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Kelli Ali’s The Kiss and Cinematic Conjurings: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #48/52a

Kelli Alli-Rocking Horse-album and EP-1

I recently wrote about The Sneaker Pimps’ and Kelli Ali’s versions of Willow’s Songs from The Wicker Man soundtrack, with Kelli Ali being the vocalist on both versions.

Vashti Bunyan-Lookaftering-Gentle Waves-The Green Fields Of Foreverland

In an interconnected manner, a while ago I came across The Kiss from Kelli Ali’s 2008 album Rocking Horse, on which she took a more folk orientated direction and which contains gentle, pastoral, lulling songs that may well share a subtly fabled landscape with Vashti Bunyan and some of the solo work of Isobel Campbell/The Gentle Waves such as The Green Fields Of Foreverland.

(As mentioned when I was talking about those versions of Willow’s Songs at A Year In The Country previously, Max Richter produced Rocking horse and also produced Vashti Bunyan’s 2005 album Lookaftering, which was part of her return to recording around that time.)

A track on Rocking Horse that has very much stood out for me is The Kiss.

Rather than me thinking of folk so much when I heard it, it more made me think of one of those wordless songs that you find on the soundtrack to an obscure late 1960s/early 1970s continental film, maybe a semi-forgotten giallo or the like… a hazy corner of cinema that seems to conjure an atmosphere and world parallel but distant to our own.

The Duke Of Burgundy-Cat's Eyes

In an interconnected manner of conjuring a sense of continental hinterlands/never-never lands, it also seems as though it could be a forebear of both the bucolic otherworldly explorations of Cat’s Eyes on their soundtrack for Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy film and maybe also the cosmic aquatic folklore of Jane Weaver/Septième Souer’s Fallen by Watchbird album…

Jane Weave-Septieme Soeur-Finders Keepers Records-Bird

…or possibly the experimental work on Jane Weaver’s side of the Finders Keepers Records released La Rose De Fer / Intiaani Kesä, in particular Parade of Blood Red Sorrows, which in that just mentioned parallel world is the soundtrack to a tender, fever dream of a film in my mind’s eye.

Finders Keepers Records-Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders soundtrack

That Finders Keepers reference is quite appropriate as, linking back to sound tracks to semi-lost films, if I had stumbled on The Kiss on a Finders Keepers release of a semi-forgotten soundtrack then it would not have sounded out of place, possibly filed next to the soundtrack for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders or other Czech New Wave conjurings of their own cinematic worlds and fantasia.

Conjuring is a word that I keep thinking of when I think of The Kiss; it conjures a sense of a film that seems to exist just out on the edges of my consciousness, reality and the further flung reaches of cultural history.

The Butterfly-Kelli Ali-2c

(File Post Under: Cathode Ray & Cinematic Explorations, Radiowave Resonations & Audiological Investigations)

Audio Visual Transmission Guide #1:
Kelli Ali’s The Kiss (and it’s Epilogue)

Local Broadcasts:
Day #6/365: The Fallen By Watchbird – Jane Weaver Septième Soeur; the start of a journey through cosmic aquatic folklore, kunstmärche and otherly film fables…
Day #150/365: Parade Of Blood Red Sorrows
Week #1/52: The Duke Of Burgundy and Mesmerisation…
Ether Signposts #6/52a: Peter Strickland – six films that fed into The Duke of Burgundy
Audio Visual Transmission Guide #28/52a: Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders Unreleased Variations Away From Bricks And Mortar
Wanderings #29/52a: Broadcast; constellators and artifacts (revisiting)
Audio Visual Transmission Guide #47/52a: Summer Isle In (Sort Of) Pop #2 – The Sneaker Pimps’ How Do / Kelli Ali’s Willow’s Song

 

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A Few Ether Gatherings… Ghost Signs, The Vault of the Atomic Space Age and Avantgardens: Wanderings #48/52a

So, I was wandering around the ether a while ago and I came across a few places that variously caught my eye, intrigued me and/or made me think “I’m glad somebody’s gathered those together”…

Ghost Signs UK-A Year In The Country-stroke

Ghost Signs UK: for a while I used to collect images of these myself, I lived in an area where there seemed to be a fair few such things.

I particularly like/was drawn to the ones that are barely still there, that are literally ghosts of their former selves.

These painted, faded signs seem to form part of a semi-forgotten history of places, layers of how we once lived, worked and traded.

…and then there’s The Vault Of The Atomic Space Age…

Midcentury Modern-The Vault Of The Atomic Space Age-stroke

There’s nothing quite like a good old bit of mid-century modern take on how the future once was…

Avantgardens-Shepherd Huts In Slovena-A Year In The Country-stroke

And finally Avantgardens… a gathering of experimentation and exploration in, well, gardens (amongst other places).

The shepherd cottages from Slovenia are a thing to behold. They put me in mind of former Soviet Union folk art such as you might find in the Home-Made; Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts book or the design of Soviet bus stops in Christopher Herwig’s book of the same name.

 

(File under: Trails and Influences / Year 3 Wanderings)

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Day #335/365: Folk art – a wandering from these shores to other shores and back again…

Week #9/52: Christopher Herwig’s Soviet Bus Stops, echoes of reaching for the cosmos, folkloric breakfast adornment and other artfully pragmatic curio collectings, encasings and bindings…

Elsewhere in the ether:
Ghost Signs UK. The Vault of the Atomic Space Age. Avant Gardens.

 

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All The Merry Year Round – Released: Artifact Report #48/52a

The CDs are now sold out but the album is available to download at our Bandcamp page, Amazon, The Tidal Store, 7digital etc and can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube etc.

Released today 28th November 2017.

All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night and Dawn Editions-front-A Year In The Country
Artifact #6a

Dawn Edition £11.95. Night Edition £24.95.
Available via our Artifacts Shop, our Bandcamp Ether Victrola and at Norman Records.

Both editions hand-finished and custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink by
A Year In The Country.

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 1-A Year In The Country

Featuring United Bible Studies, Circle/Temple (Dom Cooper of The Owl Service/Bare Bones/Rif Mountain), Magpahi, Cosmic Neighbourhood, Field Lines Cartographer, Polypores, A Year In The Country, Sproatly Smith, Pulselovers, The Hare And The Moon & Jo Lepine (The Owl Service), Time Attendant and The Séance (Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne and James Papademetrie).

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 2-A Year In The Country

All The Merry Year Round is an exploration of an alternative or otherly calendar that considers how traditional folklore and its tales now sit alongside and sometimes intertwine with cultural or media based folklore; stories we discover, treasure, are informed and inspired by but which are found, transmitted and passed down via television, film and technology rather than through local history and the ritual celebrations of the more longstanding folkloric calendar.

