I began work with Jeff on this, our second album as Animal Magic, at the beginning of the first lockdown last year. Throughout spring and summer we transferred files to each other, communicated by email, Skype and Signal, and moved things forward relatively quickly. We met in Berlin in September and again in November and very much enjoyed being able to work on material in the same space. By early December the album was pretty much finished and we discussed how we would produce and master it during my next visit to Berlin at the end of January 2021.

Jeff McGrory died on December 29th 2020. Jeff had been enduring cancer for the previous two years. Ultimately, the resilience and creativity of his mind could not overcome the depletion of his immune system. He had faced up to this situation with such bravery and dignity that sometimes it was easy to forget that he was constantly involved in a life or death struggle. The news came as such a shock, not just for me, but for the many family members and friends around the world who loved him deeply and who were very much loved in return. Jeff was truly an incredible person who will be profoundly missed.

On September 6th 2021 myself and many of his friends will honour his life with a memorial event at the HKW in Berlin. It seemed fitting when I returned to Creatures Of Stillness in the early summer of this year, with a view to producing the album as we had left it in December, that I should release it the same day.

For the cover artwork we decided to ask Andy Kehoe (www.andykehoe.art) if he would be interested in creating something for us. I have long been a fan of Andy’s work and own a number of his prints. Jeff agreed that Andy’s work would be a great fit for our music. We were absolutely delighted when Andy said that he would happily be involved. When I began work on completing the album I decided with Andy that it would be best to use an existing image. I choose one that both myself and Jeff had liked. The original is entitled “Brothers Of The Shrouded Peaks”, a title that feels ever so poignant now.

Jeff McGrory
14.05.1965 - 29.12.2020