No Ordinary Raconteur
– Michael Somerset Ward
MICHAEL SOMERSET WARD — NO ORDINARY RACONTEUR
LP ARMEUV009 · CD A5 Digifile ARMEUCD009
Published by Rizosfera APS / Armcomm Europe in two formats.
Technical specifications
– Vinyl: 12″ LP, 33 rpm, black vinyl 140g — 12 tracks, total running time 29’22”
– CD: CD A5 digifile — 15 tracks (12 + 3 bonus tracks), total running time 50’45”
– Recorded: Sheffield, 2025-2026
– Produced by: Michael Somerset Ward
– Recorded by: David Lewin and Dean Honer
– Mastering: Dean Honer
– Publishing: BMG Management Rights (UK) Ltd — 4 Hours: Mute Song Ltd. / Rough Trade Publishing / Copyright Control
Editions
– ARMEUV009 — Vinyl (300 copies): black vinyl 140g, printed inner sleeve with lyrics, shrink-wrapped.
– ARMEUCD009 — CD A5 Digifile (300 copies): A5 card package with die-cut pocket, plastic-free; glass-mastered CD with screen-printed label. Includes three tracks not on the vinyl.
RizoStream
Upon payment, a personal non-transferable code will be emailed to you for unlimited streaming: 16 tracks, including the exclusive Doomerati – The Final Party Mix by Dean Honer.
Dates
– Pre-order from 9 October 2026
– Release: 6 November 2026 in Europe; 20 November 2026 in the UK and USA
This edition is intended for the European continent. In the Americas, No Ordinary Raconteur is available through Rizosfera America [link]; the vinyl reaches record stores worldwide through AMS and Rough Trade distribution (RT is UK exclusive only).
The definitive solo album from a Sheffield post-punk pioneer
Sheffield, UK — Michael Somerset Ward, distinguished musician and founding figure of the Sheffield electronic and post-punk scene, presents his most personal and ambitious work to date: No Ordinary Raconteur.
A deeply cinematic concept album exploring mortality, memory and the passage of time, the record gathers an extraordinary circle of collaborators from the golden age of British experimental music.
“My music flows from the paintbox I’ve assembled over the years from Steel City rehearsals in abandoned Little Mester warrens to Motor City Gospel studios still echoing with the soundtrack of my youth.” (Michael Somerset Ward)
The album’s narrative framework is provided by Adi Newton (Clock DVA), Somerset Ward’s long-time friend and mentor, whose four-part spoken word piece Half-Life opens each chapter of the journey. Newton also lends his unmistakable voice to Delphic Response, a piece Somerset Ward describes as “how I felt DVA could have developed — electronic, but with a beating organic heart.”
A further moment of great poetry and accomplished storytelling is the existentialist noir reading of 4 Hours, an unforgettable gem of Sheffield’s industrial scene from 1981, set within that jewel of punk, jazz and experimentation that was Clock DVA’s Thirst. Here Karl D’Silva reimagines it as beat poetry, accompanied by award-winning pianist Matthew Bourne.
THE GUESTS
They bring together some of the most recognisable voices in British music of the past forty years:
— Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) delivers a stunning vocal on Harry’s England, a track channelling the spirit of David Bowie
— Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) brings his distinctive presence to the hypnotic Señor Slippery, and wrote the words to Doomerati
— Gino Robair, long-time Tom Waits collaborator, contributes Harry Partch-style percussion on Half-Life 2
— Dean Honer (I Monster) provides synthesizers throughout, recorded and mastered the album, and co-wrote three of its tracks with Somerset Ward
— David Lewin contributes sonic modelling, keys and programming, co-wrote three compositions and co-recorded the album
— The ensemble is completed by Charlotte Keeffe, Martin Archer, Andres Figueroa, Peter Rophone, Philippe Clegg, Aby Vulliamy, Michael Bardon, Alex Ward, Simon M. Elliott-Kemp, Sylwia Drwal and Loretta Chantrey
Somerset Ward himself is omnipresent, handling vocals, baritone, sopranino, alto and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, clarinet, piccolo, flute and alto flute, daf and electronics.