However, just as with their forebears there is a ritualistic nature to these modern-day reveries whereby communal or solitary seances are undertaken when stepping into such tales via flickering darkened rooms lit by screens, although their enclosed nature is in contrast to more public traditional folklore rituals.

Accompanying which with the passing of time some televisual and cinematic stories continue or begin to resonate as they gain new layers of meaning and myth; cultural folklore that has come to express and explore an otherly Albion, becoming a flipside to traditional folklore tales and sharing with them a rootwork that is deeply embedded in the land.

In amongst All The Merry Year Round can be found wanderings down such interwoven pathways, travelling alongside straw bear and cathode ray summonings alike.

All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night and Dawn Editions-opened-A Year In The Country copy


Tracks also previewable at Soundcloud.

 

Dawn Edition. Limited to 104 copies. £11.95.
Hand-finished white/black CDr album in textured recycled fold out sleeve with inserts and badge.All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn Edition-all items-A Year In The CountryAll The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-front-A Year In The Country
All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-back-A Year In The CountryAll The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-opened-A Year In The CountryAll The Merry Year Round-Dawn edition-white-black-CD-A-Year-In-The-Country
Top of CD.                                                          Bottom of CD.

Further encasement details:
1) Custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Includes 25mm/1″ badge, secured with removable glue on string bound tag.
3) Back of one insert hand numbered.

 

Night Edition. Limited to 104 copies. £24.95.
Hand-finished box-set contains: album on all black CDr, 12 page string bound booklet, 4 x badge pack, 4 x stickers, 1 x large badge.
All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night Edition-all items-A Year In The Country-2All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-front-A Year In The Country All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-opened-A Year In The Country-2All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-all items-A Year In The Country All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-booklet 2-A Year In The Country-2All The Merry Year Round-Night-Edition-all-black-CD-A-Year-In-The-Country
Top of CD.                                                            Bottom of CD.

Further encasement details:
1) Booklet/cover art custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Contained in a matchbox style sliding two-part rigid matt card box with cover print.
3) Fully black CDr (black on top, black on playable side).
4) Black string bound booklet: 12 pages (6 sides printed);
Printed on textured fine art cotton rag paper, heavy card and semi-transparent vellum.
Hand numbered on the reverse.
5) 4 x badge set, contained in a see-through polythene bag with a folded card header.
6) 1 x large badge.
7) 2 x square and 2 x round vinyl style stickers.

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 6c-A Year In The Country

Tracklisting:

1) Towards The Black Sun – United Bible Studies
2) Rigel Over Flag Fen – Circle/Temple
3) She Became Ashes and Left With the Wind – Magphai
4) Winter Light – Cosmic Neighbourhood
5) Azimuth Alignment Ritual – Field Lines Cartographer
6) Meridian – Polypores
7) Tradition and Modernity – A Year In The Country
8) Moons (Part 1) – Sproatly Smith
9) Tales Of Jack – Pulselovers
10) I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still – The Hare And The Moon & Jo Lepine
11) In a Strange Stillness – Time Attendant
12) Chetwynd Haze – The Séance

Artwork/encasment design and fabrication by AYITC Ocular Signals Department

Artifact #6a / Library Reference Numbers: A011ATMYRD / A011ATMYRN

All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night Edition-booklets-A Year In The Country

 

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It’s Psychedelic Baby’s Issue 2 – A Further Addition to a Library of Albionic Undercurrents: Ether Signposts #48/52a

Folk-and-folk-horror-books-Seasons-They-Change-Electric-Eden-Witches-Hats-Field-Studies-Adam-Scovell-Psychedelic Baby

Although a magazine/periodical rather than a book, I think with its focusing on 1960s and 1970s British folk, underground and acid/psych folk, issue 2 of It’s Psychedelic Baby! magazine could well be added to the small but growing library of Albionic undercurrents that I have mentioned around here before and which includes the books Seasons They Change, Electric Edden, Witches Hats & Painted Chariots, Field Studies and Folk Horror.

This is a description of the magazine from the Psychedelic Baby site:

Dedicated to British psychedelic folk. New issue of printed version projected from the well-known, leading psych on-line site It’s Psychedelic Baby. After the previous issue covering exclusively the US psychedelic folk scene, this new issue covers the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene, with exclusive interviews of members from acts such as Fresh Maggots, Comus, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange, Spirogyra, C.O.B., Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pererin, Courtyard Music Group, Magic Carpet, Sunforest, Oberon, etc.

Its Psychedelic Baby Issue 2-British 1960s 1970s acid psych folkThe magazine is published by Guerssen Records who specialise in psychedelic, folk and progressive reissues and has cover art by Justin Jackley.

That cover art is effectively a painted collage which at first glance seems to mix and meld British bucolia with a 1960s American psych atmosphere, with the lead image being an interpretation of an image from Trees 1971 album On The Shore…

…but then after a moment or two other things start to register – the disturbing creature from Comus’ First Utterance album lurks in one corner and in the background are standing stones, druids around a Stone Henge like monument and what appears to be a relative of The Wicker Man, while in amongst the flowers stand a mushroom or two that I expect may well have particular properties…

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions And Destinations:
Psychedelic Baby Issue 2

Local Places Of Interest:
Ether Signposts #11/52a: A Small But Dedicated Growing Library Of Albionic Undercurrents & Folk Horror

 

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Summerisle In (Sort Of) Pop #2 – The Sneaker Pimps’ How Do / Kelli Ali’s Willow’s Song: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #47/52a

The Sneaker Pimps-How Do-Willows Song-Becoming X-Spin Spin Sugar-Kelli Ali-The Wicker Man

Sneaker Pimps How Do is a version of Willow’s Song from The Wicker Man soundtrack and is on their 1996 album Becoming X, which had the song as its last track and is also a B-side for their single Spin Spin Sugar.

Sneaker Pimps were linked to the trip hop genre at the time and had a fair degree of commercial success with the album selling over a million copies and a number of Top 40 and Top 10 singles were released from it.

(Trip hop was a British and early 1990s originated, generally downbeat, atmospheric loose genre of music that often used hiphop beats, fusing them with electronica and sometimes also mixed elements of dance, soul, dub etc – those who are well known in connection to it would include Tricky, Massive Attack and Portishead.)

At the time I more thought of Sneaker Pimps as left-of-centre electronic pop than triphop but there are elements of both in their music and although I probably listened to How Do at the time I may well not have realised its origin.

