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Rev Simpkins
Headwater
Eleven songs and hallucinations from the brink, a collection of fever dreams and reflections from a hospital bed. Available 6 June 2025.
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Description
Eleven songs and hallucinations from the brink, Headwater is a deep dive into – and out of – the dark waters of seemingly terminal illness. The album, a collection of fever dreams and reflections on awe and delirium, was recorded by Rev’d Matthew Simpkins with his son Jim, in the aftermath of an extreme reaction to immunotherapy treatment for stage 4 cancer. After three extended periods in hospital with aseptic meningitis, he could no longer play guitar or remember how to play the songs he had been performing with Pissabed Prophet over the previous year.
Using analogue oscillators and synthesisers, he tried to recreate the sounds and visions he experienced on the hospital ward as music. Then, as he convalesced at home, he worked with his son Jim to flesh out these sketches into songs.
Headwater charts an extraordinary journey of recovery, from a time approaching death, to the moment when he became the first person to be discharged from care services provided by his local hospice-at-home team.
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