Heavy Forest Air' a live spontaneous musical collaboration between Eugene Skeef and Rae Howell (Sunwrae).

Recorded live by Jared Miller at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, it was an impulsive venture in a hall filled with percussion instruments that began as an experiment following an intensive three-month winter music residency.

The three tracks are suitably bound by Eugene's stylish labyrinth of rhythms on all things percussive and Rae's minimalistic prowess on marimba and vibraphone. 

Heavy Forest Air is a mellifluent sound world, unclassifiable, yet superbly ceremonious. Eugene serendipitously changes between udu, congas, gongs, water bowls and many other drums, providing solid, yet continuously surprising rhythmic backbones to Rae's creations on melodic percussion.

1. Heavy Forest Air
2. Ocean of Emptiness
3. Restless Woodland

The partly autobiographical album was first commissioned for a performance in April 2011 at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. During this period, Vini and Poppy (his girlfriend of 9 years) parted company and it was a heartbroken Vini that went on to complete the production. Despite the breakup, Poppy had agreed to perform on piano that evening for two of the songs that she had written with Vini accompanying on guitar. Over the following three years, the artist has battled serious illness and has not played a full show since. It was – and still is – a very difficult time physically, mentally and emotionally for Vini Reilly. The compositions reflect a particular stage in Vini’s recent life.

At the Bridgewater Hall show, a pre-release limited edition CD was available exclusively for that show, with a note by Vini explaining the background to the new work. Whilst Chronicle began as an autobiographical project, events in his life during recording the album brought a new twist to the project. Chronicle 1 and LX: Chronicle 2 – The Music. Bruce Mitchell (Drums and Percussion)  "So there are two versions of Chronicle. We did a special edition for the gig at the Bridgewater Hall, where people could get the album as part of a premium ticket deal. In 2011, we premiered the music there, with all Vini's photographs up on the screen.

That was the last gig really. The following day, Phil Cleaver from Kooky said he'd got back home to find his emails full of requests from the audience to buy one. So they all sold out, immediately. But soon afterwards Vin became really ill."  "It was a big, expensive recording, Chronicle. And Vin, despite being ill, did this further version, taking all aspects of musical life. So there's Chronicle 1 and Chronicle 2. What I wanted Vini to do as a composer was something similar to Elgar’s Enigma Variations. A piece of music about certain people in a life. I wanted him to do this and link the music to photographs he'd taken over the years. Vin's a great photographer."  

However, Reilly remains the Durutti Column's indisputable leader, and had the last say. Bruce continues: "I didn't quite get what I wanted, because in the end, Vini wanted the album to be about his life at this point in time. We couldn't finish it for a while because Vin was in such a bad way. But now it's there. And we've got some very interesting, very powerful music on this. Vini doesn’t think show business. To him, it’s all about a musical imperative."

Chronicle LX - The Package This package continues the Durutti Column’s tradition of the innovative.

This special packaging contains personal images from the artist's camera and photographic collection. Continuing the autobiographical theme, the packaging will acknowledge previous releases through parts of its design and materials used herein. A foil blocked burgundy textured clamshell box will contain: A full colour saddle stitched booklet with an introduction by Bruce Mitchell and a collage of photographs from Vini’s own personal collection:

A map (randomly selected one of six designs) redrawn in ‘Obey the Time’ purple and yellow showing a place of importance to the artist.

A grey foil blocked certificate.

Two compact discs in wallets.