THE SONGS
The title track, No Ordinary Raconteur, pays homage to the late, great Scott Walker, while Dead Man’s Coat draws on a real-life encounter with producer Don Was in 1980s New York, featuring Martin Archer on sopranino saxophone and Charlotte Keeffe on trumpet.
The Future Is Here Today, sung by Somerset Ward over Dean Honer’s synthesizers and his own bass clarinet, confronts the album’s central theme directly: “When there’s less to look forward to and more to remember / The future’s here today.”
The cycle concludes with Half-Life 4, whose final words — “we abide in these” — evoke the closing scene of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, fading into an apocalyptic wind.
Butchers of Distinction, a musique concrète piece, arrives unannounced: sixty seconds of sonic shock designed to jolt the listener from their reverie, inspired by the horrors of war and Picasso’s Guernica.
THE COVER
The cover image is an original work by Adi Newton: Non-Euclidean Portrait of Michael Somerset Ward, acrylic on canvas, 2026. Sleeve design by Adi Newton, graphic layout by Gabriele Fantuzzi.
No Ordinary Raconteur is not merely an album. It is a complete artistic statement — the culmination of a lifetime spent at the intersection of experimentation, craftsmanship and profound human feeling.
ABOUT MICHAEL SOMERSET WARD
Michael Somerset Ward first emerged in the early 1980s as a member of the legendary Clock DVA, forming a lasting creative partnership with Adi Newton. He later led Floy Joy in a celebrated collaboration with producer Don Was, recording albums in Detroit and New York. As a songwriter he has penned multi-platinum hits for major international acts while maintaining a parallel career as an experimental artist under the Mzylkypop alias. His work spans five decades, countless collaborations, and a unique synthesis of electronic innovation and organic instrumentation.
NO ORDINARY RACONTEUR TRACK BY TRACK
VINYL LP — SIDE A
01. Half-Life 1 — 00:24
Spoken word: Adi Newton
The album opens with the first of the four parts of Half-Life, the prose poem written by Adi Newton specifically for this project. “No time to lose… No time to delay… No time to spare… Half a life spent in dreams…” — words that introduce the album’s central theme at once: mortality, time slipping away, life as a dream. The relentless rain in the background evokes the atmosphere of Kurosawa’s cinema, creating a filmic prologue of rare power.
02. Delphic Response — 04:16
Voice: Adi Newton
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (baritone saxophone), Philippe Clegg (bass guitar), Karl D’Silva (guitars), David Lewin (sonic modelling)
Somerset Ward describes this piece as “how I felt DVA could have developed — electronic, but with a beating organic heart.” Having joined Clock DVA in 1982 and left the band a few months later, within that same year, Delphic Response is his personal vision of a continuity that never happened: the driving bass guitar, the melodic guitars, the powerful saxophone and Adi Newton’s unmistakable voice, “black as night.” The piece unfolds like the title sequence of a classic HBO crime series — taut, cinematic, inexorable.
03. 4 Hours — 04:03
Voice: Karl D’Silva (half sung, half spoken)
Instruments: Matthew Bourne (piano, cellos)
Words: Adi Newton
Music: Adi Newton, Charles Collins, Roger Quail, Paul Widger, Steven Turner, David Hammond
“4 Hours”: New music and arrangement by Michael Somerset Ward
One of Clock DVA’s enduring pieces (Thirst, 1981, reissued by Mute in 2026) is reimagined here not as a cover but as a genuine poetic reinterpretation. Somerset Ward asked award-winning jazz pianist Matthew Bourne to improvise on a grand piano alongside the original 1981 recording. The result is rhapsodic and filmic. Karl D’Silva approaches Adi Newton’s text as beat poetry — half sung, half spoken — drawing out the full lyrical force of lines such as: “We’re only four hours / We’re only four moments / We’re not here too long.”
“4 Hours” is published by Mute Song Ltd. / Rough Trade Publishing / Copyright Control.
