The Matthew Herbert Big Band -

There’s Me and There’s You

Release date: October 28th, 2008. !K7 Records

Matthew Herbert’s dazzling new album There’s Me and There’s You is the most seductive, sophisticated and subversive collection of protest
songs ever recorded. Blending lush jazz instrumentation, soulful vocals, fascinating rhythms and a secret underground arsenal of
outlandish samples, it marks Herbert’s second collaboration with his big band.

Featuring the cream of British jazz musicians, There’s Me and There’s You is a sequel of sorts to Herbert’s 2001 project Goodbye
Swingtime. It was largely recorded at London’s fabled Abbey Road studios, although Herbert also incorporates sounds specially
orchestrated at significant sites including the British Museum and the Houses of Parliament.

Effortlessly wrapping deluxe avant-jazz arrangements around polemical lyrics and artfully selected noises, the album’s dominant theme is
power and it’s abuses in the 21st century. The war in Iraq is a key rallying point, informing several tracks including “One Life” and
“Waiting.” The power of monarchy is addressed in “Regina,” religion in “Pontificate,” media in “The Story,” wealth inequalities in “The Rich
Man’s Prayer,” and state-sponsored torture in “Battery.” The hypocrisy of climate change politics and the evils of rampant consumerism are
also recurring motifs.

An electronic innovator, sonic explorer and prolific collaborator, Herbert has released a huge catalogue of critically acclaimed music under
his own name as well as Doctor Rockit, Wishmountain, Radio Boy and others. He has also produced and remixed artists as diverse as
Björk, REM, Quincy Jones, John Cale, Yoko Ono, Dizzee Racal and Roisin Murphy, as well as working with highly regarded original thinkers
such as the chef Heston Blumenthal and playwright Caryl Churchill.

However, There’s Me and There’s You marks a new chapter in his career. This is Herbert's debut recording with revered and versatile
London-based artist Eska whose vast array of past collaborators includes David Sylvian, Lewis Taylor, Anthony Tidd and Afrobeat legend
Tony Allen.

"Eska's a vital part of it," says Herbert. "She's really the beating heart of the record. It's vastly impressive the breadth of styles she passes
through, but always in service to the original intention. This is hopefully the beginning of a long-term collaboration."

Herbert’s albums always closely interweave medium with message, surface beauty with political subtext. But he hits bold new conceptual
heights on There’s Me and There’s You, which turns the very fabric of power against itself in unprecedented ways.

The album’s dense mix of audacious samples includes the sound of 70 condoms being scraped along the floor of the British Museum, a
match (amongst other things) being struck in the Houses of Parliament, one of a 100 nails being hammered into a coffin, vocals recorded
at a Kent landfill site, a Kensington branch of McDonalds, a “stop and search” document issued under the Prevention of Terrorism act, and
100 credit cards being cut up. This is an album, in many senses, of extraordinary renditions.

Herbert’s original plan was to compose the album using sounds gathered solely inside the Houses of Parliament, Britain’s ancient seat of
government. “I wanted to record the corridors of power, literally to hear what they sounded like,” he explains. After initial signs of interest,
and a year of waiting, his request was denied.

“That’s what ‘Waiting’ is about,” Matthew explains. “What outraged me was they seemed more worried that this would bring the House
into disrepute than the fact that they went into an illegal war with our money, and without our permission. That’s why the song became
about murder. On the other hand, I was thrilled that they felt threatened by a piece of music. It meant that the residual power to
challenge political hierarchies through creative subversion was still present.”

The album contains a further memorial to the victims of the Iraq war in “One Life,” which samples the incubator system which kept
Herbert’s prematurely born son alive. Each beep represents 100 people killed in Iraq, from the start of the war in 2003 to October 2006.

“My son was in special care for eight weeks,” Herbert recalls. “The government will have spent well over a quarter of a million pounds
keeping him alive. During that period, they spent considerably less than that killing people in Iraq. I think there is something wrong with a
society where that kind of disparity can be allowed to happen.”

For “The Yesness,” a collage track made up of 100 powerful people all saying “yes,” Herbert requested contributions from Queen Elizabeth
2nd and Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Both declined. But elsewhere on the album veteran political radical Tony Benn, former
London mayor Ken Livingstone, and ex-Prime Minster John Major all make clandestine cameo appearances.

