As memorable years go, 1961 has lots going for it. Gagarin became the first man in space, the foundations of the Berlin Wall were laid and Amnesty International was founded. It was also the year that Nigel and Klive Humberstone, the twins behind In The Nursery, were born.
They’ve celebrated it in a series of musical pieces, which range from ambient master works like ‘The Earth Is Blue’, to songs like ‘Pacify’, with a narrative about the futility of war.
The latter song references Catch-22, which was first published in – yes, you guessed it – 1961. As was Solaris, the sci-fi classic, which is the inspiration for the track of the same name.
The album has a more open feel to it than some of their recent pieces, the result I’m sure of some of the recordings being made in a studio as opposed to created on a computer, and is their most accessible work for some time.
Oh, and my absolute favourite thing to celebrate about 1961 is that it was the first strobogrammatic year since 1881; the next one being 6009. I’ll let you work out what that means…
9/10 – Mark Perkins
