Matthew Herbert
One Pig (Accidental Records)

ONE PIG is in many ways a biography. it started life as part of a trilogy of records made out of one thing (the other two being ONE ONE - only made with sounds by matthew himself, and ONE CLUB - made out of sounds recorded over the duration of one night in a german night club). however, pretty soon it became clear that this wasn't going to be a straightforward record.  before a note of music had been played, PETA had condemned the record and a facebook group  sought to have the record withdrawn from production. both reactions seem absurd given the pretext and process of the record. the intention of the record was always to listen in on one farm animal's life, from birth to death and beyond. it had no intention to interfere with this process or mock, flatter, cajole or preach to the listener for the principle reason that matthew had no idea what to expect from either the process or the recordings themselves. it is not intended as a call to vegetarianism, but it would prefer that we ate less meat and demanded better conditions for the meat that we did consume. there is something deeply rewarding, however, that the very idea of a piece of music could still have the power to shock or cause friction. particularly at a time when music is primarily a vehicle for the selling of consumer goods, and sustaining the status quo.

so the eponymous pig of the title, was born in august 2009 and mr herbert visited the pig and its family roughly every two weeks until it was killed at 24 weeks, 4 weeks later than most industrially farmed pigs. due to the absurdities of the british food system, he was not allowed to record the actual death. however, on the record we do hear the butchery and subsequent cooking and eating of the pig. the album is made entirely from sounds recorded on this journey.

the album is arranged chronologically, so we hear the pig and its siblings age over the seven tracks with the last two tracks being the beginnings of a kind of temporal afterlife. on track 7, entitled January, we hear the pig alone in a trailer, waiting to go off to the abattoir. it is the clearest moment on the album where we hear the one pig alone. shortly afterwards, the butchery was recorded in all its uncomfortable details - the air beaten out of the lungs and the thud of the severed head on the work surface. a full five months later, on the anniversary of the first publication of animal farm, a gathering of chefs was organised to cook and celebrate the pig. this was, after all, a farmed pig, raised for meat. the thinking was that if it was indeed to be eaten, then every mouthful should count. renowned chef's including jason atherton and fergus henderson took away one part of the pig to cook in their own way. with a few selected guests, the pig was eaten.

a drum was also made from its skin, and can be heard played by tom skinner. an entirely new instrument was invented by henry dagg to be able to get pitch from pig's blood (by forcing the blood up through tuned reeds) and this peculiar sound can be heard predominantly on August 2010 played by sam beste. candles were made from its fat and its bones were used as percussion instruments. paint was made from its blood and candelabra from its remaining trotters.

pigs aren't just grown for meat though, they permeate virtually every aspect of our lives, their products being found in everything from sweets to bullets, from film to beer, and makeup to cigarettes. our dependence on these invisible animals, stories, processes and byproducts is typical of our modern bloated societies: the suffering goes unheard, the privilege of distance sanitising the dirty, messy truths of late capitalism. and this record is attempting to thrust a microphone in to one such darkened corner and stand face-to-face with the other, the unheard, the dispossessed and listen in to see what it may learn. the conclusion is less controversial, but nonetheless prescient: the more certain one is about what one is likely to hear, the more one is revealed to not be listening carefully enough.


recently matthew has been working with kevin macdonald and ridley scott on the score for the documentary film life in a day, with bjork on her new album biophilia. he has produced merz, barbara panther and rowdy superstar, he has 'recomposed' mahler's tenth symphony for deutsche gramophon and played live shows, and djed around the world.

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