Basil Kirchin

Early life

Basil Kirchin was born Basil Philip Kirchinsky, son of Lilian Kay Kirchin (Walters) and the bandleader Ivor Kirchin (Isaac Kirchinsky) in Blackpool, Lancashire. He debuted at age 13, playing drums with his father's orchestra at the Paramount, Tottenham Court Road in London. After the war he left his father's band to play with the bands of Harry Roy, Teddy Foster, Jack Nathan and Ted Heath, but he returned to work with his father again in 1951. The Kirchin Band's early recordings for Parlophone were produced by George Martin. The Kirchin Band travelled with their own PA, which meant Basil was able to record the band's live performances live off the soundboard. By 1957, the rise of Skiffle and Rock and Roll had brought an end to the Big Band era and Kirchin decided it was time to move on "because you're a prisoner of rhythm. And I was fed up playing other people's music".

Evolution

A decade before it became fashionable, Kirchin went to India and spent five months in the Ramakrishna Temple. He then moved to Sydney in October 1959 with his wife Theresa but as his possessions were being unloaded from the ship a strap broke and everything, including his recordings of the Kirchin band, was lost beneath the sea. This loss would trouble him for the rest of his life.

In 1961, Kirchin returned to Britain. His father Ivor had secured a residency at the newly opened Mecca Locarno club in Hull, and Basil spent his time between London and Hull. In Hull he befriended local musician Keith Herd and began working on experimental pieces, "soundtracks for unmade films". In London he lived with songwriters Jimmy Jaques and Pat Ryan, and contributed heavily to the Johnny Keating album 'The Keating Sound'. He also produced material for the De Wolfe library using the talents of young session musicians such as Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page and Tubby Hayes. In 1967, the Arts Council awarded him a grant to purchase a Nagra tape recorder. This he used to collect ambient sounds, animal noises at London Zoo and the voices of autistic children. Kirchin experimented with slowing down the recordings to reveal "Little boulders of sound". "Take birdsong, all those harmonics you can't hear are brought down – sounds that human ears have never heard before". His experimentations were partly financed by composing film music for Catch Us If You Can (1965), The Shuttered Room (1967), The Strange Affair (1968), I Start Counting (1969) and The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).

His experimental pieces were released on two albums both called World Within Worlds. The first was issued in 1971: Worlds Within Worlds, EMI Columbia (SCX6463) and included Part I – Integration 2; Part II – The Human Element. The second was not issued until 1974: Worlds Within Worlds Island Records (HELP 18) Part III – Emergence; Part IV – Evolution. Personnel included free improvising musicians such as Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Kenny Wheeler. Liner notes for the second release included laudatory comments from Brian Eno. Neither record sold more than a handful of copies, and it was not until much later that their pioneering techniques were recognised. Meanwhile Kirchin became frustrated with the record companies meddling with his material, and went into seclusion. He continued to produce work in Hull, working with his friend Keith Herd and Hull-based musicians Dane Morrell, Danny Wood, Bernie Dolman and Roy Neave at Fairview Studios in Willerby, Hull.

Kirchin continued to compose throughout his life, and thirty years after their initial releases his music became acknowledged by a new generation with the release of material by Trunk Records. Kirchin said "I wanted to try and leave something for young people who are starting in music and looking for something as I've been looking all my life".

He spent the later years of his life living back in Hull in a modest terraced house with his beloved Swiss wife, Esther (nee Muller) – his early fame and eventful life not known in the ex-fishing community of Hessle Road where he lived until his death in June 2005. Esther died in July 2007. Many musicians have since acknowledged the influence Kirchin had had on their own works. From Brian Eno and Nurse With Wound to Broadcast – "We need role models like Basil Kirchin to go forward, and, as we can see parallels in his music and ours, hearing this confirms that we're doing the right thing".

In early 2017 Hull-based production company Nova Studios Ltd worked with the Hull City of Culture 2017 team and Serious music, to produce a documentary telling Kirchin's life story. There was also a weekend-long festival of Kirchin inspired music featuring The BBC Concert Orchestra led by Will Gregory, The Hidden Orchestra, Evan Parker, Alan Barnes, Bob Stanley, Sean O'Hagan, Tim Gane, Matthew Bourne and contributions from Jonny Trunk of Trunk Records, Jerry Dammers, Richard Williams and Matt Stephenson of Nova Studios.

Solo

Big Band

(see main article under Ivor Kirchin)

Soundtracks

Library music

(Kirchin also released many Library music discs, including The Wild One, Abstractions of the Industrial North, Mind on the Run, Town Beat and Don't Lose Your Cool amongst others)