Today Neil Gaiman and Australia’s FourPlay String Quartet have shared share the new track “In Transit” from the album Signs of Life which will be released on April 28 by Instrumental Recordings. “In Transit” follows the earlier singles “Bloody Sunrise” and “The Wreckers.”
According to the press release “Transit” merges two previously written pieces of work while combining the instrumental by FourPlay with Gaiman’s touching tribute to the English astronomer Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington.
In Gaiman’s poem, the man behind the astronomer who proved Einstein’s theory of relativity during his 1919 expedition to Principe, off the coast of West Africa, by observing the stars in a total solar eclipse. A quiet and reserved soul who ultimately led a lonely life behind the public persona of a world-renowned astronomer.
The first half of Gaiman’s poem is formal, rhythmic and measured while the second is informal and conversational. The writing reflects what he calls the ‘twin suns’ in the two dramatically different parts.
FourPlay’s instrumental is also divided into two parts, at first reserved and delicate, then building and opening out into a soaring piece with rhythmic strings, effects and soaring vocals reflecting the magic and wonder of Gaiman’s poem and its subject.
The Neil Gaiman and FourPlay String Quartet collaboration was born in 2010, when Sydney Opera House’s Graphic Festival commissioned FourPlay to write a soundtrack to Neil’s novella The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains for a live performance with him.
That collaboration led to a beautiful creative partnership, where Neil and FourPlay developed an original suite of works around the concept of the zodiac, with the traditional signs replaced by a new collection of words and objects exploring aspects of life.
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