One of the great pleasures of my Mortality Tables collaborative projects is being able to collaborate with artists who’ve released material through Mute. So far I’ve worked with Vince Clarke, Simon Fisher Turner, Gareth Jones and Maps, and there are several more collaborations in the works.

Yesterday, I released a new / old release which included a completely new version by Edvard Graham Lewis (Wire / He Said / Dome etc).

Full press release details below.

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In 2000, I made an album under the alias Sketching Venus. Hardly anyone heard it, and that’s how it should probably stay.

While revisiting and archiving old files, I came upon one track from the album, ‘lvu’, which stood out, and which I felt like I needed to do something with. It is unique, in the sense that it is the only song where you’ll hear me singing. It is also unique within the sound pieces that I’ve made over the years, in that every highly processed sound was made with a guitar.

Specifically, it was my ex-girlfriend’s guitar who I’d messily broken up with during the Millennium celebrations. ‘lvu’ was made at the very start of a new relationship, with my future wife. I think of it as a reflection on endings and beginnings.

Around this time, I was listening to a lot of Wire. My lyrics and vocals were a crude attempt to channel the band’s songwriter, bassist and occasional vocalist Edvard Graham Lewis, who has created a new version of ‘lvu’ that includes his own vocals.

The single is rounded out by a hypnotic remix by frequent Mortality Tables collaborator Rupert Lally.

Available at  mortalitytables.bandcamp.com

[1] lvu (Original Version)
[2] lvu (Rupert Lally Remix)
[3] lvu (Edvard Graham Lewis Venursion)

‘lvu’ originally appeared on the mostly unavailable Sketching Venus album svUTLD01abm (NominalMusics, 2000).

released March 28 2025 

[1] Written and produced by Mat Smith (2000) 
[2} Additional production and remix by Rupert Lally (2024) 
[3] Additional production and vocals by Edvard Graham Lewis (2025). Edvard Graham Lewis appears courtesy of Upp Records. 

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong 

Original photography by unknown photographer, Orlando, FL on 5 September 2001 

[1] Design and image processing by alka 
[2 + 3] Design and image processing by Andrew Brenza 
[3] Image re-processing by alka 

A Mortality Tables Product 
MTP38

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2025 Mortality Tables / Documentary Evidende