Dragon delivers on emotion

Mike Alexander discovers why Pitch Black’s first album in nine years might also be their last.

PADDY Free is global roaming – literally and figuratively. He’s somewhere in Canada on a Native American reservation collecting sound samples for another project. Apparently, if the smoke signals are aligned, he’s available by Skype.

Michael Hodgson, his 20-year collaborator in Pitch Black is also global roaming, but in a less remote part of the world. He’s on his way back to London, England, from Barcelona, Spain, where he and his family have been holidaying.

Trying to get one of the them to shed light on the first Pitch Black album in nine years is going to be a step in the dark.

I’m London calling and the phone picks up. Hodgson has arrived home and is still unpacking, but happy to talk. It’s late, but he’s still on Barcelonatime.

‘‘My body clock hasn’t switched back to London-time,’’ he says. ‘‘The kids go back to school next week so it was our last chance to enjoy a bit of summer and relax ahead of the release of the new album.’’

Continents apart is the way Pitch Black have been rolling since Hodgson moved to London four years ago and Free followed his partner to New York, where she had been offered a sabbatical.

‘‘We stopped touring about four years ago, when I moved to London,’’ Hodgson says. ‘‘A couple of years ago, we decided we wanted to make another record and began creating sound files, which we sent back and forth, developing ideas and sounds and feeding off each other’s creativity. I was here and Paddy was in New Zealand at the time.

‘‘Nearly a year ago, we knew we were on track with an album and started to take things more seriously. When Paddy went to New York, we decided we had the material to finish the album so he came to London [for] two weeks. It wasn’t hurried at all. The timing was right and actually seeing each other again made us realise how special Pitch Black was to both of us and how effortlessly we worked together.’’

Filtered Senses, the fifth and possibly final Pitch Black album –

Paddy Free and Mike Hodgson have filtered their senses and sensibilities on the new Pitch Black album.