EVERYTHING / EVERYTHING (2008)

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About Everything / Everything

Release date: October 2008 (Tomlab Records)

An unpredictable and dramatic "big band song cycle about science and information", Everything/Everything does away with the synthesizers and digital processing of previous Simon Bookish albums to focus on live instruments.

Scored for an ensemble dominated by saxophones, brass, antiphonal pianos, harp and Farfisa organ, it features luminaries from both the jazz and experimental classical music scenes.

Whilst certainly the most pop-oriented Simon Bookish release to date, Everything/Everything, as its name suggests, finds room for moments of pulsating minimalism, lop-sided disco, expressionist cabaret, and even a lush ambient interlude.

Lyrically, the album's concept is "the flood of information" in our modern age, taking in chemistry and ecology, language and art, delivered in Bookish's distinctive English-eccentric vocal.

Album Credits

Written, arranged and produced by Leo Chadburn.

Performed by:

Leo Chadburn (vocals, piano, miscellaneous)
Alice Grant (vocals)
Michaela Stapleton (soprano/alto saxes)
Jim Slade (soprano/alto/tenor saxes)
Glyn Hill (tenor sax)
Tamar Osborn (baritone sax)
Jonathan Morcombe (French horn)
Dan Newell (trumpet)
Joe Bentley (trombone)
Tom Haines (drums, percussion)
Chris Branch (Farfisa organ, Moog)
Serafina Steer (harp)
Chris Morphitis (electric guitar)
Tom Herbert (bass guitar)
Max de Wardener (double bass, bass guitar)

Mixed by Chris Branch
Mastered by Matthew Denny at Masterblaster
Art direction by Anthony Stephinson
Photography by Amarpaul Kalirai
Design/layout by Jan Lankisch

Press for Everything/Everything

...In a musical economy where ideas are the sole currency, Simon Bookish would be doing the Scrooge McDuck backstroke through a pool of cartoon coins right about now. The man's recordings abound in little innovations, both sonic and lyrical, and if Everything / Everything sounds particularly heavy on them, that's no coincidence: the record, a self-described "big band song cycle," deals with the onslaught of information in this modern age...
—Matthew Solarski, Pitchfork Review, December 2008

...Switching from electronics to live instruments for his first album for Tomlab, the science-informed concept album Everything/Everything finds the wonderful work of Simon Bookish -- somewhere between the informed wryness of Ivor Cutler and the continuing impact of David Bowie's archly English romanticism -- in full flight....
—Ned Raggett, AllMusic Review, 2008

—Kirsten Riesselmann, Feature: "Auf der Showtreppe des Infokollaps", Spex Magazine, November 2008

—Matt Fink, Feature: "Everything at Once", Under the Radar Magazine, 2008