The Wickerman Willows Songs Gently Johnny 7 vinyl Record Store Day-Silva Screen International-A Year In The Country 2

It was a curious thing for a quite pop orientated band – even if a more left-of-centre one – back then to include a song from The Wicker Man soundtrack.

Although it was a known film, its extended and ever growing cultdom hadn’t really started to gather pace yet and Trunk Records’ release of the never-before-released soundtrack was a couple of years off, so information about it was probably still relatively thin on the ground.

The Wicker Man-Trunk Records release-OST-vinyl-soundtrack-map

In an interview at the time, when asked what his perfect film to create a soundtrack for, Chris Cornell of the band said this:

The whole band is into a film called The Wicker Man, it’s an sort of obscure 70s English film, and the last track on our album, How Do, is a cover-version of a track from that film, which is originally a traditional folk tune. So, that music and filmwise is everybody’s sort of favorite film, and I think I would have liked to have written for that. In the future – well, I can’t speak for everyone else here, but something along those lines.

(In connection to information about The Wicker Man being thin on the ground at the time of How Do, is the above mention of Willow’s Song being a traditional folk tune; without more information, in the setting of the film and the way in which it and the soundtrack seem to conjure in part a sense of being documents of actual folklore, it would be easy to think of it as being traditional rather than having been written specifically for the film by Paul Giovanni.)

Anyways, How Do is something of a melding of styles and elements; it opens with samples from The Wicker Man and is in part a gentle, lulling atmospheric pop song with a touch of triphop and as it progresses it increasingly incorporates swirling, almost helicopter like electronic sounds.

Kelli Ali-Rocking Horse and Butterfly

In 2008 Kelli Ali, who was the singer with Sneaker Pimps at the time of Becoming X, released a pastoral, folk inflected album called Rocking Horse on One Little Indian, which was produced by Max Richter (the producer of once lost-lady-of-folk Vashti Bunyan’s 2005 Lookaftering album).

Although not expecting performers to purely explore one set genre, when I came across Rocking Horse I remember being quite surprised by this more folk direction, knowing Kelli Ali more for her work with Sneaker Pimps.

However, looking back at the above comments by Chris Cornell and on rediscovering Sneaker Pimps’ cover of Willow’s Song, it is less surprising and you could maybe drawn a line from it to the possible roots of Rocking Horse.

After Rocking Horse Keli Ali self-released called Butterfly in 2009, which is a more intimate, acoustic extension of Rocking Horse and in part features new versions of songs from that album.

On Butterfly there is also another version of Willow’s Song, which takes it back nearer to its purely imagined folkloric roots and although being her own interpretation it is closer to how the song was performed for The Wicker Man’s soundtrack and indeed would not seem all that out of place if heard amongst the other music in the film.

The Wicker Man-soundtrack-OST-vinyl-Kelli Ali-Butterfly-Willows Song-2

(File Post Under: Cathode Ray & Cinematic Explorations, Radiowave Resonations & Audiological Investigations)

Audio Visual Transmission Guide #1:
How Do by The Sneaker Pimps
Willow’s Song by Kelli Ali

Local Broadcasts:
Day #18/365: Willows Songs
Day #101/365: Gently Johnny, Sproatly Smith, The Woodbine & Ivy band and lilting intentions…
Audio Visual Transmission Guide #31/52a: Summer Isle In (Sort Of) Pop #1 – Pulp’s The Wickerman

 

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Solargraphy / The Ongoing Moment: Wanderings #47/52a

Austin Capsey-Wendy Bevan-Mogg-solargraphy-Ernest Journal-3

A while ago I came across the phrase solargraphy and the photographic work of Austin Capsey and Wendy Bevan-Mogg in the periodical Ernest Journal.

(Solargraphy refers to a form of long exposure photography and the phrase comes from solar = sun and graphy = writing).

Their work involves leaving pinhole cameras and sometimes an antique more conventional camera to take a single exposure out in the landscape at turning points of the year and returning often hours, a day or months later.

In the Ernest Journal they wrote the following on the process:

With ultra-long exposures, usually from solstice to solstice, it captures images that describe the movement of the sun, the enduring nature of the landscape, and hold an entire season in a single frame. The exposures are so long that neither animals nor humans are visible; only the tracks of the sun remain. These tracks trace a new new path each day as days lengthen towards the summer solstice – trails sometimes broken by intermittent cloud, and some missing altogether on days shrouded under grey skies.

Austin Capsey-Wendy Bevan-Mogg-solargraphy-Ernest Journal-2

The photographs are taken on black and white stock and contain all kinds of imperfections and colour tinting which results from atmospheric conditions, mould and a literal tarnishing of the metallic silver crystals contained in the photographic film.

Such results occur through the actions of nature, created by the cameras’ time out amongst the elements and although they are essentially random the resulting photographs seem to represent some kind of melding of nature’s hand/art and a humanly directed expressive art project.

There is a strange, entrancing beauty to the images, with them capturing a sense of the passing seasons and cycles of the world.

Austin Capsey-Wendy Bevan-Mogg-solargraphy-Ernest Journal-1

(File post under: Trails and Influences / Year 3 Wanderings)

Elsewhere in the ether:
Solargraphy at Knapp Ridge Films
Ernest Journal

 

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All The Merry Year Round Reviews and Broadcasts: Artifact Report #47/52a

All-The-Merry-Year-Round-CD-album-Night and Dawn editions-3 in a row-1600

A gathering of some of the reviews, broadcasts etc of the All The Merry Year Round album:

Shindig magazine-issue 74-All The Merry Year Round-A Year In The Country album review-Ben Graham-stroke 2

Ben Graham has reviewed the album for issue 74 of Shindig! magazine:

“A Year In The Country… operating like some sinister rustic arts and crafts movement manifesting online via a Wi-Fi connected scrying mirror… an almanac of unearthly sonics to tide you through the winter nights.”

Issue 74 will be available here soon.

A Closer Listen-website logo-3 in a row

Richard Allen has reviewed the album at A Closer Listen:

“All the Merry Year Round creates an atmosphere for wandering and wondering. The set succeeds through counter intuition, its alternative calendar creating such a ruckus that it causes all calendars to blow away in the wind, leaving us only with the eternal, visceral now.”

Visit that here.

The Terrascope-logo and reviews image

Andrew Young has reviewed the album at Terrascope:

“Polypores arrive with “Meridian”… huge slabs of synth create a musique concrete, pulses and washes ominously building and decaying throughout creating an otherworldly vibe.”

Visit that here.

Mark Losing Today-The Sunday Experience-The Restless Field-A Year In The Country

Mark Barton has written about All The Merry Year Round twice at his The Sunday Experience site:

“”I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still”… blessed with a church like serene, both reverent and majestic, a stilled grandeur forms from the spectral touching, a magical occurrence intimately brushed and in tune with the coming dark season, a ghostly ceremonial séance reaching deep through the ages instilling all in enchantment and beautified bewitchment.”