04. Dead Man’s Coat — 03:42
Voice: Michael Somerset Ward
Instruments: David Lewin (sonic modelling), Martin Archer (sopranino saxophone), Charlotte Keeffe (trumpet)
Inspired by a real episode in 1985 New York. Since then Somerset Ward has owned an old leather coat, originally Adi Newton’s, passed on to him by the late DVA drummer Nick Sanderson. When Don Was saw Somerset Ward wearing it, his girlfriend asked “Where did you get that?” and Was replied: “From a dead man.” From this comes a hypnotic mantra, a meditation on mortality marked by obsessive variations: “I found a coat… I got a coat… I stole a coat… I wore a coat… a dead man’s coat.” The free jazz solos of Martin Archer and Charlotte Keeffe add a sense of urban dislocation.
05. Half-Life 2 — 00:37
Spoken word: Adi Newton
Instruments: Gino Robair (Harry Partch-style percussion)
The second spoken interlude. “Super realism… Unconscious projections… A voice in your mind… Is it you? Do you know the self?” The theme of the double, the divided self, the perception of oneself as another. Accompanying the words are the experimental percussions of Gino Robair — long-time Tom Waits collaborator — on instruments inspired by the legendary composer Harry Partch. Kurosawa again, rain again.
06. Harry’s England — 03:10
Lead vocal: Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17)
Additional vocals: Michael Somerset Ward, Loretta Chantrey
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (alto saxophone), Dean Honer (synthesizers)
A homage to David Bowie, in particular to his Berlin period and to tracks such as “Heroes”. Glenn Gregory, the iconic voice of Heaven 17, lends his warm and dramatic timbre to a melancholy, prophetic reflection on the England of 2033. “Republics all around them… The flag’s been flogged to a Russian oligarch… No castles are left in this green and pleasant land.” The closing image — “I wipe a tear away as I sink beneath the waves” — is of a haunting beauty.
VINYL LP — SIDE B
07. No Ordinary Raconteur — 03:10
Voices: Peter Rophone, Michael Somerset Ward
Instruments: Dean Honer (synthesizers)
The title track, inspired by the late, great Scott Walker. A female figure — perhaps a hairdresser — observes the world around her: “She smiles at the customer’s small talk / But secretly she thinks / ‘I feel decay all around…’” The refrain is a declaration of an identity lost or remembered: “I knew her when I was no ordinary raconteur.” There was a time when the speaker was an extraordinary storyteller. The vocal arrangement, with Peter Rophone and Michael Somerset Ward interwoven over Dean Honer’s architectural synthesizers, creates a suspended atmosphere, the chorus emerging only at the very end of the piece.
08. Half-Life 3 — 00:23
Spoken word: Adi Newton
Live electronics: Michael Somerset Ward, Simon M. Elliott-Kemp
The third interlude. The theme darkens: “Eternity cannot end… we cannot avoid the void… the inevitability of death’s shadow… do we die? or transform into sleep?” Minimal live electronics create a suspension before the track that follows.
09. The Future Is Here Today — 02:43
Voice: Michael Somerset Ward
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (bass clarinet), Dean Honer (synthesizers)
The most directly philosophical lyric on the album. “When there’s less to look forward to and more to remember / The future’s here today.” The future is already here, above all when the past is longer than the present. Existential questions: “Are we here alone? Is it just a fable? / A beautiful fairy tale.” The combination of Somerset Ward’s bass clarinet with Dean Honer’s synthesizers creates a hypnotic, melancholy soundscape.
10. Señor Slippery — 04:43
Voice: Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire)
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (wah-wah electric bass clarinet, alto flute, tenor saxophone), Karl D’Silva (guitars), David Lewin (sonic modelling)
Stephen Mallinder, a long-standing friend of Somerset Ward and a founder of Cabaret Voltaire, is in tremendous form. His unmistakable voice brings to life an elusive and dangerous character: “I do have a history, a means if necessary / A way to work, if a little incendiary.” The text is fragmented, menacing, playful. The closing sequence of definitions — “Lid lifter / Scene shifter / Siren emitter / Paradigm drifter” — is pure Cabaret Voltaire. Somerset Ward accompanies him with an unusual wah-wah electric bass clarinet, alto flute and tenor saxophone.
