Rob Ellis is a musician, composer & record producer who, over a thirty year period, has worked on various projects with such artists as PJ Harvey, Marianne Faithfull, Anna Calvi, Torres, Bat for Lashes, Cold Specks, Placebo, & Katherine Priddy . He has also released six solo albums, three under the name “Spleen”, & three in his own name: “Music for the Home” (Vols. 1&2) on the Leaf Label & “The Nostalgia Machine” for KPM, as well as various composition work for Film and TV production . For a full list of Rob’s work see the discography page.
The day my dear friend Marianne Faithfull passed away, in the year in which she was to celebrate having had an incredible 60 full years in the music business, I was on my usual afternoon walk, on a very sunny, bright and still January day in the Somerset countryside, during which, I had been listening to a podcast about The Enlightenment. And this had led my train of thought to think about “Negative Capability” and the album we made of that title with Marianne…and what that term from Keats “Negative Capability” meant for her. And, as always, I thought about how very amazing and special and emotional that album recording was for me and everyone involved…And it was while musing on all this that I received a message from another friend relaying the sad news about Marianne…
I think “Negative Capability” meant for her the idea of the mysterious and the spiritual, and the expressive, and that album, more than I think any I’ve ever worked on, lives up to that description so perfectly… ( it was a hugely significant album for me, indeed for my own very personal and even spiritual reasons).
Truth is though, I thought about Marianne very often generally, and especially that remarkable album (now sadly to be the last song LP she will ever make), so I’m not declaring “premonition”, but, maybe, in the words of the song “The Gypsy Faerie Queen” that she wrote with Nick Cave for this particular album, something resonant was vibrating in the universe at that moment and “in the twilight in-between”
Rest in peace dear Marianne, and thank you for everything you taught me
All my love, Rob x
Recorded over a four year period, Yova release their debut album “Nine Lives” this month. The album is a collaboration between Jova Redevska and Mark Vernon, and features contributions from a number of notable guest musicians such as pedal steel player…
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Recorded during lockdown in November 2020 and consequently involving some fairly complex trans-Atlantic logistics, the new album by Mackenzie Scott aka Torres is finally released today! “Thirstier” is the 3rd album Rob has produced with…
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A new album by Manchester based band The Blinders is released this week of 20th July. “Fantasies of a Stay at Home Psychopath” is the 2nd album by the band, and was produced by Rob…
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