Visit those two pieces here and here.

More Than Human Records

More Than Human played Polypores and Time Attendant’s tracks on the intriguing selecting and wanderings of their radio show.

Originally broadcast on CiTR FM, it can be visited here and the show is archived at their Soundcloud page here and is available as a podcast here.

dexter bentley hello goodbye radio show-logo-3 in a row

And amongst further intriguing wanderings and selectings, Cosmic Neighbourhood’s track was played on The deXter Bentley Hello GoodBye Show.

Originally broadcast on Resonance FM, the playlist can be viewed here and the show is archived here.

The Unquiet Meadow-radio show-image 2

The Unquiet Meadow played The Hare And The Moon with Jo Lepine’s “I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still” amongst their wanderings through “psych-tinged landscapes of mutated folk & haunted electronica” on their radio show.

Originally broadcast on Asheville FM, the playlist can be visited here.

Tip of the hat to everybody involved in the above…

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 1-A Year In The Country

All The Merry Year Round is an exploration of an alternative or otherly calendar that considers how traditional folklore and its tales now sit alongside and sometimes intertwine with cultural or media based folklore; stories we discover, treasure, are informed and inspired by but which are found, transmitted and passed down via television, film and technology rather than through local history and the ritual celebrations of the more longstanding folkloric calendar… travelling alongside straw bear and cathode ray summonings alike.

The album features United Bible Studies, Circle/Temple, Magpahi, Cosmic Neighbourhood, Field Lines Cartographer, Polypores, A Year In The Country, Sproatly Smith, Pulselovers, The Hare And The Moon & Jo Lepine, Time Attendant and The Séance.

More details can be found here and the album can be previewed here.

 

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Further Reflections on a Saggy Old Cloth Cat / Related Bucolia and Archiving: Ether Signposts #47/52a

Small Films-Pogles 3

Well, time to wander towards some gently escapist imaginary worlds…

In amongst the various images in Jonny Trunks The Art Of Smallfilms book, there are some that have a particularly natural/bucolic/set in the landscape aspect to them and which have stuck in my mind somewhat…

Smallfilms-Pogles-1b

Which set me of on something of a voyage of discovery…

The Clangers, Bagpuss and Co at the Museum of Childhood at the V&A Museum Of Childhood-2

First off I discovered that in 2016 there was an exhibition I missed called The Clangers, Bagpuss and Co. at the V&A Museum of Childhood … which was a real “Darned it” moment when I discovered it.

Small Films-Pogles-3b

On further wandering amongst Smallfilms related landscape set imagery I came across photographs from some Pogles books which were published in the late 1960s which are quite lovely…

Ivor The Engine-cutouts and model

…and before long I was stumbling upon home-crafted Ivor The Engines and indeed make-your-own-Ivor-The Engines…

Small Films-Pogles-4b

So, in homage to Smallfilms, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Emily, a saggy old cloth cat, Welsh railways and volcanos powered by a gas meter, I though I would collect a few related images together…

Emily-and-Bagpuss-stills-Smallfilms-V&A

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
Pogles bucolia (and a touch of a quietly unsettled atmosphere here and there)
Various reflections on The Clangers, Bagpuss and Co here, here, here and here
The Art Of Smallfilms at The Creative Review
The Art Of Smallfilms at Eye Magazine
Ivor The Engine projects / Make Your Own Ivor
Darned it, missed Sandra Kerr, co-creator of the Bagpuss soundtrack playing music from the series for but £4.00

Local Places Of Interest:
Day #164/365: A saggy old cloth cat and curious cultural connections…
Wanderings #38/52a: The Moomins And The Seams That Keep Giving…

 

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Barsham Faire 1974 and a Merry Albion Psychedelia: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #46/52a

Barsham Faire 1974-BFIPlayer-medieval-folk-psych-4

Just recently I was talking about the curious way that “in the early 1970s, some bands/musicians adopted quite medieval styles of dress, persona and even elements of such ways in day-to-day life.

Barsham Faire 1974-BFIPlayer-medieval-folk-psych-5

After writing that I came across some film footage of Barsham Faire in 1974 on the BFIPlayer:

Held on the Rectory Paddock courtesy of a local landowner, the Barsham Faire was a popular event with both local communities of former city dwellers who had moved up to the Waveney valley for a slower pace of life and stall holders who came to sell their handmade goods. The faire became a popular date in the calendar throughout the 70s and a great opportunity for people to let their hair down and sing and dance in the Suffolk sunshine. Dressing up qualified you for half price entry!

Barsham Faire 1974-BFIPlayer-medieval-folk-psych-3 Barsham Faire 1974-BFIPlayer-medieval-folk-psych-1

This is a good snapshot of a point in time and culture when 1960s hippie-ness had melded into and explored medieval styles and related folk/folkloric interests – a sort of Merry England psychedelia.

Well worth a look-see.

Barsham Faire 1974-BFIPlayer-medieval-folk-psych-2

Below are some of the original posters for the Faire’s, dated 1972, 1973 and 1974:

Barsham Faire posters-1972-1973-1974

There’s a fascinating overview of the history of Barsham Faire, how it evolved into the Albion Fairs and related archival work by The Fairs Archive at the “folk arts and esoterica for the discerning” Hare and Tabor site, who have also created an accompanying t-shirt inspired by those Fairs in collaboration with The Fairs Archive:

Five heady events took place on Rectory Paddock in the summers from 1972 onwards.  What seemed like a temporary autonomous zone overseen by the Spirit of Misrule was established.  Out of the demise of these events emerged the Albion Fairs to take their place, which continued until the early 1980’s.  A precedent had been set that others would follow in other parts of the country. As Jill Bruce, one of the organisers  of the events explained, the experience was life changing for some: “That field, that place, that fair: the experience was colossal – a jolt into another reality, the one I was supposed to be in.””

Also well worth a look-see.

Hare and Tabor-logo

(File Post Under: Cathode Ray & Cinematic Explorations, Radiowave Resonations & Audiological Investigations)

Audio Visual Transmission Guide #46:
Barsham Faire 1974 at the BFIPlayer

Elsewhere in the Ether:
Barsham Faire at Hare and Tabor
The Fairs Archive

Local Broadcasts:
Wanderings #46/52a: Steeleye Span, Imaginative Time Travel, Medievalism

 

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Steeleye Span, Carboot Rummagings, Imaginative Time Travel and Medievalism: Wanderings #46/52a

Steeleye-Span-Below-The-Salt-vinyl-LP-A-Year-In-The-Country-lighter

It was a curious thing, the way that in the early 1970s, some bands/musicians adopted quite medieval styles of dress, persona and even elements of such ways in day-to-day life.

