Marginalia Suburbia by Jim Griffin

"Marginalia Suburbia is full of wonderful soothing songs, which are close to new age music and I highly recommend this disc to every lover of this type of music and also those who want to de-stress will certainly enjoy the music."
https://carrysnewundergroundmusic.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-jim-griffin-marginalia-suburbia.html

"Eleven songs that just seem to blend regally into each other, forty-five minutes of music that requires no input from you and takes you to a place of serene calm and wistfulness. Music at its best sometimes just needs to be simple and uncomplicated and without a care in the world. There’s pain, suffering and tragedy in the world and I for one occasionally need to step out from all that, press pause and just have a moment of contemplation and calm and that’s what ‘Marginalia Suburbia’ gives you."
Martin Hutchinson, Progradar
https://www.progradar.org/index.php/2023/11/16/review-round-up-the-oculist-jim-griffin-henrik-fevre-kindred-spirit-lalu-gayle-ellett/?fbclid=IwAR338ZlWRPvXdT26eintiI-nhM7UsHDCqlrU4Otz6NHwaF4iIiiLMzaFqYM

A new solo album by Jim Griffin called ‘Marginalia Suburbia’ has been twinkling away quite regularly since it arrived a few weeks ago, he may be known to readers from his group Zombie Picnic, he has put out a couple of albums on Reverb Worship and also had a limited lathe cut 7” on Fruits de Mer. Guests and collaborators have included Jonathan Sharp from the Heartwood Institute and a dream come true for him appearance by legendary Blue Oyster Cult founding member Joe Bouchard. This new solo disc is out on Australian label Ramble Records. It sees Jim all on his own, with an album of found-sounds, field recording s imbued with gentle, electronic instrumentation. It is slow music of acoustic guitar loops, birdsong, Mellotron etc, inspired by his hometown of Limerick. For inspiration he has cited Virginia Astley, Michael Tanner and David Colohan, all of those will be well known to Terrascope fans, it is a lovely album.
https://www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Rumbles_Apr24.xhtml

THE STORY and THE PLACE

This album occupies a place somewhere between the urban and the rural.

And in Ireland it’s never too far to get from one to the other. Either metaphorically or physically. There’s history concealed beneath every sod of the Irish landscape. Buried not so deeply in the heart of every Irish mother. Dig a flowerbed, find an old horseshoe. Get chatting to a neighbour, find a connection to your Granny’s people. Drive for half an hour and visit the neolithic tombs of the Burren, then back home for a cup of tea in the garden — if it’s a fine day. But don’t be waiting for the sun or you’ll never get anywhere in this country. You can get plenty done on a soft day too.

Nestled in the green and grey layer between the bucolic and the almost metropolitan is my hometown. A city actually (but only by Irish standards), Limerick sits wistfully at the mouth of the Shannon River, with her sinewy tidal estuary looping gracefully through our centre. Gently smoothing the edges between street, countryside and suburb.

It’s suburbia where you’ll find me. Working a small garden as if it were the Bull McCabe’s field. Feeding the birds and apologising to a cat who flatly refuses to love me like she should. Pretending we need milk so I can pop into town to walk by the waterfront. Retreating to the attic to noodle fragments of tunes on a loyal and sympathetic acoustic guitar.

With birdsong bleeding onto the tape if it’s early morning.
And the neighbour’s dog creeping into the mix at night.
Just enough randomness to illuminate the margins of the day.

Tracklist

1.	Wood Pigeons Don't Kill People, People Kill People	4:54

2.	Peace in C	3:10

3.	All Hail Mighty Kalimba!	1:32

4.	Brush with Doom	3:50

5.	The Gulls Hiss by my Window	6:15

6.	Dixieland Crows	3:28

7.	Short Wave Rain	4:10

8.	Autumn Leaves in Winter	5:17

9.	Fireside Flutter	3:07

10.	Hypno-Cat versus The Burren Birds	5:31

11.	Long Wave Forms	4:53

Credits

released October 28, 2023

THE IDEA and THE INSTRUMENTS

This is an abstract, instrumental album that makes use of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) concepts. The aim being to induce a semi-meditative state through the use of acoustic guitar loops, gentle electronic instrumentation and the sounds of Limerick, Ireland.

Acoustic:

Freshman Acoustic 6-string Guitar
Pentatonic Glockenspiel (in D)
Kalimba (in C major)
Melodica
Sleigh Bells/Assorted Christmas
decorations

Electronic:

Ditto Looperx2 (TC Electronics)
Mel 9 Tape Relay Machine (Electro-Harmonix)
Field Recordings (Zoom H2n Recorder)
Sound Samples (Freesound-org/old home-recorded tapes from the 80's and 90's)
Samples from a 1973 Mellotron M400S
Short Wave Radio (Online)

© All music written & performed by Jim Griffin on dates between 2020 & 2022
Mastered by Richard Dowling at WAV Mastering, Limerick, Ireland.
All photography by Brendan Gleeson PPAI

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