A 12 track, 45 minute album of original recorded works released under the project name 'Sleeps in Oysters'. Lo! was released in a glossy card gatefold sleeve with each standard edition accompanied by a hand-illustrated insert depicting each of the 12 animal masks featured in the album photography as a cross stitch chart. 50 hand numbered special edition packs were available each with one of the 12 animal masks featured on the sleeve, and a kit consisting of threads, fabric and thimble to enable the owner to ‘stitch their own’ matching miniature cross stitch. Lisa has been cross-stitching each of the 12 animal masks from date of release and her progress in photos can be followed on the Sleeps in Oysters blog.

The album Lo! can be read as an exhaustive dissection of the perceived norms of both pop song, and pop album structures. Various tracks subvert the expectations of length, structure and placement of sung elements within the wider musical composition; whilst others present themselves in numerous parts over a number of tracks. The structure of the album itself is a deliberate attempt to dictate a pre-ordained ‘order’ against the perceived norms for CD album (with an uninterrupted trajectory with no forced ‘side turn’ as with vinyl LPs and cassette tapes) or digitally downloaded album (which allows complete listener control in the choice and order of tracks played), the forms in which this release was made available. Additionally the order presents two voices from within the collaborative project on two, purely imagined ‘sides’ of the release, as if they were concurrent not coherent. Indeed its name is a deliberately ‘humorous’ reference to Bowie’s Low - an unusual pop precedent for the album presenting two distinct sets of repertoire.

This album and wider body of work by Sleeps in Oysters seeks to undermine pre-conceived roles of voices and instruments that imply hierarchical relationships between constituent parts of song compositions. They draw on and amalgamate concepts and processes from popular music and a spectrum of electronic music and sound art, allowing the lyrical and melodic content of songs to sit amidst experimental sound worlds. A key feature of the sonic landscape is the use of ‘found sounds’, and their intricate cutting and placement to form dense collages. This approach is reflected in use of found materials to create elaborate and bespoke physical packaging for their releases. As musical artefacts, inextricably connected sonic and physical works, they question the value of physical artefacts in the post-digital musical climate.

Track Listing
1. The lost childwood, the measure of a man, the table of six
2. Tonite I'll shed my skin
Suite, Winter NW9
3. Prologue (Days getting shorter)
4. Part One (Moon lights face)
5. Part Two (Happy apple)
6. Part Three (NO MORE WINTER BLUES!)
7. Sunday at the margin
8. The brambles in starlight
9. Don't drum for other girls
10. Song for neglected boys
11. Two people in a clock by the digital sea, Part one: The fishermen's hymn
12. Two people in a clock by the digital sea, Part two

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9108