Silver pyre

Silver pyre

Silver Pyre is the recording name of Gary Fawle. He makes sparse, atmospheric music that draws on ambient, drone and electronic elements, and his work is linked in the supplied description to chilled and accordion-led textures as well as to the influence of Eluvium.

Background

Fawle grows up in Somerset, where he is surrounded by Neolithic heritage, ancient architecture, layered landscapes and traces of industrial history. He leaves home as a teenager to study art college in London, later returns to Somerset, and lives in a barn while working as a psychiatric nurse and recording his early material. He later lives in several places across England, including an abandoned factory studio in Norfolk, before settling again in the West Country. He is based in Bristol.

Releases and development

Silver Pyre follows two EPs, i) and ii), which appear in the late 2000s. The project then develops a debut album, AeXE (pronounced “ax”), over a period of three years. The album is built in different towns and locations around England and reflects the landscapes and histories that shape Fawle’s experience of Somerset and other parts of the country.

Sound and influences

The music draws on folk in both a direct and a more abstract sense, alongside influences from early Autechre, Black Dog and Aphex Twin. It also carries references to post-rave and freeparty music, while the description places it outside straightforward electronic music by pointing to the romanticism of Robert Wyatt, the understated quality of The Fall, and the intelligence of 1980s pop such as Talk Talk.

Collaborations and live configuration

Most of the writing comes from Fawle, but Tom Bugs of BugBrand Modular synths contributes to the evolving sound and rhythm as the material is shaped for live performance. Silver Pyre performs solo, as a duo with David Edwards of Minotaur Shock, and sometimes as a trio with David Collingwood, who also plays with Gravenhurst and Yann Tiersen’s band.