(To quote myself quoting Rob Young, this was a form of “imaginative time travel” and as has been mentioned around these parts before, may well have also been part of a yearning to return to some imagined pastoral idyll, possibly as a form of escape from the strife and troubled times back then).

1972-Steeleye-Span-A Year In The Country-1

In terms of imagery, an album cover such as Steeleye Span’s Below The Salt from 1972 goes the full (medieval) hog…

…although if you look back at photographs of them from the early 1970s, the medieval aspects are just part and parcel of an overall way of dressing that was equally post-1960s psychedelic gone more loose, a touch hippie and to a modern day eye appears to be style that wouldn’t have been out of place worn by say a more hip children’s television presenter from back when (which is said with affection, that’s not a bad look).

Vashti Bunyan-A Year In The CountryAlthough stage personas and costumes are nothing unsual, there seemed to be a tendency for this, sometimes, to go further than that and elements of such ways and times were adopted in day-to-day life (hence Vashti Bunyan and her partners’ horse drawn ride across to the country, aiming towards a destination where they intended to live more according to ways gone by).

As an aside, I was recently(ish) at a carboot sale and although these aren’t sometimes the old vinyl record and CD foraging bonanza they once were, there were a few stalls that had vinyl records on them – probably about four stalls, with around a hundred or so records all told.

Steeleye Span-1972-A Year In The Country-2

On every stall that had a selection of vinyl there seemed to be a Steeleye Span record or few, which was quite curious.

Was it just coincidence? Is it just that people don’t want these records so much anymore or more precisely in that part of the world/culture they don’t and so they are left behind?

Hmmm.

 

File under: Trails and Influences / Year 3 Wanderings

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Day #122/365: A trio or more of Fine Horsemen via Modern Folk Is Rubbish and through to patterns layered under patterns…

Day #157/365: The Dalesman’s Litany; a yearning for imaginative idylls and a counterpart to tales of hellish mills

 

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The Wicker Man – Summer Isle Books, Bindings, Pounds, Shillings And Pence: Ether Signposts #46/52a

The Wicker Man book collection

A fair old while ago, back in the first year of A Year In The Country one of the posts included a consideration of various DVD etc editions of The Wicker Man.

In a similar spirit, I thought I would bring together a gathering of some of the various Wicker Man related books that have been published…

…there have now been enough to warrant their own section within a library.

There are other related books and editions out in the world as well as the ones below but that library section could well include:

The Quest For The Wicker Man-Benjamin Franks-bookFirst off there is The Quest For The Wicker Man: History, Folklore And Pagan Perspectives by Benjamin Franks, Stephen Harper, Jonathan Murray and Lesley Stevenson, which is a more academic take on the film.

There is a somewhat rarer book that accompanies this called Constructing The Wickerman, which includes work by some of the same authors and which was published to coincide with the first academic conference on the film in Glasgow in 2003.

Studying The Wicker Man-Andy Murray Lorraine RolstonThen there is Studying The Wicker Man from 2017, which is a shorter academic book by Andy Murray and Lorraine Rolston…
Inside The Wicker Man-Allan Brown-1st edition and revised editionHow Not To Make A Cult Classic – Inside The Wicker Man by Allan Brown, which if memory serves correctly is a good factual and also behind the scenes intrigues view of the film. It was originally published in 2000 (the first book on The Wicker Man?) and reissued in 2010 as a newer revised edition post the US remake.
Ritual-David Pinner-First Edition-Finders Keepers Edition

Ritual by David Pinner, which is seen as a forebear and possible influence on The Wicker Man. Originally published in 1967 as a hardback, in paperback in 1968 by Arrow Books with a more overtly possibly exploitation cover image and text and it was republished in 2011 by Finders Keepers Records.

First editions of the 1967 version now fetch upwards of £400 (blimey etc)… and I like the background info at Finders Keepers site on their new edition and before they republished it how Andy Votel was about to pay a fair few pounds for an original copy and then he thought “I’ll just check the local library catalogue”… and there it was.

Ah, the good old library system.

The Finders Keepers edition also features an interesting introduction by Bob Stanley which in an earlier post at A Year In The Country I said this:

“The introduction opens with a sense of how nature can come to almost dwarf you, how our sense of urban/modern security can easily be dismissed by the ways and whiles of nature.”

(As an aside, although it was released in conjunction with David Pinner and reproduced from his copy, I like the way the Finders Keepers edition is listed by them as being “Finders Keepers Forgery Number One”.)

The Wicker Man-The Complete Piano Songbook-with sheet music

For the 40th anniversary of the film in 2013, alongside the various Bluray/DVD and soundtrack reissues, there was also The Wicker Man – The Complete Piano Songbook published by Summer Isle Songs, with arrangements by Christopher Hussey.

Alongside the sheet music, it also includes an introduction by film’s Associate Musical Directory Gary Carpenter and various stills from the film.

The Wicker Man-1st edition and new edition book-Robin Hardy-Anthony Shaffer-foreword Allan BrownThe Wicker Man novel, which curiously was originally published in 1978, five years after the release of the film (and also slightly curiously was released in the US first).

The novel was written by Robin Hardy, the director of The Wicker Man but is credited as being co-authored by Anthony Shaffer, the writer of the film’s screenplay, as it re-uses much of the screenplay’s dialogue.

It was republished in 2000, the same year as Allan Brown’s Inside The Wicker Man, with this new edition also  featuring a foreword by him.

The Wicker Man-Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward-Stephen ApplebaumAlthough only available as an eBook, The Wicker Man: Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward, published in 2012 collects 46 pages of interviews by Stephen Applebaum…

I’m hoping that at some point it will appear as a physically printed book.

Also of note…
Your Face Here-Ali Catterall-Simon Wells-The Wicker ManYour Face Here: British Cult Movies Since the Sixties by Ali Caterall and Simon Wells from 2001, which is a fine and very readable collection that focuses on various cult films, with one chapter being specifically about The Wicker Man.

I’ve written about this book before at A Year In The Country and said:

“…there is a rigour to the research… the text reflects a genuine love for and appreciation of these films… This isn’t something that is written by rote or which just trots out well visited stories in a cut and paste manner. The authors have put the footwork in, visiting locations, interviewing all kinds of associated folk and bringing forth something of a wealth of new information and connections.”

nuada-wicker-man-journal-issues…and finally there is Nuada, which was a journal/zine about The Wicker Man which had three editions published in 1999-2000 (a busy period for such things it seems).

