Mark Fry :: “Not on the Radar”
Photo: Jackson Pearce White
Born and raised in Epping, Essex, UK, psych folk legend, painter, and melodic myth, Mark Fry has quietly been recording and releasing music for over half a century. Celebrating the cosmic community of fables, fairy tales, and the feverish visions of his generation, Fry’s 1972 masterpiece “Dreaming of Alice” put him on the melodic map, but without any direction or mode of tonal transportation to help guide him into a successful career of songwriting, like so many before him, he moved on in a lot of ways. Released on the Italian-based label IT, an RCA sublabel, at the age of 19, the aspiring musician shared a similar alchemical approach in the atmospheric arts as his peers, like the Trees, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, Comus, and even deeper cuts such as Simon Finn, Maggie O'Sullivan, and several others from the 1970s British freak folk era. What “Dreaming of Alice” accomplished over the decades, while lying silent in the dungeons of dormancy, undoubtedly paved the way for acts like Six Organs of Admittance, Wooden Wand, and Devendra Banhart, to name a few, to have this biblical blueprint to guide the next generation into the New Weird America scene of the early to mid 2000s. Fry’s influence is quite interesting, as he continued to play music, travel, and focus on painting after the album ‘failed’ to meet the so-called requirements, steady sales, and the all-around challenging climate of the record label, the musician learned the most important lesson of being an artist. You have to learn how to adapt.
“I always wanted to make an album like this, recording live with everyone playing together in the same room. It’s a spontaneous, creative experience. The intensity of it is quite different from what happens when you lay down tracks separately.”
From England to Canada, California to the Inner Niger delta in Mali, Africa, Fry covered some serious ground as he reaffirmed his love, and anatomical admiration for all things music. Picking up a stunning collection of tonal treasures and testimonial trades along the way, the musician has come full circle with his latest work, “Not on the Radar.” Effortlessly exploring the brilliance of lyrical lounge music, and a slow-burning candle that flickers ancient light into the spiritual shadows of romance that’s well hidden under a full moon, Fry liberates the soul with his whispering wisdom, while simultaneously healing the hurt of the world. Accompanied by his band and its merciful members, John Parker, Iain Ross, Angèle David-Guillou, Ian Button, and David Sheppard, the album’s concentrated core echoes into an empty train station, whose departure is minutes behind, and years ahead of its time. While focused on the secret sounds within the crashing waves and hidden hills of the planet’s most precious places, the veteran musician captures something significant and sonically sublime across the album’s ten tracks of poetic perfection. With numbers such as “Jamais À L’Heure,” the album’s opening track “Only Love,” “Big Red Sun,” and its breathtaking title track, “Not on the Radar,” is a blissful journey from start to finish, with the occasional tea break along the way.
Photo: Jackson Pearce White
At 71, it’s apparent that Fry’s artistic ability to transcend into the melodic mist of melancholic memories is masterful, but something else eagerly builds beyond the walls of the aging self. “Not on the Radar” is a beautiful body of ballads that drips like raindrops down the painful panes of a rustic, countryside palace, someplace sacred and safe from society’s tempered tongue. “I’m over the moon to announce the release of my new album, ‘Not On The Radar’, on Second Language. It came to life in one wonderful week last summer, at home in my painting studio in the countryside, with my band of superb musicians,” says Fry about the album’s humble beginnings before becoming a fully functional form amongst his already carefully crafted works, whose feet leave prints of praise in the sands of time. The legendary musician has moved mountains and crossed interstellar plains since his revolutionary debut, “Dreaming of Alice,” in the early 1970s. It’s such a privilege to hear his work and philosophical practice continue to shape the world around us as we move forward into the shapeless distance of the future.
