“The Cross (Croce) will be the next step in Father Murphy's path and the concept behind the new Father Murphy’s album.
It was time for Father Murphy to measure with such a symbol.
“It's all about Sacrifice and Beatitude, dear C. Lee and Rev. freddie.”
This is the artist statement behind Calvary by Father Murphy. Not music as such, but a short piece of sound art - a musique concrete tone poem figuratively depicting the execution place of Dismas, Gestas and Jesus of Nazareth.
The sound is collaged from the sounds of wood being cut up and built into a cross, with percussion sounds recorded at the Holy Friday Procession in Ceske Budejovice, Czechoslovakia, and the banging of metal constructs in a children’s park in Stockholm.
The vocals and other audio elements were recorded variously in a backyard in Brooklyn, a mansion in Joshua Tree, a cave in San Francisco, and on the Pyramid of The Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Calvary features a guest appearance by Ezra Buchla on viola (formerly of Gowns and heir to the Buchla synth dynasty).
Father Murphy have toured and collaborated with the likes of Xiu Xiu and Swans. Their previous release - Pain Is On Our Side Now - challenged the listener to engage creatively with the sound they are experiencing by presenting the audio across four sides of vinyl, any two of which are required to be played simultaneously.
The duo’s own description of their sound is “Father Murphy is the sound of the Catholic sense of Guilt. A downward spiral aiming at the bottom of the hollow, and then digging even deeper.”
