Mackle grew up near Belfast and moved to London in 2012. He has since become part of an experimental scene crossing the disciplines of sound art, electroacoustics and unconventional performance as it orbits venues such as Cafe Oto and the Hundred Years Gallery.

Yet strands of folk music, especially Irish, have been a constant in his life, even if specifically English traditional songs provide foundations for sitting still for a living. Meanwhile, hints of folk traditions such as uilleann piping have influenced his live sampler solos or playing in other projects. “You get folk superstars,” he reasons, “but what I really like about this music is it’s mainly people honing a craft, understanding they’re part of a lineage. It’s deeply weird music without any pretence. Folk music connects to the world we’re operating in. It’s not in isolation.”

Folk’s ability to reflect the world as lived experience shapes Mackle’s thinking. He sees multiple lineages for his music, be it AMM or the thread of song-based DIY experimentalism he detects running from This Heat through The Shadow Ring to Hype Williams. In the context of his traditional song interpretations on sitting still for a living, directly replicating AMM or This Heat’s techniques and strategies would miss the point and specific context that made them radical.

“It’s a storm in a teacup, but I think there’s something performative in what I do,” he concludes. “I feel like I’m coming from that AMM lineage. But it’s responding to the really hectic times we live in.”

Here, he creates a special Wire mix of his influences and inspirations, from folk to grime.

Tracklist

The Watersons “Hal an Tow”
City Of Urbom “Circular Chamber Identical”
Sweeneys Men “The Exiles Jig”
Torgeist “Devoted to Satan”
Seamus Ennis “A Little Bench Of Rushes”
Seamus Ennis “The Kerry Recruit”
Crystal Of Unbroken Sleep “Ben Adaephon Delat”
Luciano Maggiore “Locu 8”
Margaret Barry “The Cycling Championship Of Ulster”
John Doherty “The Further In The Deeper (March)”
John Doherty “Within A Mile Of Dublin/Old Simon's Hornpipe”
D Double E “Freestyle”
Kieran Daly “Timings And Glidings Of Small Pitch Gamut”
Sam Larner “Clear Away The Morning Dew”
Turlough O'Carolan “Si Bheag Si Mor”
Lal & Norma Waterson “John Ball”
Sam Andreae “Acoustic (Mouth, Tongue, Keys)”
Michael Gorman “The Frieze Britches”
The Shadow Ring “Important Jobs” (excerpt)
Jacques Beauchamp/Gilbert Hervieux “Couple La Marguerite/Mon Pere M’A Marié”
Danny Weed “Coke Drive”
Harry Cox “Spotted Cow”
Vlad Tepes “Wladimir’s March/Massacre Song From The Devastated Lands”
Lou Killen “Pit Boots”
Grace Toland “Flora”

In The Wire 494, Mackle talks in more detail to Daryl Worthington about the making of his new album sitting still for a living. Wire subscribers can also read the article in our online library.