Another track, “The Story,” opens with a crackle of avant-garde noise produced from a stack of mainstream media products, including 70
copies of The Sun newspaper, 70 celebrity gossip magazines, and one Madonna album. It then blooms into a polished, jazzy dance tune
about the news stories these publications routinely censor.
“That track is about the absence of anything of consequence in so much of our media,” Herbert explains. “The absence of stories about
Free Trade Agreements and their consequences in Rupert Murdoch owned press, for instance. Things that affect billions of people in
tangible ways, and yet they are entirely absent. It’s just part of a collective failure of the imagination, and a determined and considered
plan by corporate media companies for it to remain that way. That’s part of my responsibility as an artist, to try and reconnect those dots.”

“Battery” begins as a strident electro stomp before blossoming into a brassy big-band epic. It was inspired by the case of Bisher Al Rawi
and Jamil El Banna, who were arrested in Ghana in 2002. Transported to CIA prisons in Kabul and Guantanamo Bay, both suffered years of
torture and illegal incarceration before being released without charge. Their crime? Possessing a battery charger from the UK chain store,
Argos. The same charger that Herbert received for his 35th birthday.

“From possession of the same object, how does one person end up recharging batteries at home and the other one tortured in Cuba?”
Herbert asks. “How much control do we genuinely have over the shape and direction of our lives when so much is at stake?”

There’s Me and There’s You may be full of playful melodies and deceptively joyous music, but Herbert’s message is deadly serious. For
example, the disturbingly beautiful collage track “Nonsound” is made of ambient recordings from Palestine, including the sound of
protestors being shot against the wall that divides the territories. He wanted to record both the favourite and most hated sounds of
ordinary Palestinians, and this is what was sent back.

“When you hear those sounds, it’s no longer just about music, or genre, or chart positions, or press releases, it’s life or death,” Herbert
explains. “That immediately transforms the process for me. With it comes a greater responsibility. The music comes with images, artwork,
films, and notes - all of that is part of the message. Music doesn’t exist in isolation, and people don’t either. This record is about me
coming out of my comfortable studio environment, opening it out to other people. That’s how life needs to be. We can’t all operate
according to our individual desires.”

But for all its dark and angry themes, There’s Me and There’s You is ultimately a hugely optimistic statement of people power. A
harmonious collaboration between dozens of musicians, a choir of 27 voices, and 100 people singing one word each from around the
world, it also features 70 people enlisted to blow over water bottles, shake US election badges and squirt bottles of Britney Spears’
‘Curious’ perfume in the grand entrance hall of the British Museum.

In the months ahead, Herbert plans to tour the album with an 18-piece orchestra, taking his Trojan Horse of sophisticated subversion
directly to the people. This is democracy in action, speaking truth to power in defiantly hopeful ways. A new kind of community for an
atomised age. A musical resistance movement, turning swords into ploughshares.

“I’m absolutely, fundamentally optimistic,” Herbert insists. “The glass is definitely half full for me. But it’s time to make our own glasses.
Everything is described in detail by these corrupt and corrupting powers, but this is our opportunity as artists to describe the world how we
see it. The things that are dead wrong, the things that are wonderful, and how we can make it better”.

Stephen Dalton

Tracklisting:
01. The Story
includes the sounds of:
100 70 copies of the sun newspaper. 100 70 celebrity gossip magazines. one copy of the nme. one madonna album. one copy of wallpaper
magazine. one extra copy of the sun. metal pole installation thing at the top of the greater london assembly building.
to read about under-reported and overlooked stories, visit www.projectcensored.org

02. Pontificate
includes the sounds of:
one royal bible from 1953. 100 70 condoms scraped along the floor. one archbishop of canterbury. one grim tshirt from the gap with the
following words on it: 'we are empowered and inspired to make a world that is desired by the next generation and admired right now'
from the disingenuous 'product red' campaign.

03. Waiting
includes the sounds of:
100 us presidential campaign pin badges from 1972-2008. the front door of 10 downing street closing. one debate about iraq with the
words taken out. the wall of noise at tony blair's speech at st pauls cathedral. a westminster door closing. a rattle of matches where one
match equals one hundred thousand people dead in iraq recorded in the corridors below the houses of parliament. john major ex-prime
minister happened to be standing next to me at the time. gla security turnstiles.