…so, all in all, there have been a fair few Summer Isle related books and bindings (and as mentioned earlier, the above is not a complete list of books and editions)… something of a measure of just how it’s influence and inspiration has grown over the years…

…and somewhat impressive for a film that took $58,341 in US box office receipts on it’s first release.

Adjusting that for inflation, it would today mean it had taken $321,575.85 or using the exchange rates back in 1973, £137,185.79.

So, no small potatoes (or other appropriate harvest crops).

However as a point of reference, the Top 10 US ranking films back then (The Sting, The Exorcist, American Graffiti, Papilion, The Way We Were, Magnum Force, Last Tango In Paris, Live and Let Die, Robin Hood and Paper Moon) took between $156,000,000 and $30,933,473.

Which, again, adjusted for inflation today would be $859,872,702.70 to $170,505,442.52.

Or £366,825,785.39 to £72,738,432.87 in modern day Blighty pounds, shillings and pence.

Blimey.

The Wicker Man Collage-A Year In The Country-1080

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
The Quest For The Wicker Man
Studying The Wicker Man
Inside The Wicker Man
Ritual at Finders Keepers
The Wicker Man Song Book
The Wicker Man novel
The Wicker Man: Conversations with Robin Hardy, Anthony Shaffer & Edward Woodward
Your Face Here
Nuada journal

Local Places Of Interest:
Day #237/365: Your Face Here; peering down into the landfill – a now historical perspective on the stories of The Wicker Man
Day #90/365: The Wickerman – the future lost vessels and artifacts of modern folklore
Day #101/365: Gently Johnny, Sproatly Smith, The Woodbine & Ivy band and lilting intentions…
Week #25/52: Fractures Signals #4; A Behemoth Comes Once More A Knocking…
Ether Signposts #24/52a: The Wicker Man / Don’t Look Now Double Bill And Media Disseminations From What Now Seem A Long Long Time Ago
Ether Signposts #25/52a: 138 Layers And Gatherings Of The Wicker Man

 

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The Quietened Cosmologists – Further Reviews and Broadcasts: Artifact Report #46/52a

The-Quietened-Cosmologists-Dawn and Night edtions-front and opened-A-Year-In-The-Country

Some further reviews and broadcasts of The Quietened Cosmologists album, which is:

“…a reflection on space exploration projects that have been abandoned and/or that were never realised, of connected lost or imagined futures and dreams, the intrigue and sometimes melancholia of related derelict sites and technological remnants that lie scattered and forgotten.”

Electronic Sound magazine-issue 35-The Quietened Cosmologists review-A Year In The Country

First up is a review in Electronic Sound issue 35 by the magazine’s Commissioning Editor Neil Mason…

…that issue has a classic 1950s/1980s style 3D cover complete with red/blue anaglyph glasses, which is a nice touch and something of a nod to the lineage of 3D now that one of the latest incarnations of 3D in the home is largely coming to an end as manufacturers have mostly stopped making 3D televisions.

The issue is available here and as part of a vinyl bundle here.

Goldmine Magazine-Spin Cycle-Dave Thompson

Next up is Dave Thompson’s review at his Spin Cycle column on Goldmine magazine’s site:

“…a rumination on what might have been – the space missions that were promised, that were planned and then abandoned, or that never got off even the figurative ground in the first place… Disconnected voices from impossible distances, radio signals, muted melodies, ambitious hope and scientific daydreams…”

Find the column here.

The Terrascope-logo and reviews image

Andrew Young reviews the album at Terrascope:

“Keith Seatman has beats a plenty like a wonky Kraftwerk after they have discovered Steve Birchall’s epic Reality Gates album, proper space rock… Listening Center  take us to a strange ticking otherworldy place, a place that feels at once vast and infinite, a haunting slice of space music… The record ends with Landfall at William Creek, David Colohan’s spectral hammered dulcimer peels away into the inky vastness of space, a beautiful end to a fine record.”

Visit the review here.

We Are Cult website logo

We Are Cult included the album in a review round up

“…it’s a cracking collection of electronica… about the abandoned, uncelebrated, and unrealised attempts to reach the stars… David Colohans desolate Landfall At William Creek perfectly evokes lonely space junk rusting in the wilderness… Keith Seatman’s 093A-Prospero is best described as a sort of interstellar Lieutenant Pigeon.”

An interstellar Lieutenant Pigeon? Well, count me in (!).

Visit the reviews round up here.

The Unquiet Meadow-radio show-Ashevill FM

The Unquiet Meadow included Pulselovers Lonely Puck amongst some fine company on their show which wanders through and explores the further reaches of folk and where they meet the spectral concerns of hauntology…

Originally broadcast on Asheville FM, browse the playlist here and the show’s site at the radio station here.

The Seance Radio show-wider logo

In a rounding the circle manner, some time A Year In The Country fellow travellers Pete Wiggs and James Papademetrie of the “phantom seaside radio” show The Séance have included David Colohan and Field Lines Cartographers tracks on two of their show.

First heard via the airwaves at Radio Reverb and Sine FM, the episodes and their playlist’s are archived here and here.

You the night and the music-radio show-mat handley-A Year In The Country

In a further rounding of the circle manner, Mat Handley of Pulselovers played David Colohan, Time Attendant and Vic Mars’ tracks on his You, the Night & the Music show.

That show was also originally broadcast on Sine FM. Visit the online archive for the episodes here and here.

the-gated-canal-community-radio-the-quietened-bunker-a-year-in-the-country

The Gated Canal Community Radio Show, hosted by record labels Front & Follow and The Geography Trip, played Howlround’s track on their show.

Originally on Reform Radio, the show is archived here and here and the show’s blog can be found here.

Wyrd Daze-zine-logo

In an interconnected manner, Wyrd Daze included three tracks from the album on their Samhain Seance 6 : Triffid Witch mix, alongside tracks from Front & Follow’s 10th anniversary compilation Lessons and their Blow series, plus the likes of Leyland Kirby and The Haxan Cloak.

The online archive can be found here and details of the mix can be found here. Wyrd Daze’s main site can be found here.

The Quietened Cosmologists-landscape artwork-2

Previous reviews and broadcasts of The Quietened Cosmologists:
Artifact Reports #37/52a: The Quietened Cosmologists Writing, Posts and Broadcasts
Artifact Report #38/52a: The Quietened Cosmologists Writing, Posts and Broadcasts
Artifact Report #39/52a: The Quietened Cosmologists at You, the Night & the Music and feuilleton
Artifact Report #44/52a: A Year In The Country at The Golden Apples of the Sun

A tip of the hat to everybody involved. The support is much appreciated.

