Andrew Chalk had debuted in 1985 with the
free-form industrial noise of his project Ferial Confine, documented on
Meiosis (Broken Flag, 1985) and The Full Use Of Nothing (Fusetron, 1985) before evolving into the less extreme soundpainting of
First, Second And Third Drop (1986). He also
contributed to David Jackman's Organum,
and co-founded the British collective Ora in 1991 (originally the duo of Chalk and Darren Tate).
Chalk emerged solo with the crystalline, shimmering ambient music of
(b>East of the Sun (1997), containing Winter Arc (1994) and The Plain (1996),
and soon became a specialist of ringing overtones.
His pre-Ora works is documented on two anthologies:
Crescent (2000) collects the cassettes Crescent (1986) and Harvest (1988), whereas
Tahta Tarla (1993), a collaboration with Giancarlo Toniutti,
contains Chalk's Warkswood (1988) as well as
Toniutti's Tienalauami.
Over the Edges (1999) contains three untiled works of 1997 obtained by exciting only two strings of an acoustic guitar with an e-bow (an experiment along the lines of old ideas by Alvin Lucier and Ellen Fullman).
Sumac (1999) documents a 71-minute collaboration from 1997 between Jonathan Coleclough and Andrew Chalk.
This Growing Clearing (2004) documents a collaboration between Brendan Walls and Andrew Chalk.
Fall In The Wake Of A Flawless Landscape (2004) contains one 41-minute track.
The 74-minute two-movement droning symphony of
Shadows From The Album Skies (2004), possibly the purest manifestation of his aesthetic,
is devoted to extended droning-guitar monoliths whose overtones hark back to the experiments of
Phill Niblock
and
Eliane Radigue.
The first part (27 minutes) rises slowly, as hissing drones overlap and exchange.
The second part (47 minutes) is a monolith of slowly morphing celestial overtones.
The River That Flows Into The Sands (2005) and The River That Flows Into The Sands II (2006) explore oneiric and ghostly guitar soundscapes.
Blue Eyes Of The March (2006) is a 51-minute suite for solo piano.
Mirror is a prolific collaboration between Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk
that has rarely produced major works. The first one,
Eye Of The Storm (1999), built out of
manipulated natural sounds, ringing percussion, fluttering electronics and
Heeman's sustained bowing drones,
would have been enough to make the point.
The deluge of releases that followed was hardly justified by the narrow concept:
Ringstones (1999), Mirror of The Sea (2000), Front Row Centre (2000), Nightwalkers (2000), The View (2000), Visiting Star (2000), I Paint For Love Of Color (2001), Islands (2001), Nights (2001), Die Spiegelmanufaktur (2002) with Jim O'Rourke,
Nights (2002), Solaris (2002), that introduced elements of
dissonant avantgarde music,
A Pilgrim's Solace (2003),
Figures In A Landscape (2004), Places Of Light (2004), Under The Sun (2004), Nightwalkers (2005)
with Andreas Martin,
Still Valley (2005), the denser
Viking Burial For A French Car (2005).
Goldfall (2006), one of his best,
and the inferior Time Of Hayfield (2007) manipulate piano notes by Vikki Jackman.
Vega (2006) turned to a more ethereal atmosphere.
The Days After (2007) collects Mirror works from the early 2000s.
Isolde is the duo of Andrew Chalk and Robin Barnes that released
All Things To Fall Like Marching Men (Penny Poppet, 2005),
You're Alone In Red Riding Picture (2005) and
On Waving And Drowning (Penny Poppet, 2006).
The Cable House (Faraway Press, 2009) creates fragile ghosts of melodies
out of piano notes. Half of it is taken up by the 20-minute
Naybuchi.
In Faxfleet Clouds Uplifted Autumn Gave Passage To Kind Nature (Faraway Press, 2009)
documents a collaboration with Daisuke Suzuki (an old Ora collaborator).
Ghost of Nakhodka (2009 - Siren, 2010) was an excursion into
ambient and minimalist chamber music.
Violin By Night (Faraway Press, 2011) produced lyrical drones out of
piano, guitar, electronics and field recordings.
Echos Pastoraux (La Scie Doree, 2011), credited to Elodie, documents a collaboration between Andrew Chalk and Belgian composer Timo Van Luijk.
La Lumiere Parfumee (Faraway Press, 2012) was its follow-up.
Andrew Chalk launched the project Marsfield with
The Towering Sky (Faraway Press, 2010), recorded with
Vikki Jackman, Robin Barnes, and Brendan Walls in 2005, and
Three Sunsets Over Marsfield (Faraway Press, 2010), that collects
recordings from 2002.
Forty-Nine Views In Rhapsodies' Wave Serene (Faraway Press, 2012)
contains 49 delicate watercolors, pushing the chamber ambient music of
Violins By Night, Ghost Of Nakhodka, and The Cable House
to its minimal and melodic extreme, far removed from the droning monoliths
that established his credentials.
Then came
The Circle Of Days (2014),
Painted Screens (2014),
Ghosts Of Nakhodka (2014),
the 41-minute piece of
A Light At The Edge Of The World (2015),
Everyone Goes Home When The Sun Sets (2016),
the 38-minute piece of
Baroque Steps (2018),
the 35-minute piece of
Paradise Lost (2019),
One Long Year (2019),
Incidental Music (2020),
Light Of The World (2022),
The End Times (2022),
Dreams (2022),
Dioramas (2025),
etc.