04. The Yesness

includes the sounds of:
100 people of power saying yes. the prime minister saying yes. the queen saying yes.
05. Battery
includes the sounds of:
one battery charger from argos. 100 rechargeable batteries. one casio digital watch. one mcdonalds filet o'fish. waltz vocals recorded in
the kensington branch of mcdonalds. one airplane. one book on base jumping (with the strap line: a story of fear, fun and freefall). one
snap of a soda can. one search warrant under the prevention of terrorism act. one plastic garden chair.
based upon research by david rose of the observer newspaper in to the story of guantanamo inmate bisher al-rawi.

06. Regina
includes the sounds of:
the state visit of the king of saudi arabia to the uk 30th oct 2007. one policeman. one passport. one postage stamp from ghana of henry
kissinger meeting lady diana. one parliamentary division bell recorded by tony benn. 100 toy soldiers, cowboys and indians. one ww1 gas
attack alarm rattle. one prevention of terrorism act. one royal bible from 1902.

07. The Rich Man's Prayer

includes the sounds of:
100 credit cards being cut up. 100 pound coins rolling down stairs. printouts of the clause from the x factor recording contract relating to
the #############. american idol recording contract including details about the ##############. one 1951 texas oil
company. company credit card belonging to earl brink.

08. Breathe
includes the sounds of:
a 100 piece disney jigsaw of 'a bug's life'. 100 supermarket plastic bags. verse vocals and other noises recorded at a landfill site. 100 sets
of keys. 70 tv remote controls. 100 empty plastic water bottles. oil tanker and refining plant.

09. Knowing
includes the sounds of:
100 people from around the world singing one word each. 70 simultaneous text messages.

10. Nonsound
sounds contributed by palestinians of their favourite, or their most hated sound
all sounds kindly recorded by waleed agel
israeli idf soldiers shooting unarmed protestors (palestinian and internationals) against the wall. israeli troops-invasion of ramallah city,
west bank. israeli tank. israeli troops and soldiers shooting at palestinian people. qalandya checkpoint. al-manara square, ramallah city,
west bank. invasion by the israeli army. israeli soldier calling for curfew and ordering people to close their shops. a palestinian morning. a
palestinian night. a palestinian farmer working in his land. two hours before sunrise in palestine. ramallah city, west bank. general street.
old palestinian woman cleaning seeds, after harvesting. harvesting. public café in ramallah city, west bank. people smoking water pipe.
playing backgammon, cards.

11. One Life

includes the sounds of:
one beep from the alarm system in my premature son's neonatal special care unit. each beep represents 100 people killed in iraq since the
start of the war in 2003 to oct 2006. figures based on a study by the lancet. one 10 pound note being torn in to 3 pieces, where each part
represents 1 trillion dollars.

12. Just Swing

includes the sounds of:
the cremation of one anonymous human. one nail hammered in a coffin. one bottle of duchy original branded english sparkling wine. one
'carbon neutral' coldplay cd. one bottle of shell window cleaner. one copy of the guardian newspaper. one tesco plastic bag. one shell
endorsed ferrari.

“By taking a dated musical style - big-band jazz - and marrying it with the kind of electronic processes usually reserved for cutting-edge
dance music, Herbert has made the world's first experimental yet traditional album. If the Institute of Contemporary Arts held a
pensioners' tea-and-modems morning, this would be its soundtrack.” – Will Hodgkinson, The Daily Telegraph

"In the coolest possible way, Herbert is delivering a lesson about the dignity of labour to an audience for whom musical downsizing is too
often taken as a given.” – The Guardian

“he adheres to a rigid set of creative guidelines . . . by which he hacks and sculpts the live audio environment into abrasive and luxuriant
structures, molding the imperfect into exquisite designs and vice versa.” -- Dave Stelfox, XLR8R

“when you listen to the recent Goodbye Swingtime album, a strange subtlety is revealed, a subversive perversion of the old big-band
tradition. It opens by standing quite close to the mainstream song-form, gradually increasing its feeling of displacement.” – Martin Longley,
The Independent

For more information on The Matthew Herbert Big Band, contact Jessica Linker at Pitch Perfect PR.
jessica@pitchperfectpr.com. 773-784-4335. www.pitchperfectpr.com.