Release date 12 May 2003


In common with all swim releases this album is hard to pin down to a genre. One could define this
as a very urban sound with it's roots in hip hop and close observation would reveal this statement
to be entirely true BUT without listening this would create an entirely erroneous view of what this
album is.

The author & main protagonist Paul Kirk is in fact an ex-patriot Scot living in Hiroshima and the
album crackles with the urban displacement of a stranger in a strange land. It is a music which is
not separated from the place in which it is made, disembodied voices, street sounds, telephones,
bad connections and urban detritus are constant reminders of the Japanese cityscape. Paul Kirk
says - "Trace Elements came about through a fascination with the layering of sound - any type
of sound - from any source. Not necessarily those that most of us think of as musical". He goes on
to say - "Each song on the album was written, recorded and mixed on the same day of it's
conception - in Hiroshima, in a studio that specializes in soundtracks for TV adverts with the help
of an engineer who didn't speak English."

Paul also employed a few musicians to add to the effect those include the former bass player of
Long Fin Killie, Colin Greig and some mates from his days running the Human Condition label
(which actually put out Idlewild's first single but we won't hold it against them!) Grant
MacNamara & Gavin Henderson. Meanwhile, guitarist Masaru Saeki actually toured with Japan &
Roxy music!