Noctorum is a collaboration between guitarist/singer-songwriter Marty Willson-Piper (The Church, The Saints, All About Eve) and producer Dare Mason. Dare and Marty grew up together on the Wirral, near Liverpool, listening to classic sixties Pop singles, Singer- Songwriters, Krautrock, Spacerock, Prog, Art Rock, New Wave, Punk, Funk, Glam Rock, Heavy Rock, Reggae and Soul – probably the reason for their diverse and eclectic sound. Moving to Australia in the early eighties, Marty joined The Church and then in the early nineties All About Eve, while Dare concentrated on becoming an engineer and producer, working at the renowned Townhouse Studios in London, before founding the VIP Lounge studio in Penzance, Cornwall.
In the early noughties Dare and Marty formed Noctorum and in 2003 they released their first album on Heyday Records, Sparks Lane (RSD 2021). Before their second album, Marty joined The Saints and in 2006 Heyday released Offer The Light (RSD 2023). Their third album Honey Mink Forever was released 2011 and has never been released on Vinyl. The album features some really beautiful guitar tones throughout with Marty’s playing varying from soft and sensitive to rip- roaring full on lead. The album concludes with a giant jump into Jazz as two worlds meet with local Jazz players doing their thing while Marty adds a left-wing rock guitar element making this an interesting hybrid. The cover art is a photograph of the artefacts window in the physical In Deep Music Archive and arguably the coolest album cover of the band’s catalog.