11. Half-Life 4 — 01:11
Spoken word: Adi Newton
Electronics: Michael Somerset Ward
Tenor saxophone: Andres Figueroa
The narrative cycle closes. “Stars collapse in continual expansion… perpetual paradox of existence… all that is thought… all that is true… all that which is gone… is certain… we abide in these.” The final words — “we abide in these” — evoke the closing scene of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter. Andres Figueroa’s tenor saxophone adds a touch of humanity before everything dissolves into a howling wind.
12. Butchers of Distinction — 01:00
Voice: Sylwia Drwal
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (daf), Matthew Bourne (piano, cello), Aby Vulliamy (viola), Michael Bardon (bass), Alex Ward (clarinet, guitar)
The album closes with a musique concrète piece. An apocalyptic track lasting exactly sixty seconds, deliberately cacophonous yet extremely detailed and arranged. On one level it represents the horrors of war, with a nod to Picasso’s Guernica; on another it acts as a palate cleanser — a sonic shock designed to jolt the listener out of their reverie.
Total running time, vinyl 33rpm: 29:22 · Armcomm Europe ARMEUV009
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CD A5 DIGIFILE — BONUS TRACKS
The CD A5 Digifile edition contains the twelve LP tracks and adds three further pieces.
13. Future Cartography — 06:48
Voice: Adi Newton
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (sopranino saxophone, woodwinds), Seth Bennett (bass), Adam Fairclough (drums), Karl D’Silva (guitar), Matthew Bourne (electra-piano), Charles Collins (percussion), Maarten Ornstein (bass clarinet), Dean Honer (synthesizers)
Adi Newton’s text first appeared in Michael Somerset Ward’s radio drama Kafka Chic, a work exploring the early Sheffield industrial scene. Here Somerset Ward takes those words and builds a complex musical architecture around them, starting from the solo improvisations of a carefully chosen ensemble.
At the time of recording, Somerset Ward described it thus: “A prosaic, Ulyssean journey through the influences that shaped the iconoclast Adi Newton. Future Cartography is structured in four movements by a reimagined Clock DVA, haunted by the ghosts of Joseph Holbrooke and Bernard Herrmann.”
Joseph Holbrooke was the name of the legendary modal free jazz trio of Derek Bailey, Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars, whose earliest free music experiments took place in the Sheffield area. In the final movement Somerset Ward deliberately invokes film noir, in particular Bernard Herrmann’s unsettling score for Taxi Driver — a work that deeply influenced Clock DVA, the band Somerset Ward belonged to for a few months in 1982.
14. Doomerati — 06:56
Voice: Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire)
Instruments: Michael Somerset Ward (electric bass clarinet, electronics), David Lewin (sound sculpture), Philippe Clegg (bass guitar), Martin Archer (tenor saxophone), Andres Figueroa (tenor saxophone), Rachel Edmondson (vocals)
The music for Doomerati was originally composed by Michael Somerset Ward for a radio drama about The KLF. Extracts were used beneath the dialogue and, after the play was broadcast on BBC Radio, Somerset Ward sent the music to his long-standing friend Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire, inviting him to write the words and sing.
With clear references to the Illuminati and to conspiracy culture — Doomerati might be read as the Illuminati of darkness — Mallinder’s text turns the piece into something darker and more playful. As Somerset Ward puts it: “Stephen Mallinder’s cut up Bellman of Dystopia proclaims Doomerati!”
The result is a hypnotic, sombre track that weaves Mallinder’s unmistakable vocal presence into a rich tapestry of electronics, saxophones and sound sculpture — a meeting of two Sheffield legends.
15. Rain Wolves — 07:39
Voice: Michael Somerset Ward
Instruments: Matthew Bourne (piano), Aby Vulliamy (viola), Michael Bardon (bass), Alex Ward (clarinet)
Rain Wolves holds a special place in Somerset Ward’s affections. He is characteristically reluctant to explain its meaning, preferring listeners to paint their own picture. He says only that it was influenced by lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “Of the terrible doubt of appearances” — a meditation on perception, reality and the uncertainty of what lies beneath the surface of things.
