tension in particular, and so we were really excited to hear that 2021 would see the re-release of Surface Tension by Blackford Hill in a limited-edition vinyl package including Rob’s 35mm and 120 film photographs and new sleeve notes by writer Richard King and conservationist Benjamin Fenton. 

Added to this is an essay by Rob on how art, ecology and sound were brought together to create Surface Tension. There are only 300 copies available and each record is pressed on eco-mix vinyl using plastic cut-offs from other pressings. This means that each copy is both visually unique and more environmentally friendly than classic record pressings.

You can find out more about Rob’s work and this special edition of Surface Tension, as well as listen to some of the tracks from the album, on the Blackford Hill website. This special edition was released on Friday 14 May and is sure to sell out quickly, so order your copy soon!