The Quietened Cosmologists-landscape artwork-4

The Quietened Cosmologists features Field Lines Cartographer, Pulselovers, Magpahi, Howlround, Vic Mars, Unit One, A Year In The Country, Keith Seatman, Grey Frequency, Time Attendant, Listening Center, Polypores and David Colohan.

Further details can be found around these parts here, at Bandcamp here and can be previewed at Soundcloud here.

 

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Z For Zachariah: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #45/52a

Play For Today title-BBC

Z For Zachariah-Robert O'Brien-bookZ For Zachariah is a novel by Robert C. O’Brien that was published in 1974 and has been made as a Play For Today drama for television by the BBC in 1984 and as an American film in 2015.

Its plot involves a young woman who believes she is the last survivor of a worldwide nuclear conflict which has left the world uninhabitable apart from the small valley in which she lives.

Into this valley one day comes a stranger in a protective suit and the story revolves around his almost passing away after being contaminated, their attempts at survival and farming and the conflict between them in their isolate enclave.

Z For Zachariah-1984 BBC Play For Today-3

The 1984 Play For Today adaptation is a particularly dour and unsettling piece of drama.

This is partly because of the inherent nature of its themes, background and plot but it is quite possibly heightened by it only being available as an umpteenth generation version, with the resulting washed out grey-green colour palette.

Also, I was quite aware when watching it that the background of its making and broadcast was the real life threat of a peak in tension during the Cold War, which possibly made it less entertainment than a form of almost speculative documentary.

Z For Zachariah-2015-1

When I watched the 2015 film version I was actually quite surprised by it; the film stars three well known actors – Margot Robbie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Chris Pine – but it is a fairly downbeat, understated feature.

(Curiously, in a revolving mirror manner of what often happens with film and television adaptations when they cross the Atlantic, the book was originally set in the United States, the story was relocated to Wales for the Play For Today version and then returned to the US for the 2015 film version.)

Z For Zachariah-2015-2

The film version adds a third survivor – Chris Pine – and it becomes in part a tale of a love triangle set against the background of survival and the conflict between faith and scientific practicality (this aspect is particularly shown when one of the characters wishes for the wooden church in the valley to be taken down in order to build a power creating watermill and does not or cannot take on board the spiritual effect this may have on another of the trio).

In this version the apocalypse that has faced the wider world is not overtly defined as being conflict related and is more hinted at as being some vague nuclear related cataclysm, which accompanied by it being made after the Cold War era means that the underlying real life threat of the film is at least lessened.

However, I have to admit that by the end of the film I’m not sure that I was so much entertained as unsettled and disturbed, finding myself with a strong sense of nolonger wanting to be in this world and its realities.

This natural rural enclave may in some ways look like a singular paradisiacal new beginning but it is one that seems to have an overhanging sense of a clock ticking towards when it will no longer be sustainable.

Brrrr.

(File Post Under: Cathode Ray & Cinematic Explorations, Radiowave Resonations & Audiological Investigations)

Audio Visual Transmission Guide #1:
(Fragments of) Z For Zachariah 1984
Z For Zachariah 2015

Local Broadcasts:
Day #46/365: Threads, The Changes, the bad wires and the ghosts of transmissions
Audio Visual Transmission Guide #30/52a: The Last Train And Fractured Timelines

 

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Further and Audio Visual Explorations: Wanderings #45/52a

Further-Portico poster-DJ Food Pete Williams-c

DJ Food and Pete Williams’ Further event has a second installment on November 18th (ticket info can be found here), the first one of which I wrote about a while ago…

Further-DJ Food-Pete Williams-1c

At this second event DJ Food and Pete Williams will be once again creating their multi-projection Further environment, which from the images I have seen seems to have an immersive, layered, enveloping atmosphere and accompanying them will be audio-visual live sets by Simon James and Sculpture.

Simon-James-Furthe-Event-Portico-4c2

The preview videos for Simon James’ performance feature gentle, dreamlike patterns, which at times puts me in mind of abstracted sea creatures, possibly sea anemone’s… and also, while it has a character all of its own, at points it shares similar territory with some of the film work Julian House has produced for Ghost Box Records, creating imagery where hazy geographic shapes and forms seem to contain some kind of hidden, otherly message that you can’t quite decode.

And just as there often can be with filmed recordings of some sea creatures, there is a drift to these images and they hypnotically draw you in as they are accompanied by ambient spectral synthesized music.

Simon James-Furthe Event-Portico-2c

(Simon James has also worked as part of Black Channels, whose particularly rare cassette release Two Knocks For Yes is well worth seeking out in one form or another – it’s still available digitally. Amongst other things it is an intriguing mixture of Radiophonic-esque synthesis, poltergeist exploration and recordings of ghost reports. He has also created the Akhai Den Den album and project, which is a soundtrack and radio drama set in a crumbling amusement park, which I expect I may well visit further around these parts at a later date.)

Sculpture-Tape Box-Further event-Portico-4c

Sculpture is the duo of Dan Hayhurst and Reuben Sutherland whose audio-visual work utilises a wide array of analogue alongside digital techniques to create an at points cut-up-esque swirling montage of sounds and images.

The picture discs they have released come alive and full of animation once they begin to spin on the turntable, recalling the early pre-celluloid days of moving images, along which lines they describe themselves as utilising a “library of zoetropic prints” (zoetropes were a mechanical form of producing moving images via spinning cylinders that were initially created in the 19th century).

Sculpture-Tape-Box-Further-event-Portico-2cc

…while at other times their work includes cosmic, surreal, nature infused images…

Sculpture-Tape Box-Further event-Portico-3c

…which intermingle with what could well be escapees created from either/or/both the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the Berberian Sound Studio.

Further-DJ Food and Pete Williams-5c

There are a number of different cultural themes and strands within the Further events but looking at related images and videos for this second event a word that kept occurring to me, particularly in terms of the visual work, was psychedelia.

Not psychedelia in a retro, retreading, style, rather a contemporary take, exploration or progression of such things.

Further-DJ Food-Pete Williams-6c

Taken as a whole and loosely gathered together, such work as that at the second Further event made me think of Trish Keenan of Broadcast’s quote/comment on her interest in and connection with psychedelia:

“I’m not interested in the bubble poster trip, ‘remember Woodstock’ idea of the sixties. What carries over for me is the idea of psychedelia as a door through to another way of thinking about sound and song. Not a world only reachable by hallucinogens but obtainable by questioning what we think is real and right, by challenging the conventions of form and temper.”
(Taken from an article on/interview with Broadcast by Joseph Stannard in Wire magazine, issue 308, October 2009. It can also be found in an unedited version online at Wire magazine’s site.)

