To celebrate 20 years of the Aerial album, we’re putting together a time capsule each day this week leading up to November 7th (the release date anniversary). It’s a daily miscellany of the events, people and objects that relate to Kate’s extraordinary eighth studio album. We can’t believe it’s been two decades, for so many of us this still feels like a “new” album, and the album’s beautiful gifts just keep revealing themselves…
Aerial – Happening of the day
After the intrigue of King of the Mountain and as we awaited the album itself, it was announced that the Kate Bush Club (ran by Kate’s friend Lisa Bradley) would be replaced by her new official website. That would be where info and announcements would come from in future. Sadly, this meant we’d get no Aerial issue of the official fanclub magazine, something which had become a tradition of sorts – a place where Kate herself wrote and explained the inspirations and work that went into the songs on her new record.
A characteristically bold and expansive work brimming with atmosphere, mystery, passion and complex aural detail, the twin-disc ‘Aerial’ had already been declared a masterpiece by all who had heard it…but we wanted to hear from Kate!
So today we look back on what Kate herself had to say about the songs – in her press releases at the time. “I have been genuinely touched by the sense of anticipation I’ve felt from people,” she said in an official press release. “I feel really privileged that people have been waiting.” She continued: “What is quite nice for me doing the two discs, is it allows me to play with the semi-classical style which I like – space and acoustic music – but also the band-based stuff with lots of drums.”
Kate talked about the arrival of her son Bertie, and all the time his upbringing required: “I was having to work in really short little bursts, and I’d never done that before. The way I’d always worked was to just stay in the studio for fourteen hours a day. I didn’t have that luxury to use the time in the same way. So there were lots of periods where really nothing much was happening. But in some ways I’d say it was very good for me to have had those kinds of restrictions. It was continually forcing me into a situation where I had to stand back from it.”
Kate spoke about the recording sessions with musician friends old and new: “There was a sense of being at play as well as at work, I think that’s very important because it is so hard and so frustrating sometimes trying to get an idea to materialise. It’s not an easy process. I really like working with people who are old friends, it’s lovely.” Poignantly, ‘Aerial’ also features some of the last work of orchestral arranger Michael Kamen, who had worked on the score for all of Kate’s albums since ‘Hounds Of Love’ and who passed away only weeks after his contributions to the album were completed at Abbey Road studios in October 2003. “What was great about Michael was his stuff was very visual, he did such a fantastic job. It’s very hard to believe he’s not around any more.”
Kate also spoke about releasing her first double album: “I used to really like the double albums I bought of artists that I loved, it wasn’t in a way so directly connected with you spending money on an object. It was somehow more of an artistic statement. It said, ‘Here’s my music’.”
Here’s a selection of nice quotes from Kate on just some of the songs from when she spoke to Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 in the week before the album was released:
Kate on why the album is called ‘Aerial’: “What I liked about the word was that it’s got so many levels to it. It actually means “of the air”, and, you know, also I always have an image of aerials suggesting height, as well so, it felt like it worked very well for the second disc, uh, now with the sort of theme of birds…and also an aerial is something that collects and gives out sound waves, and we’ve all got aerials connected to our televisions and our mobile phones. I just thought it was an interesting word that had lots of puns...”
Kate on the song, π (Pi): “I really like the challenge of singing numbers, as opposed to words because numbers are so unemotional as a lyric to sing and it was really fascinating singing that. Trying to sort of, put an emotional element into singing about…a seven…you know and you really care about that nine. I find numbers fascinating, the idea that nearly everything can be broken down into numbers, it is a fascinating thing; and I think also that we are completely surrounded by numbers now, in a way that we weren’t you know even 20, 30 years ago we’re all walking around with mobile phones and numbers on our foreheads almost; and it’s like you know computers…
I suppose, um, I find it fascinating that there are people who actually spend their lives trying to formulate pi; so the idea of this number, that, in a way is possibly something that will go on to infinity and yet people are trying to pin it down and put their mark on and make it theirs in a way I guess also i think you know you get a bit a lot of connection with mathematics and music because of patterns and shapes…”
Kate on Mrs Bartolozzi: “I don’t know? Is It? Is it about a washing machine? I think it’s a song about Mrs. Bartolozzi. She’s this lady in the song who…does a lot of washing (laughs). It’s not me, but I wouldn’t have written the song if I didn’t spend a lot of time doing washing. But, um, it’s fictitious. I suppose, as soon as you have a child, the washing suddenly increases. And uh, what I like too is that a lot of people think it’s funny. I think that’s great, because I think that actually, it’s one of the heaviest songs I’ve ever written! (laughs) I like the idea of…clothes are…very interesting things, aren’t they? Because they say such an enormous amount about the person that wears them. They have a little bit of that person all over them, little bits of skin cells and…what you wear says a lot about who you are, and who you think you are…“
“So I think clothes, in themselves are very interesting. And then it was the idea of this woman, who’s kind of sitting there looking at all the washing going around, and she’s got this new washing machine, and the idea of these clothes, sort of tumbling around in the water, and then the water becomes the sea and the clothes…and the sea…and the washing machine and the kitchen…I just thought it was an interesting idea to play with. What I wanted to get was the sense of this journey, where you’re sitting in front of this washing machine, and then almost as if in a daydream, you’re suddenly standing in the sea.“
Kate on the song Bertie: How much did having a child influence Kate’s writing on the record? “I think it’s all over it. He’s such a big part of my life so, you know, he’s a very big part of my work. It’s such a great thing, being able to spend as much time with him as I can. And, you know, he won’t be young for very long. And already he’s starting to grow up and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss out on that, that I spent as much time with his as I could. So, the idea was that he would come first, and then the record would come next, which is also one reasons why it’s taken a long time. (laughs) It always takes me a long time anyway, but trying to fit that in around the edges that were left over from the time that I wanted to spend with him.“
“It’s a wonderful thing, having such a lovely son. Really, you know with a song like that, you could never be special enough from my point of view, and I wanted to try and give it an arrangement that wasn’t terribly obvious, so I went for the sort of early music…”
Kate talks about A Sky of Honey: “It’s all based around birdsong, and I like the idea of these things that are different languages from use of words, I mean, for instance, like “Pi”. It is a language, but it’s not one that we really speak. I think birdsong is a really beautiful sound. I think what I find interesting about it, too, is the way that they mark the day. Like for instance, you know, the dawn chorus – they seem to be very strongly connected with light. And I think in some ways, that was one of the sort of explorations I was trying to go off on with this, the connection between their song and light and the passing of day. (Note: This quote is actually taken from her radio chat with Mark Radcliffe – more from that encounter later this week).
