Released on the Linear Obsessional Recordings label on 21 Dec 2017 as a download and a limited numbered edition of 100 CDs. Each CD is enclosed in a plastic flexible case with a liner insert. Also includes pdf book.

Catalogue Number: LOR099
More information, availability and CD purchase and download: linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/a-blue-guide-to-shore-ghosts-and-sea-mystery

A new themed collection of music based on supernatural and mysterious aquatic subject matter. Expanding the palette from the field recordings and subdued electronics of the previous releases ("Music for Lighthouses" and "Coastal Quicksands of the British Isles") to include drum kits, guitars, scratched '78s and harmonica as well as guest musicians Graham Massey (of 808 State and Biting Tongues) on saxophones and assorted percussion, and Ruth Davies on Cello. The resultant music is a triumphant combination of unsettling but absorbing sounds with a new interest in acoustic instrumentation, and even a Krautrock feel at moments."Shore Ghosts and Sea Mystery" sees Clarkson exploring expansive (forgive me) new waters...

Dave Clarkson - Synths and keyboards, guitars, drum kit, drum machine, harmonica, field recordings, scratched 78s.

Graham Massey: Bamboo flute, bell tree, congas, glockenspiel, melodica, skulls, vibraphone (Track 4).
Baritone saxophone and bass clarinet (Track 6).

Ruth Davies: Cello (Track 4).

All tracks written and produced by Dave Clarkson except, tracks 4 & 6 written and produced by Dave Clarkson & Graham Massey.

Recorded: April 2016 - January 2017.

Cavendish House Studio,
Manchester.


REVIEWS:

"The name Graham Massey doesn’t pop very often in these pages for one could say he’s solid star of dance music in 808 State in the late 80s and before that active with Biting Tongues, who released on Factory Records. Here he appears on a release by Dave Clarkson, who first works as Illuminati (see Vital Weekly 428) and since a few years under his own name (VitalWeekly 1077 and 965). He has more Factory Records connections, working with Vini Reilly (The Durutti Column) and with Alan Hempsall of Crispy Ambulance a duo called Scissorgun (which is also the name of an album by the Ambulance). This new album continues Clarkson’s interest in doing music ‘on mysterious coastline and aquatic subject matter’. He plays to that end synthesizers, keyboards, drum kit, drum machine, harmonica, and field recordings as well as scratched 78s. Massey contributes on one piece bamboo flute, bell tree, congas, glockenspiel, melodica, skulls, vibraphone and on another baritone saxophone and bass clarinet and Ruth Davies plays cello on the first track with the extended Massey instruments. That is also the most complex piece of the six pieces (total length, sadly, only thirty-two minutes). Clarkson delivers again a very fine and delicate album of great atmospheric music. Sounds washing ashore, taken from real sea waves as well as synthesized versions thereof, and much of what Clarkson does is not very abstract, but more melodic; spacious but always with a melody hidden or in plain sight. A touch of sustaining guitar sounds, the lovely saxophone in ‘The Ghost Whale’ or the peaceful violin sounds of ‘On Reflection’. Clarkson’s music is all about delicate and refined moods and while I though the previous album was his best effort so far, I think this one is even better. I enjoyed the more balanced output of this one as opposed to the somewhat frequency heavier previous one. The music benefits more from this refined balance, I think. Lovely release, once again. (FdW)"
FRANS DE WAARD, VITALWEEKLY, 29 Jan 2018

"The Manchester-based recondite electronicist follows last year's 'A Red Guide to the Coastal Quicksands of the British Isles' with this equally intriguing, aquatically-themed outing. Expanding on gentle electronics and field recordings, Clarkson ropes in 808 State's Graham Massey (sax/assorted percussion) and cellist Ruth Davies, to great effect. Tracks like the drifting mist of 'Kraken', the unsettling ebb and flow of 'Ancient Mariners Seasick and Scurvy' and the cries of 'The Ghost Whale' make for an unsettingly powerful listen".
NEIL MASON, ELECTRONIC SOUND Magazine, Issue 39, 2018.

"Symphonies of the Kraken. Squid lore. Madrigals from Davey Jones' Locker"
PAUL MARGREE, TARQUIN ZINE Issue 10, 2018.

"... a release whose titles read like chapters from a young person’s book of maritime lore… ‘Mysterious Island’, ‘The Ghost Whale’ and ‘Galleon & Gunpowder’ contain words fit to stir the heart of any ten year-old who dreams of the Boyhood Of Raleigh and reads a picture book about going down to the sea in ships under the bedclothes with a torch. And I love the idea that Clarkson might be producing a series of fictitious Guide Books disguised as CDs, much like The Observer’s Book of Sea Life or those one-shilling books from the 1960s, such as I-Spy At The Seaside. Where previously Clarkson has opted for minimal, quiet electronic drones and icy atmospheres (sometimes derived from or accentuated with location recordings), this time he’s going for more sonic richness, melodies, synth tunes, even some beats…he’s aided by Graham Massey on the instrumentation front, said Massey contributing a bunch of percussion on one track and woodwinds elsewhere. There’s also Ruth Davies on the cello on the vaguely haunting tune ‘Mysterious Island’. While some of his melodies feel lightweight and veer towards maudlin easy-listening (‘On Reflection’ is soppy enough to have been used on a BBC documentary about fell-rambling from the 1980s), there’s still enough of the ambiguous murmurs, shadows and whispering effects to engage the imaginative interest, particularly ‘Galleon & Gunpowder’ which is mostly the sounds of sea and wind presented in highly suggestive and enigmatic manner. ‘The Kraken’ pays tribute to everyone’s favourite monster of the deep, that famed giant octopus type, by steadily building four minutes of undersea tension as this tentacled titan rises from the lower depths, chattering eerily the while. Parts of ‘The Ghost Whale’ are also spooky and melodramatic; a nice combination of old-school synth sounds with lapping waves and a tasty smidgeon of reverb..."
ED PINSENT, The Sound Projector, Sep 2018.


BROADCASTS:
'Mysterious Island' on Reform Radio / Sam Healey & Graham Massey - 08 Feb 2018.
'The Ghost Whale' on RadioPanik, Brussels, Belgium - 25 Feb 2018.
'The Ghost Whale' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Nick Name - 23 Mar 2018.
'Kraken' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Carol - 27 Mar 2018.
'On Reflection' on Adventures in Sound and Music / Wire Magazine on Resonance FM - 29 Mar 2018.
'Kraken' on Lysergic Factory on Radio Campus, Brussels, Belgium - 03 April 2018.
'Mysterious Island' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Daniel Blumin - 25 May 2018.
'On Reflection' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Scott Williams - 28 May 2018.
'Kraken' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Stan - 01 June 2018.
'Mysterious Island' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / John Allen - 01 June 2018.
'The Ghost Whale' on Sound Projector radio podcast / London - 05 June 2018.
'On Reflection' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Mark V - 13 June 2018.
'Ancient Mariners, Seasick & Scurvy' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Carol - 17 June 2018.
'Mysterious Island' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Play Vertigo With Mayuko - 07 July 2018.
'On Reflection' on WFMU, New Jersey, US / Gaylord Fields - 05 Aug 2018.
‘On Reflection’ on BBC Radio Lancashire / Steve Barker - 18 Aug 2019.
‘Ancient Mariners, Seasick & Scurvy' on Reform Radio / Sam Healey & Graham Massey - July 2020.
‘The Ghost Whale' on Reform Radio / Sam Healey & Graham Massey - 08 Mar 2021.