Benjamin Tassie – A Ladder Is Not The Only Kind of Time

A fascinating new record just out last week from composer Benjamin Tassie. A Ladder is Not the Only Kind of Time was composed using water powered instruments that Tassie designed and built with instrument maker Sam Underwood. The concept of the album was to highlight the bygone water-powered industry of the Rivelin Valley, once the site of over 40 watermills and dams that powered an industry that has long since crumbled. The valley still channels the water, though those mills are now a haven for local wildlife, and Tassie has used the power of the river to create new life through music. The instruments include a harpsichord, hurdy gurdy, and a water organ, or ‘hydraulis,’ that are all positioned at varying points along the river, mirroring the sites of former mills. Amid the burble of water, the album captures plucks, creaks, and the mournful groan of the organ, played in time to the water’s whims.

As the album progresses, Tassie and others add their own instrumentation, adapting to the river’s flow in their own sense of space and sentiment. Rebecca Lee plays the Renaissance bass viol, Rob Bental plays the Nyckelharpa (an historical Swedish instrument), while Benjamin plays the Medieval rebec and lap steel guitar. It’s a fascinating album and one that was also captured with film of the process involved in recording it. Check out the short behind the scenes above and definitely get a bit of morning meditation with Tassie’s natural wonder.

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