Afterplanesman by Nick Pynn

Afterplanesman Notes from 2004:

A couple of years back, I spent a few days at the Submarine Museum in Gosport, giving my cousin Adrian Thompson a hand in restoring the 1913 Holland 1. Most of the staff were ex-submariners who’d shared experience under the waves, sometimes for months at a time. We were shown around the inside of a large diesel submarine, HMS Alliance.

On entering the control room I was surprised by a sensation of familiarity. Either side of the periscope were the seat positions for the depth controllers of the craft.
Facing the front of the ship sat the fore-planesman who would operate the front hydroplanes to make the ship dive. In a sideways-on position behind the periscope was the chair for the after-planesman who, with the aid of what seemed to be a spirit level and a wheel, would work in conjunction with him.

I was overcome by this feeling of deja-vu, and it crossed my mind that if not in a previous existence, then most certainly in this life I had in a musical sense been in that chair. I have had the good fortune to accompany some great vocal performers in a two-person setting – the controls being my stringed instruments and electronic bass pedals. For me Afterplaneman also alludes to certain personal experiences of ‘leveling up’ after tragedy or unexpected life changes.

The submarine itself presented me with a vivid vision of many men living in close proximity, devoid of contact with their loved ones and feeling a cold sweat when the sonar would fall silent, indicating an enemy ship directly overhead.

Nick Pynn performs original compositions on violin, mandocello, steel-string guitar, lap dulcimer, theremin, 5-string banjo and wine glasses, whilst live-looping and bass-pedalling with his feet. He has also performed with many diverse artists- Arthur Brown, Steve Harley, Kate Daisy Grant, Mike Heron, Beverley Martyn, B*Witched, Rich Hall, Stewart Lee, Boothby Graffoe & Omid Djalili.

nickpynnmusic.com