Singer releases LP inspired by former weapons site

A musician has released a new album entirely inspired by a “deliberately mysterious and unknown” former weapons development site in Suffolk.

Hayden Thorpe, previously of the Mercury Prize-nominated band Wild Beasts, has just unveiled his latest LP which draws influence from - and is an ode to - Orford Ness.

Entitled Ness, and based on the Robert McFarlane book of the same name, the 13-track album was a “poignant reminder of the restorative powers of the natural world”.

Mr Thorpe said: “It became an addiction and something that consumed me and I have to say I felt like I didn’t choose Ness, Ness chose me. It has a strange quality.”

Orford Ness, now owned by the National Trust, was previously used by the Ministry of Defence to make weaponry during both World Wars and the Cold War.

Kendal-born songwriter Mr Thorpe was first introduced to the history of the site by Robert McFarlane’s acclaimed book, also named Ness, which was released in 2018.

“I had been making the record for about nine months before I actually visited Orford Ness, so my entire experience of the place was seen through the gaze [of the book].

“So, when I went there, I looked at it romantically – like when you see pictures of the Eiffel Tower and then you actually see it and you have this romance of Paris.

“I kind of had that for the bomb making laboratories there - a kind of strange relationship but it can’t help but move you and it has an energy and spirit about it.

“Bad things happened but there was redemption and healing and it’s since become a very precious habitat, so this was a story I felt compelled to tell.”

Although no stranger to the process of recording an album – having released seven during his career – the making of this record was not without its challenges.

But it also gave him a licence to explore his creativity perhaps more than ever before.

Some of the sounds on the record, for example, even include those of thistles, seeds and grasses collected from Orford Ness itself.

He said: “If you had told me two years ago I would be making this record I would have laughed in your face, but Orford Ness is a very human story.

“So, I became so compelled to make something strange and beautiful about a non-human being.

“This record was definitely a communal experience - there was a hurdle to leap and I jet-packed myself over it.

"The many challenges of this record were overcome with blood sweat and tears - and this one is full of them."

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