The Garden, a PJ Harvey Discussion Site

Polly has written the soundtrack for another Tv show coming soon to Channel 4!

https://www.nottinghampost.com/whats-on ... -4-2631742

The soundtrack is going to be ace

The music for the series is provided by multi-award-winning British composer and recording artist, PJ Harvey. Harvey’s most recent works include scores for Peaky Blinders season two, and stage productions for Ian Rickson (The Nest, Electra, The Goat) and Ivo Van Hove (All About Eve).

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwEbr5tHDRY/

pjharveyofficial
Last night we saw the BAFTA screening of Shane Meadows new drama series ‘The Virtues’. I am so happy to have provided the original music for this extraordinary and powerful new drama by a director I have admired and followed all my life. Shane has a unique directness and sensitivity to his work which I am drawn to and aspire to in my own work, so our collaboration was open and trusting.
I sent Shane ideas as demos for him to try out as he edited and let him choose what he used and where to greatest effect. In the end we both loved how the demos worked so left them as they were, again adding to the raw beauty of the piece. ‘The Virtues’ is produced by @warpfilms and out this May.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/m ... ham-trauma

But he remembered, and cast her as a nurse in TIE 88. In The Virtues, Behan is full of heart, funny and stern. Rising star Niamh Algar is brilliant too, plus – plus! – the score is by PJ Harvey. Meadows wanted a soundtrack as opposed to songs, as he’d had in This Is England, and he’d thought of Harvey. And then, amazingly, she emailed him out of the blue, saying she’d like to work with him. There’s a beautiful sequence of Joe trudging through the Irish countryside in the rain, all set to Harvey’s fantastic music.

I came across a post which said that The Big Issue magazine UK gives away a song from the soundtrack of The Virtues by PJ Harvey. Since I don't live in the UK I don't know the magazine, but some research taught me that it's a magazine sold on the streets by homeless people, as a project to give them an income. Anyway, I can order the magazine online but the shipping costs to my country are crazy. Is there anyone on this forum from the UK who can check out whether it truly is a new song (and not just an old song that happens to be part of the soundtrack for example) and thus worth spending 20 quid plus exchange rate (or even better: share the song). Here's a link to the website: https://www.bigissueshop.com/product/is ... uty-calls#

I have recently updated www.pollyharvey.co.uk to now be responsive (finally) for mobile users

I was just adding the lyrics to the The Crowded Cell when i thought to let some of you know!

(not sure if many people visit the site anymore so will keep it going for now and see how it goes)

JPH

Surprised no one has mentioned this here yet but Polly linked via Twitter to her Soundcloud which features the new song. It’s great!

https://soundcloud.com/pjharvey/the-vir ... owded-cell

Loving it!

jph wrote:I have recently updated http://www.pollyharvey.co.uk to now be responsive (finally) for mobile users

I was just adding the lyrics to the The Crowded Cell when i thought to let some of you know!

(not sure if many people visit the site anymore so will keep it going for now and see how it goes)

JPH

Thanks JPH for the lyrics and for your work during all these years (been checking your site since 2003, and yes I still visit it)

Did anyone see the new episode tonight (Wednesday)? Was there a different PJH song in it?

The whole soundtrack is out:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1jMe5xlw ... dS4BcZjjMw

Features "The Crowded Cell", five new compositions by Polly, as well as tracks by Aphex Twin, Gazelle Twin, Set Fire to Flames etc.

From the official web site:

The Crowded Cell

I’m in a crowded cell.
The super calls my name.
He shoves me in a room.
He calls two soldiers in.
They clamp my head with irons.
Their hands becoming fists.
You will see us again.
You will remember this.
They tie me up with ropes.
They beat my legs with sticks.
I cannot use my legs.
They drag me to a desk.
Behind it sits a man.
Fingernails are on the floor.
He laughs and asks, What kind
of freedom do you want?
They push me down the stairs.
I’m lying on the ground.
Behind a cellar door,
I hear two women howl.
I see three men on racks.
Their hands tied to their feet.
Their faces pinched with clamps.
Guards pulling at their teeth.
They drag me to the gate.
They dump me on the ground.
The super laughs and says,
Walk to your freedom now!

This image on repeat;
A mouth that cannot speak.
A huge force pressing in.
A giant, looming fist.
You will see us again.
You will remember this.

I love those lyrics.

The rest of her contributions are interesting, some of them seem like background sounds to me that might only work in the context of a film (or TV series as they were). I enjoy all of it more than I have her last three albums.

I've only just listened to some of The Virtues pieces. Much to my surprise, I found that 'The Lonely Wolf' was part of the soundtrack to Orpheus & Eurydice from 2015. In that, you can only hear a snippet, but it's exactly the same. At first I thought it was just the vocal, but no, it's precisely the same piece.

It did sound familiar and I'm sure the same vocal melody was used in one of the demos used in On Kosovo Field. I don't have those files to compare though.