I don’t want to make the Further events sound all overly serious though. What they seem to be in part are an attempt to create a night-time space that moves beyond a purely youthful focus and preoccupation, somewhere you can go out, enjoy a bit of exploratory/experimental music and visual culture and also kick back a bit.

Further-Portico Gallery DJ Food-flier

Or to quote DJ Food and Pete Williams themselves when describing the first event, the flier for which is above, Further is:

“An irregular event held in different places, it’s not a club night, it’s not monthly, there’s no dance floor. It HAS got all the things we love in it though: experimental music and film, food and drink, socialising and a bit of record hunting. Taking old analogue image making techniques from the 20th century and recontextualising it into new spaces for today.”

(File post under: Trails and Influences / Year 3 Wanderings)

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Ether Signposts #14/52a: Further – A Temporary Audio Visual Space

Elsewhere in the ether:
Further related posts at DJ Food’s main site
.
Further related videos.
Tickets for the second Further event.

Akhai Den Den: the main site and transmissions from the deep darkness.
Akhai Den Den: radio waves, half-heard transmissions and electronic music boxes.
Black Channels, Two Knocks For Yes and “otherworldly vibrations and oscillations”.

Sculpture’s main site and collection of videos.

 

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All The Merry Year Round – Pre-order: Artifact Report #45/52a

The CDs are now sold out but the album is available to download at our Bandcamp page, Amazon, The Tidal Store, 7digital etc and can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube etc.

Pre-order available today 7th November 2017. Release date 28th November 2017.

All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night and Dawn editions-A Year In The Country

Artifact #6a

Featuring United Bible Studies, Circle/Temple (Dom Cooper of The Owl Service/Bare Bones/Rif Mountain), Magpahi, Cosmic Neighbourhood, Field Lines Cartographer, Polypores, A Year In The Country, Sproatly Smith, Pulselovers, The Hare And The Moon & Jo Lepine (The Owl Service), Time Attendant and The Séance (Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne and James Papademetrie).

All The Merry Year Round is an exploration of an alternative or otherly calendar that considers how traditional folklore and its tales now sit alongside and sometimes intertwine with cultural or media based folklore; stories we discover, treasure, are informed and inspired by but which are found, transmitted and passed down via television, film and technology rather than through local history and the ritual celebrations of the more longstanding folkloric calendar.

However, just as with their forebears there is a ritualistic nature to these modern-day reveries whereby communal or solitary seances are undertaken when stepping into such tales via flickering darkened rooms lit by screens, although their enclosed nature is in contrast to more public traditional folklore rituals.

Accompanying which with the passing of time some televisual and cinematic stories continue or begin to resonate as they gain new layers of meaning and myth; cultural folklore that has come to express and explore an otherly Albion, becoming a flipside to traditional folklore tales and sharing with them a rootwork that is deeply embedded in the land.

In amongst All The Merry Year Round can be found wanderings down such interwoven pathways, travelling alongside straw bear and cathode ray summonings alike.

 

Available via our Artifacts Shop, our Bandcamp Ether Victrola and at Norman Records.
Dawn Edition £11.95. Night Edition £24.95.

Both editions hand-finished and custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink by
A Year In The Country.


Tracks also previewable at Soundcloud.

 

Dawn Edition. Limited to 104 copies. £11.95.
Hand-finished white/black CDr album in textured recycled fold out sleeve with inserts and badge.All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-front-A Year In The Country
All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-back-A Year In The CountryAll The Merry Year Round-CD album-Dawn edition-opened-A Year In The CountryAll The Merry Year Round-Dawn edition-white-black-CD-A-Year-In-The-Country
Top of CD.                                                          Bottom of CD.

Further encasement details:
1) Custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Includes 25mm/1″ badge, secured with removable glue on string bound tag.
3) Back of one insert hand numbered.

 

Night Edition. Limited to 104 copies. £24.95.
Hand-finished box-set contains: album on all black CDr, 12 page string bound booklet, 4 x badge pack, 4 x stickers, 1 x large badge.

All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-front-A Year In The Country All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-opened-A Year In The Country-2All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-all items-A Year In The Country All The Merry Year Round-CD album-Night edition-booklet 2-A Year In The Country-2All The Merry Year Round-Night-Edition-all-black-CD-A-Year-In-The-Country
Top of CD.                                                            Bottom of CD.

Further encasement details:
1) Booklet/cover art custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Contained in a matchbox style sliding two-part rigid matt card box with cover print.
3) Fully black CDr (black on top, black on playable side).
4) Black string bound booklet: 12 pages (6 sides printed);
Printed on textured fine art cotton rag paper, heavy card and semi-transparent vellum.
Hand numbered on the reverse.
5) 4 x badge set, contained in a see-through polythene bag with a folded card header.
6) 1 x large badge.
7) 2 x square and 2 x round vinyl style stickers.

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 5-A Year In The Country

Tracklisting:

1) Towards The Black Sun – United Bible Studies
2) Rigel Over Flag Fen – Circle/Temple
3) She Became Ashes and Left With the Wind – Magphai
4) Winter Light – Cosmic Neighbourhood
5) Azimuth Alignment Ritual – Field Lines Cartographer
6) Meridian – Polypores
7) Tradition and Modernity – A Year In The Country
8) Moons (Part 1) – Sproatly Smith
9) Tales Of Jack – Pulselovers
10) I’ll Bid My Heart Be Still – The Hare And The Moon & Jo Lepine
11) In a Strange Stillness – Time Attendant
12) Chetwynd Haze – The Séance

Artwork/encasment design and fabrication by AYITC Ocular Signals Department

Artifact #6a / Library Reference Numbers: A011ATMYRD / A011ATMYRN

All The Merry Year Round-landscape artwork 6c-A Year In The Country

 

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Further Accidental Folk-Art: Ether Signposts #45/52a

1970 British Rail-Eastern-leaflet

In terms of accidental folk-art, I think these British Rail leaflets from 1970 should be filed alongside the Cornflakes packet that is featured in the Own Label: Sainsburys Design Studio: 1962 – 1977 book by Jonny Trunk.

(Although strictly speaking I might say to file the British Rail leaflets nearby to the Sainsbury’s Corn Flakes, say under Accidental Folk-Art/Hauntological Precedents.)

Own Label- Sainsburys Design Studio-Jonny Trunk-Fuel book-2

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
Jonny Trunk on Own Label
Peruse a few more images from the book
Own Label at Fuel

Local Places Of Interest:
Day #213/365: Artifacts of a curious mini-genre (and misc.)