Kate on how she felt as the album was about to be released into the world on November 7th, 2005: “I’m so excited about it coming out. It took so long to make, I just thought I was never going to finish it. It just took so long to try and piece it all together, and try and make it work and…so many times, I just thought I wasn’t going to have the energy or the strength to just to try and finish it. It’s a fantastic relief, to have it all done. When I first finished, I felt I had been let out of good behavior. And it’s great because I can do other things, and the response from other people has been so positive – I’m so excited. I think I did worry about there being such a long gap, I was worried that…I suppose, you know, in some ways, without wanting to sound sentimental, I was worried that people would forget about me…”
Aerial – Person of the day
Bosco de Oliveira is a renowned Brazilian percussionist, recording artist, bandleader, and teacher. He is particularly known for his influential role in the Brazilian music scene in Europe, having co-founded the London School of Samba in 1984. Throughout his extensive career, de Oliveira has toured and recorded with a wide array of internationally acclaimed artists including Kate, Sade, Terry Callier, Madness, Duran Duran (on their Wedding Album), Milton Nascimento, and Airto Moreira.
Bosco is credited with percussion on both Nocturn and the song Aerial on A Sky of Honey – brilliant performances! In addition to performing, he is a highly regarded teacher and lecturer and holds a Master’s degree in Music from London University. He has also given talks and demonstrations on the “Code of Samba” and “The Music of Cuba”. Bosco lived in the UK for almost 30 years but has since moved back to Brazil, making his occasional performances in the UK a rare opportunity for local audiences.
Aerial – Artefact of the day
(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)
Three different Aerial lithographs were issued for sale on Kate’s official site when it launched in 2005 – each printed in a numbered edition of 250 copies. One had the album cover, another the King of the Mountain single illustration, the third a colour photo of Kate peeking through a white veil, photo by Trevor Leighton. Each was sized approx 26″ x 26″. They now fetch prices of around £200 each!
On the topic of limited edition Aerial prints, later, in 2010, Kate worked with Soundwaves Art (in aid of the Nordoff Robbins charity) to produce prints based on the soundwave of the song Aerial. These were signed by Kate and also had her handwritten words across the middle: “What a lovely afternoon…” on one and “And fold yourself up…” on another. Created, signed and numbered by UK artist Tim Wakefield, each print retailed at £1,800. 45″ x 45″. Only 50 copies of each were made.
Aerial – Trivia of the day
The image in the Aerial album artwork of the ribbon-haired girl looking pensively at the viewer while studying mathematics, is taken from the painting ‘Lesson Time‘ (1921) by the artist Frederick Cayley Robinson ARA (18 August 1862 – 4 January 1927). ‘Lesson Time’ currently appears to be part of a private collection.
The image evokes the themes of the song π (Pi) while the window frame and view of the tree outside reflects the themes of domestic life and the natural world we are surrounded by, evoked throughout the album’s songs and artwork. Another painting by him, ‘The Blue Bird Dreamships’ puts one in mind of some of the dreamy imagery of A Coral Room. Read more about his work here.
From Wikipedia: “Cayley Robinson was an English artist who created paintings and applied art, including book illustrations and theatre set designs. Cayley Robinson continued to paint striking Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian subjects well into the twentieth century despite this approach becoming deeply unfashionable.”
“His series of large-scale mural paintings for the Middlesex Hospital entitled Acts of Mercy commissioned around 1915 and completed in 1920 are some of his most impressive works, along with Pastoral (1923; Tate Britain, London), which was bought by the Chantrey Bequest for the British nation. However his many smaller paintings, particularly of interiors featuring sombre women as well as the theme of departure, are considered significant works of modern British art.”
Aerial – Bird of the day
Woodpigeons are featured in the artwork of the Aerial booklet and also on A Sky of Honey, in particular the very opening track, Prelude, where a young Bertie muses that it “sounds like they’re saying words” – and indeed, Kate can be heard singing “Don’t grow old, Bertie” in her finest pigeon impression! Woodpigeons are also named in the lyrics of the expanded Prologue during the Before the Dawn live shows.
Woodpigeons are the largest of the pigeons in the UK and Ireland with a proportionally long tail and small head. A full breast. Easily identified in flight by large white wing bands traversing the upper wing. White and green patches on the side of the neck. In the breeding season they are conspicuous in upward-soaring display flights which end in wing clapping.
Leave a Reply