Duncan Sumpner, artist and teacher from Oughtibridge in Sheffield is Songs of Green Pheasant since 2005, when his self-titled debut album was released on FatCat. And since then, he has carved out a little space in the most hidden part of our hearts, with his fragile and ambitious songs that search for poetry in the noise and chaos of life. In the following couple of years, Songs Of Green Pheasant had two more records on FatCat: Aerial Days (2006) and Gyllyng Street (2007). Then, after a five year’s hiatus, Sumpner and his project returned with Soft Wounds, via Rusted Rail, “micro-Independent record label” based in Galway, Ireland. After self releasing two mini albums in 2015, he took another five year’s hiatus, until he released When The Weather Clears, out again via Rusted Rail on December 2020 (and reprinted a couple of times since). We had to wait four more years to have a new double A-sided digital single Have Patience/Street of Mirrors, two epic songs that paved the way for the 2025 release of the album Sings The Passing, another step forward in the musical evolution of Songs of Green Pheasant. The album sleeve features a sumptuous surrealist artwork by Sumpner himself.

What Duncan Says: “When I began work on this record, all the pieces already existed as various fragments and mutations on a bunch of tapes stretching back years. It hasn’t been a chronologically linear project and though Sings the Passing was intended to complete a trilogy of records, any of the songs could have conceivably appeared on either of the previous two albums. I like to ‘live’ with songs. I test them by listening over and over to them and trying them out in different ways. It’s as if they must pass a series of tests for them to be accepted, without giving up that inexplicable quality that keeps them mysterious to me. It can and often does take years.“

“With the trilogy I have tried to comment on living through a testing time in one’s life. There’s a vague and common narrative going on, ending with eventual atonement with this latest one. I’m attempting to make songs that give the listener a feeling of having experienced something and hope that they need to gather their thoughts again when it’s ended. I believe good songs should ultimately aim to bring people pleasure, always remain vital and therefore in demand. I realise that sounds pretty hazy and too simple, but over the years I’ve got used to living without being able to explain it any other way.“

His Mixtape:

Saul Adamczewski – Hell is Above Us

I’m starting off with the song that I’ve got into most recently. I’ve had it playing almost constantly for the last month or so. The front cover drawing and album title (The Coward) drew me into trying out its dark, woozy and surreal songcraft, the best I’ve heard since Thomas Bush’s The Next Sixty Years. There’s a perfect balancing act between art and technique that allows you to utterly trust the world they’ve constructed for you and the beautiful sentiment therein.

Brass Monkey – The Handweaver and the Factory Maid

At school, the instrument I learnt to play was the cornet. I was fairly good and joined a brass band when I was only 8 years old. When we played In the Bleak Midwinter I had my first transporting musical experience, I was physically moved. I felt my heart thumping and tears sprang to my eyes… I remain a lover of this sound and, I guess, feel the geographical and social significance it retains for me. I hope at least the ghost of this is evident in my SOGP work (also the line ‘Trudge to the factory in the early morn…’ I love that).

Officer! – Life at the Water’s Edge

I got into Officer! through Gareth Williams of Flaming Tunes. They’d done a cover of his Nothing On and it appeared that Mary Currie was also involved in this live version…I thought it was great, so I checked out their other stuff and came across this absolute gem of a song. The organising of instrumentation and rhythmic patterns are pitched so perfectly that they pull the bleak themes of the narrative out into heightened relief. The whole song puts me in mind of the comfortless imagery in a favourite book of mine called The Forgotten Fifties – all about the work of the so called ‘kitchen sink’ painters.

John McCormack – Roses of Picardy

This song appears in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea, which I was quite obsessed with for a time. At one point the characters sing it together and I wanted to know what the tune sounded like. After hearing it, I became a fan of McCormack straight away. The melody is so peculiar and haunting and the sweet note he hits at the end is utterly sublime. It demonstrates how maximum impact can be achieved with minimal resources – it all comes down to the craftmanship and performance of the song.

Wolf Eyes – New York Public Library B-C

The first record I bought by Wolf Eyes was Dread. It knocked me off my feet. Since then my long-distance love affair with the work of Nate and Inzane Jonny has seen me acquire at least a hundred of their releases. They turned my way of understanding music on its head -their stuff is ceaselessly inventive and showed me the power of sound for sound’s sake. I love the attention to detail, texture and the ingenious use of the negative spaces in-between. I saw them play last year and before the show the pair were behind a table selling merch. I so much wanted to go tell them the impact they’d had on me…but I shamefully bottled it, so
starstruck was I.

Joe Mc Phee – After The Rain

Not much to say about this cover of Coltrane’s tune. It totally speaks for itself – the magic of music. Once again, it’s simply about sheer craftmanship and performance. It’s the reason why when I was asked the other day if I was a musician I replied ‘no’. I couldn’t do anything that comes close to this. Write a song? Yes, I can. Make sounds that express my ideas? I’m pretty sure I can do that too, but play like this? I can only dream.

Sings The Passing is out now via Rusted Rail. Unfortunately there is nowhere to look for more information on Songs of Green Pheasant.