John Metcalfe: Tree John Metcalfe

• 1Xylem08:46
• 2Canopy03:30
• 3Root to Leaf10:42
• 4Stasis03:54
• 5Täne Mahuta08:24
• 6Dusk09:05
• 7Night08:05
• 8Sunrise04:54
• Total Runtime57:20

Info for John Metcalfe: Tree

Tree is eight immersive compositions that take the listener through twenty-four hours in the life of one of nature’s most majestic creations

The Durutti Column viola-playing master - a composer and arranger for the likes of U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel and Blur, as well as co-founder with Tony Wilson of the Factory Classical label – had been composing music spontaneously, instinctively, when the idea of Tree arrived. The album came from a desire in John Metcalfe to write at scale – perhaps a natural reaction for a composer writing out of the silences and solitude of our recent pandemic years.

“The pieces I was writing were big and trying to be bigger, so I knew they had to be to do with something – and then I thought about one of the most profound experiences of my life.” He is referring to seeing Tāne Mahuta as an adult, the largest known living kauri tree in the world. Set in an ancient subtropical rainforest on the North Island of Aoreatoa / New Zealand, John had spent his early childhood living in that part of the world after his British father had "escaped there as a ten-pound Pom".

Having emigrated to England as a child, he went back to New Zealand with his wife when he was 26. He explains, “…we thought we’d tick something off the tourist list, and I thought we're going to see trees, which is great – but we weren’t prepared for what happened.”. They both cried when they found Tãne Mahuta, and Metcalfe is still amazed at the reaction he had: “… as an atheist, it was the closest I’ve ever got to a spiritual moment… there was something extraordinary about the atmosphere in the forest and the size of this tree, and the sense that it had been there a long time. It was about the protection it gave, and the sense of connection we had with that protection.”

Written for live players and recorded in Abbey Road Studios to convey human connection at scale, Tree imagines what it would be like to be sat completely still under a tree that you love, being alive to the ever-shifting interplay of light, colour, weather and sound. Shimmering pulsating layered tracks take the listener on a voyage that takes in the dawn chorus, depicted by conversations between chirruping woodwind and staccato strings, through to the solemnity of dusk and into the playful night. The album at times summons up the folkloric power of ancient forests through an emotional crescendo in emotion and sound, before bringing us back to sunrise, and a reflection on the journey we’ve taken.

Tree isn’t just about Tãne Mahuta, explains Metcalfe: “It could be about any tree – they’re all very magical.” This record isn’t a political statement, but it's clear to him that as science progresses, and as climate breakdown progresses, people are trying to find deeper ways to understand and cherish nature. "It’s about the music that people are trying to create to connect with things that are huge and beautiful and inexplicable around them." 


Tree is John's beautiful, emotional attempt. "My album's about describing our relationship with something as every-day and extraordinary as a tree, and how it can be an incredibly important part of who we are.”

Everton Nelson, violin, leader
Natalia Bonner, violin
Charlie Brown, violin
Emil Chakalov, violin
Alison Dods, violin
Louisa Fuller, violin
Richard George, violin
Raja Halder, violin
Marianne Haynes, violin
Rick Koster, violin
Oli Langford, violin
Steve Morris, violin
Charles Mutter, violin
Tom Pigott-Smith, violin
Cathy Thompson, violin
Debbie Widdup, violin
Peter Lale, viola
Reiad Chibah, viola
Gillianne Haddow, viola
Kate Musker, viola
Andy Parker, viola
Rachel Robson, viola
Richard Harwood, cello
Adrian Bradbury, cello
Ian Burdge, cello
David Daniels, cello
James Douglas, cello
Julia Graham, cello
Sophie Harris, cello
Tony Woollard, cello
Stacey Watton, double bass
Roger Linley, double bass
Richard Pryce, double bass
Lucy Shaw, double bass
Alun Derbyshire, oboe (tracks 3, 4, 5 ,6, 7, 8)
Sarah Burnet, bassoon (tracks 3, 4, 5 ,6, 7, 8)

Recorded at The Bus Stop
Mixed by John Metcalfe and Patrick Phillips
Mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios

John Metcalfe
has always been surrounded by music. As a child, he would listen to his father sing opera, before a love of Kraftwerk and Joy Division led to a stint as a drummer in a high school band. But it was a move to Manchester that really accelerated his development as an artist, and led to him finding his true calling. Joining cult band The Durutti Column, then signed to legendary label Factory Records, brought him into the orbit of Tony Wilson and the Haçienda, formative events that would help foster his renegade spirit.

Unimpressed with the strictures demanded by the classical recording industry, Metcalfe persuaded Wilson to launch the ground-breaking Factory Classical Label, aimed at unearthing exciting – and unconventional – new British talent. It was here that Metcalfe found a home, and the group that would come to define his musical career; the Duke Quartet. For nearly 30 years, they've existed at the vanguard of contemporary British music, innovating and delighting in equal measure. Working with world-renowned artists across the entire cultural spectrum, from pop, dance, film, TV, and theatre, Metcalfe honed his arranging and producing skills; he's now one of the UK's most sought after arrangers, regularly working with some of biggest names in music. As a solo artist, Metcalfe explores electro-classical soundscapes and the boundaries between genres. His finely tuned compositions are neat yet grand in scale, both in terms of sound and the conceptual ideas underpinning them. "Absence", the fifth record to bear his own name, is something of a departure for Metcalfe, framing bold images and themes with some of the most conventional song structures he's ever employed. But it's also his most affecting, deconstructing a subject he's been interested in since his childhood in New Zealand: Dealing with loss.

This album contains no booklet.