Trunk Vinyl & CDs

Review: A pioneering English drummer and composer, Basil Kurchin's career spanned from the 1940s through to the early 2000s. When he transitioned from big band drumming to scoring and composing films, he became newly credited for experimenting with tape and field recordings, baking the sounds of birds, animals, insects and children into his soundtracks. This retro-harking compilation of never-heard-before soundtrack cuts by the mad sonographer is not the first to reach its wanting hands into the plumbable depths of the Kirchin archives; not a composer for popular media, Kirchin's various scores include The Shuttered Room (1961), Assignment K (1968), and The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). The obscurity of each film alone would render the task of assigning context to each track difficult, if not also for the fact that Kirchin has now left us. However, speculations abound: Trunk Records maintain that the the music for The Mutations dates from 1974, and was the score to a bizarre Jack Cardiff film starring Donald Pleasence and Tom Baker. As for Journey Into The Unknown, this is a tape from the archive with "Journey Into The Unknown" written on it, and very little else. Dating from 1968, it is alleged to originate from a series of spooky British TV dramas with supernatural twists; a forerunner of Tales Of The Unexpected.

Review: Since launching way back in 1996, Trunk Records has become one of the world's most reliable outlets for odd, interesting and overlooked gems from across the musical spectrum, with Jonny Trunk doing a terrific job in curating a catalogue packed to the rafters with bizarre-but-brilliant library music, oddball British film soundtracks, early electronica, exotica and much more besides. This 25th anniversary collection offers a small snapshot of the label's story so far and features a mixture of back catalogue favourites and previously unheard cuts. Equal parts Radiophonic Workshop style electronic experiments, library music oddities, quirky TV theme tunes and smile-inducing easy listening jazz, it's a fittingly quirky and entertaining affair that should make newcomers want to dig deeper into Trunk's eccentric and esoteric catalogue.

Review: This is the unreleased soundtrack from Bartleby, the British drama film from 1970 directed by Anthony Friedman. It was an adaptation of the short story Bartleby, the Scrivener; A Story of Wall-street by Herman Melville. The plot revolved around the young audit clerk Bartleby, who as a result of being overwhelmed by the pressures of modern life withdraws into his own world. 31 years later, there was another remake directed by Jonathan Parker, with Crispin Glover in the lead role. Sound wise, it is a' blissful mix of British pastoral jazz and serious drum, double bass and string action'.

Review: It's always fascinating to discover a completely different side to an artist like Gerald Woodruff. Jezz to most, he's best known for his spell with the mighty Black Sabbath, appearing on the Technical Ecstasy album, and performing on both that tour and the dates in support of landmark LP Sabotage. He also recorded with Robert Plant and Phil Collins on the former's debut album, Pictures at Eleven. As such he's probably not the first artist you'd expect to have made an underwater soundtrack to a forgotten marine life epic, Wonders of the Underwater World. A production two years in the making, Woodroffe's accompaniment uses a number of synths and electronic instruments that Vangelis was fond of at the time, lending a sense of the miraculous and unknown to the score, while the crew at Trunk Record have also created a retro sleeve complete with sticker sheet, meaning you can create your own seabed scene on the cover