This recording was made live in the studio on a Sunday morning in January 2025. The quartet — Matthew Bourne on piano, Aby Vulliamy on viola, Michael Bardon on bass and Alex Ward on clarinet — delivered an improvised score that Somerset Ward himself describes as “a work of rare beauty.”
It is a rare moment of pure spontaneous creation captured on tape — intimate, fragile and deeply moving.
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Total running time, CD A5 Digifile: 50:45 · Armcomm Europe ARMEUCD009
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Future Cartography and Doomerati were originally released on Threnodies and Ad hocs (Discus Music, 2024) — ℗ 2024 Michael Somerset Ward. Rain Wolves is previously unreleased.
CREDITS
Musicians
– Michael Somerset Ward: vocals, backing vocals, voice, baritone, sopranino, alto and tenor saxophones (solos 1, 6, 13), bass clarinet (solos 9, 14), clarinet, piccolo, flute, alto flute, daf, ring modulator
– David Lewin: sonic modelling, keys, programming
– Adi Newton: vocal, voice
– Stephen Mallinder: vocal, voice
– Karl D’Silva: vocal, guitar
– Glenn Gregory: vocal
– Peter Rophone: vocal
– Matthew Bourne: piano, cellos
– Gino Robair: percussion
– Dean Honer: synthesizers, programming
– Charlotte Keeffe: trumpet solos
– Martin Archer: sopranino saxophone solos, tenor sax
– Andres Figueroa: tenor saxophone solo
– Philippe Clegg: bass guitar
– Aby Vulliamy: viola
– Michael Bardon: bass, cello
– Alex Ward: clarinet, guitar
– Simon M. Elliott-Kemp: electronics
– Sylwia Drwal: voice
– Loretta Chantrey: backing vocal
– Seth Bennett: bass
– Adam Fairclough: drums
– Charles Collins: percussion
– Rachel Edmondson: vocals, voice
– Maarten Ornstein: bass clarinet
Production
– Produced by Michael Somerset Ward
– Recorded by David Lewin and Dean Honer
– Mastered by Dean Honer
Writing credits
– 1, 5, 8, 11: text written by Adi Newton, sound design by Michael Somerset Ward
– 2: written by David Lewin, Adi Newton, Michael Somerset Ward
– 3 “4 Hours” — Words: Adi Newton — Music: Adi Newton, Charles Collins, Roger Quail, Paul Widger, Steven Turner, David Hammond — New music and arrangement by Michael Somerset Ward
– 4: written by Michael Somerset Ward and David Lewin
– 6, 7, 9: written and produced by Michael Somerset Ward and Dean Honer
– 10: written by David Lewin, Stephen Mallinder, Michael Somerset Ward
– 12, 15: written by Michael Somerset Ward
– 13: written by Michael Somerset Ward, Adi Newton — Words by Adi Newton
– 14: written by Michael Somerset Ward, Stephen Mallinder — Words by Stephen Mallinder
Artwork
– Cover painting: Non-Euclidean Portrait of Michael Somerset Ward, acrylic on canvas, Adi Newton, 2026
– Sleeve design: Adi Newton
– Graphic layout: Gabriele Fantuzzi
Publishing & rights
– Published by BMG Management Rights (UK) Ltd
– “4 Hours” published by Mute Song Ltd. / Rough Trade Publishing / Copyright Control
– ℗ 2026 Michael Somerset Ward under exclusive licence to Armcomm Europe / Rizosfera
– Tracks 13 & 14 ℗ 2024 Michael Somerset Ward — originally released on Threnodies and Ad hocs (Discus Music, 2024)
– © 2026 Armcomm Europe / Rizosfera
– Production year: 2026 — Made in Italy · SIAE
Thank you to Mark Finnigan, Adi Newton, Paolo Davoli, God, my Alien
