PAPA NOVEMBER MUSIC

The name Papa November comes from a now inactive short-wave radio numbers station that features the voice of a girl repeating the words papa november between blasts of discordant noise. Although only a tenuous link exists between the numbers station and Papa November the band, blasts of short-wave, radio crackle and radio drones permeate Papa November’s music. Papa November as a musical project was started by Stuart Tonge in 1997, who was inspired by an ever increasing vinyl collection, the sonic possibilities presented by a Mac computer and a desire to create his own language in sound. Stuart set to work, enlisting the efforts of Katy Acquaye who wrote the lyrics, sang and co-produced most Papa November releases between 2001 and 2006. Papa November has released music on Static Caravan, Speedowax and Bearos records. Papa November currently concerns itself with creating soundtracks to imaginary dystopias.

 

PAPA NOVEMBER IMAGES AND WORDS

An important part of the Papa November aesthetic, if such a thing exists, is the importance of a strong visual element to support and compliment the sounds. My background is in Visual Art, ok, Fine Art, and my dream was simply to draw as much as possible. At some point the lure of the Mac was to strong and like so many before me and since I fell prey to it’s many charms. Contained within the framework of this naive website I have included examples of the visual material intended to compliment Papa November’s music. There are also examples of design mainly created for First Fold Records, the minute label I am involved in. I have a bit of a thing about apocalyptic and apocryphal sounding text so there is some of that thrown in as well. If you have read this far, thank you, and I hope you find the site even a little intriguing or interesting. Papa November.