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In addition to being Resonance FM’s OST expert with his Saturday night show, Jonny Trunk is also the main man at Trunk Records. As a fellow fan of British Jazz, time to find out more from the man himself about the Michael Garrick Trio recording called Moonscape.

“at the time they were asking fairly cosmic questions about earth and its grey, dead lunar companion”

“Only 99 copies were made in 1963. One eventually found me. I got an email from a shop in Hampstead who had been given one to sell. They Googled ‘Michael Garrick’ and I was one of two names that came up! So they gave me a call and offered it to me at a good price. It was one of those funny occasions when you believe it was supposed to happen.”

The track ‘Sketches Of Israel’ has been picked out as a highlight and he’s been in touch with Michael about the album. “He has few recollections, apart from the fact that he liked the moon photos, at the time they were asking fairly cosmic questions about earth and its grey, dead lunar companion.”

“They asked me because they know I have lots of strange records…”

Deep stuff and somewhat at odds with some off the other releases on the label like “readings from genuine letters sent to porn stars and Page 3 girls” and Derek Griffith’s much loved kids TV programme, Bod: Words & Music. He tells me, “The porno letters are as odd as you want them to be. Some of them are far stranger than others, but that’s down to individual interpretation. As for going for the odd, that’s just my musical taste for you.”

Talking of which, I think I first fell across the musician Jonny Trunk with the inclusion of ‘Zeus’ on Nick Luscombe’s Flo-Motion Volume 2 (a compilation of a couple of years ago that also featured some popular Fly artists like Bonobo, Solar Apple Quarktette, Break Reform, Sidewinder, Dimlite, One Deck & Popular and Sébastien Tellier). ‘Zeus’ was originally on Trunk’s album The Inside Outside and he’s did a remix of the Real Tuesday Weld’s ‘Bathtime In Clerkenwell’. He says, “The Inside Outside was simply proving to myself that, as an untrained “musician”, I could write an album and get away with it. As for the Real Tuesday Weld’ remix, they just asked me and I said yes. It was a money thing I believe.”

And still vaguely on the subject of odd records, in this months’ Mojo Weird Record Club, Jonny Trunk Salutes: Fred Weinberg — The Weiberg Method Of Non-synthetic Electronic Rock. “Yeah, this is a regular column that I write for them every month about a strange record. They asked me because they know I have lots of strange records. Again, it’s just my taste.”

“I got in touch with John Cameron and he found the tape in his shed.”

And you can hear his “taste” every Saturday on Resonance FM. “I was first a guest when the studio started. Then the show I was a guest on suggested I asked for my own show. At the time I’d been working on an idea and sent Resonance a proposal. They emailed me the next day asking if I’d like to start at the weekend. This was about 5 years ago. It’s a brilliant station for lots of reasons.”

The radio show , OST (“the famous Original Sound Track Show with Jonny Trunk”) nicely fits in Trunk Records’ output. One of the first releases was John Cameron’s OST music composed for the 1969 UK film Kes. “I just watched the film and thought the music was sad, beautiful and needed to be heard. I got in touch with John Cameron and he found the tape in his shed.” It is a incredibly moving film as I remember it.

Back in the 60s and 70s there were some huge composers who were kings of film score music. The Ennio Morricone / John Barry/ Roy ‘Get Carter’ Budd / Georges Delerue of the past don’t seem to exist anymore, ” It’s difficult to compare anyone to those artists,” while the film industry continues to turn out a Rogues’s Gallery of blockbusting Pirates of Harry Potter’s Death Wish.

“I’d always been into old porn scores, I happened to meet the UK owner of the film and did a deal with him.”

He says of contemporary soundtracks, “A lot of new scores come my way. I like about 10% of them, which is generous”. But what of works like Pere Ubu’s ‘live’ soundtack to It Came From Outer Space and Terrah Danja new soundtrack to Blade Runner ? “This is a trend that has been running since way back in the 1970s, and probably before. Some work better than others. I wouldn’t bother myself, apart from maybe scoring a totally silent film.”

Sticking with the sci-fi, Trunk Records is also releasing The Tomorrow People -(1973-1979), “a British science fiction series about teens who have special powers. Most of the music from The Tomorrow People came from one library record: Standard Music Library’s disc ESL 104 made in 1969.” And from that to, acoustic lo-fi of Fuzzy-Felt Folk which included a track by Basil Kirchin. He says, “I’d discovered Kirchin years before. What a God!”. For “anyone who entered the strange and unique world of the great Basil Kirchin”, he’s also released the album Particles.

Along with OSTs and nostalgia, as already mentioned, the other interest is sex and the combination of all three. Any male of a certain age will spot sub-label, Bonk Records has released Deep throat — The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. He admits, “I’d always been into old porn scores, I happened to meet the UK owner of the film and did a deal with him.” Anyone who has seen the ‘making of’ Inside Deep Throat will know there was a big mafia angle to the orginal film; they just don’t make ‘em like they did in the “late 60s, mid 70s, my fave era.”

So don’t be scared of this Jonny as he’s no axe-wielding Jack Nicholson. Just another music obsessed record label owning, DJ and journalist looking to bring you some old favourites; music for lunatics sounds about right!

(Image: D Collie)

Links:
Trunk Records — Moonscape “Moonscape will be pressed on CD with new notes from Michael Garrick, and will also be pressed on limited vinyl, 500 copies only worldwide”
www.trunkrecords.com/radio — OST, the show is two hours every Saturday featuring film music, TV music, library music and related recordings — such as film stars singing, advertising incidentals, that kind of thing
www.resonancefm.com
The Shining (1980) @ www.imdb.com “What does Jack mean when he says “Here’s Johnny”? …”
Mojo July 07 ‘One Love! Bob Marley — How reggae’s revolutionary conquered the world’ www.mojo4music.com
www.myspace.com/nickluscombe
Blade Runner (1982) @ www.imdb.com
Thurs, 19th July / 8.00pm @ Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, London E15 1BX
Urban Development run regular live events at Stratford Circus in East London, including programmes for the annual BBC Radio 3 London Jazz Festival and London Borough Of Newham’s Music Month, as well as one-off dates and tours for specific projects. Ridley Scott’s classic 1982 film is getting a sonic overhaul and the man in the composer’s chair is Terror Danjah from the Aftershock Camp. Anyone who has heard Terror’s work with Bruza, Kano and Sadie will know the score. Visual edits are courtesy of Mox from Ninja Tune www.urbandevelopment.co.uk