SCULPTURE PARK

is a five-piece band from South London. Consisting of piano, cello, sax, drums and guitar, they are as comfortable playing on avant-garde line-ups as they are on the post-punk circuit

Sculpture Park make music that feels both urgent and reflective, somewhere between the driving force of post-punk and something more expansive, more world-weary. Featuring two members of The Golden Dregs, and having collaborated on the production of previous releases, it makes perfect sense that their debut full length be released through Joy of Life International. It’s a record about perseverance, the weight of the past, and the struggle to build something lasting.

MONUMENT TO EFFORT

is the culmination of a songwriting project begun by Ted Mair in 2020. Where Mair had previously played with a drum machine and synthesizer to flesh out his piano material, the band – featuring members of Qlowski, The Golden Dregs and Spirit Blue – continually improvised over sparse instrumentals until full, structured songs emerged. There is a tightness, a deftness and a control here; when things are left to cut loose, they’re never unwieldy. Genre ranges from something jazz-adjacent (Run), to folk-rock (Old Dog), post-rock (Monument to Effort), to recalling artists as far ranging as James Blake and Low (Drops, Felt).

Once in the studio with producer Ben Woods (The Golden Dregs), the band recorded live, largely in one take, not wanting to dwell on the minutiae any longer. Recording at Total Refreshment Centre, they took a ‘no headphones’ approach, playing only off the sounds of their instruments in the room.

Mair: ‘Our songs are performed and recorded in a way that reveals their inner workings at various times. The song ‘Drops’ is a simple song with one three-chord piano pattern throughout; at the beginning of the recording, the listener hears the reverb created by the piano, before hearing the piano itself. At a moment of falsetto intensity in the same song, the veil of reverb is broken, and my vocals are heard dry, as if in the room. In this way, the music constructs and reconstructs its own artifice as it’s listened to.

‘A record is a monument to effort, much of which happens in private. The oldest song on this record, Yourself Staring, was written in 2020, with Drops being written in 2024. The word ‘record’ is apt, as this release acts as proof to the world of artistic work that has engulfed five years of my life. It’s a monument that the five of us have built together, realised through recording with Ben.’

MTE has a strong visual identity, driven by bassist Lucy Ludlow. The campaign begins with a music video for the title track, a still from which provides the album’s cover, with press shots taken on location. Characters from the band are drawn to mysterious items found in a tree, carrying them through the night, returning them to the same tree. There will be further videos throughout 2025, one for each of the album’s eight tracks, exploring this draw to objects or processes for unexplained, perhaps cosmic, reasons. This chimes with the album’s lyrical content, title, and the Fitzcarraldian pursuit of writing and recording music.

RELEASES