Experimental Health is the 14th album from The Telescopes and their third release on Weisskalt. The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern which began in 1987 – the only constant, being sole composer and instigator, Northumbrian born, Stephen Lawrie. The band’s line-up is in constant flux: there can be anywhere between 1 and 20 members on a recording. This album was created entirely independently by Lawrie in a remote cottage in West Yorkshire between January and May 2022.
Experimental Health is folk music made with broken toys and cheap synths – mostly Pocket Operators and miniature synths. Here are no guitars present on the album, most of the instrumentation costing £50 or less.
The complexity of sound rests within the simplicity of the composition and musical arrangements.
Lead single, “The Turns” borrows from Edward ‘Diogenese’ McKenzie who was capable of arcane wisdom such as “Live while you can and live in clover, when you’m dead you’m dead all over”. The phrase appears in the song as ‘live while you can and live all over, when you’re dead you’ll be dead all over’. McKenzie was one of many homeless people who found a place with the artist Robert Lenkiewicz.