Former Porcupine Tree colleagues Colin Edwin and Chris Maitland have reunited along with guitarist Jon Durant, with whom Edwin performs in ambient proggers Burn Belief, to record a new album, The Baldock Transmission, which will be released through Alchemy Records on November 7.
It marks the first time bassist Edwin and drummer Maitland have worked together since 2002’s Lightbulb Sun album, after which Maitland departed the band. Edwin remained bassist until the band’s tour for The Incident, but was not asked back for the 2022 reunion.
“After initially re-making contact with Colin when suspecting I was no longer PT’s sole ‘ex’ member, I enjoyed simply meeting up after many years,” says Maitland. “With a long time of highly prescribed playing at West End musicals, I was out of the habit of spontaneous creativity and resisted the idea of the two of us having a ‘jam’.
“I welcomed being given and enjoyed listening to his Burnt Belief CD’s and realised his later suggestion of a creative recording session with the project’s collaborator might be a better possibility. The same day I first met Jon, I was also playing with him and he was enabling this new musical connection – one which included mine and Colin’s that was evidently not extinct and had only been dormant!”
The Baldock Transmission was recorded with no preconceived plans as to what the music might sound like, but rather playing on the innate chemistry between the musicians
“Quite a few of the Porcupine Tree tunes we’d a hand in were birthed in the moment with minimal prior discussion, and, after all, they seemed to have worked out well,” adds Edwin. “Moonloop is perhaps the most well-known, but also Intermediate Jesus, the entire Metanoia album. It’s also worth remembering there were quite a number of spontaneous improv moments even in the more composed songs, and especially in the earlier, spacier songs when they were performed live – Dislocated Day, Radioactive Toy, Not Beautiful Anymore…”
The Baldock Transmission will be available in a special Limited Edition transparent green vinyl. CD and digital formats will be available with extra tracks.
Pre-orders open on September 5.
