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Agincourt’s Fly Away: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #24/52a

Fly Away-Agincourt-1970-acid folk

I recently came across Agincourt’s Fly Away album from 1970, which was listed as being privately pressed acid folk and for a brief moment I thought I had stumbled upon on a semi-lost musical artifact that existed all on it’s own…

…but quite quickly I realised that I had come across two of it’s creators’ John Ferdinando and Peter Howell’s work before, as they had recorded a 1969 album called Alice Through The Looking Glass that I had previously read about/listened to.

Both Alice Through The Looking Glass and Fly Away are sweetly naive, gentle, whimsical, homespun albums. Some might consider them twee at points but I think that aspect is part of their charm.

Fly Away-Agincourt-1970-acid folk-3

On Agincourt’s Fly Away it is the tracks that feature Lee Menelaus’ vocals which more catch my eye/ear, in particular the songs When I Awoke, Though I May Be Dreaming, Take Me There, Dawn and Kind Sir.

Although recorded in that actual period, they put me in mind of the recreation and reimagining of past eras that you might find in say Death And Vanilla’s work; a sort of gently leftfield late 1960s pop perfection that in Agincourt’s case conjures a pastoral atmosphere or an accompanying video of walking through sun-dappled wheat fields at the side of a forest (an exclamation mark may be appropriate about now – !).

They lyrics of Though I May Be Dreaming seem to reflect on the end of 1960s hippie utopian thoughts and ways but without a sense of bitterness and looking back they could also be seen as a harbinger of a related retreat and escape into more rural, pastoral concerns that happened around then:

“Everything changes when winter comes
Gone are the promises made in the summer of love…
Though I may be dreaming
I know that I will always find
Plenty to ease my mind drinking country wine”

Listening to the song again, it would not have surprised me to find out that actually this had been a release on that most whimsical, imaginary realm of English pop record label él, back in the 1980s.

Fly Away-Agincourt-1970-acid folk-4 Fly Away-Agincourt-1970-acid folk-2

Although Agincourt has a more recorded at home and possibly less polished atmosphere, the pastoral pop-(prog?)-folk of Caedmon’s Sea Song from their also privately pressed eponymous 1978 album may also be a reference point.

And talking of homespun etc, Fly Away’s album cover is wonderfully lo-fi: it makes me think of the sort of album that musical delver and reissuer Jonny Trunk would post about in a “I’ve finally found it, been looking for it for years” way.

Interestingly and in a way that connects with A Year In The Country’s sometimes wandering amongst work where the flipside of bucolia meets more hauntological concerns, Peter Howell of Agincourt would go on to work as a sound engineer at the BBC. He worked on the soundtrack for Doctor Who, creating an arrangement of the classic Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme that was used in the show around 1980-1985.

Fly Away was only pressed in very small quantities of vinyl back at the time of its original release. It has had a CD reissue but that is also long since sold out. It can be listened to online still (although I’m not sure the music’s creators’ are likely to receive any financial recompense from such things).

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
Fly Away continuous recording including notes
Fly Away playlist at The Psychedelic Garden
Alice Through The Looking Glass playlist
Peter Howell’s arrangement of the Doctor Who theme

Background notes on Peter Howell and John Ferdinando

 

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Zardoz Ephemera / A Revisiting Of Fading Vessellings: Wanderings #24/52a

Zardoz-laser disc-novel-Arrow Bluray-A Year In The Country

A gathering of a few Zardoz related ephemera… the novelisation, the Arrow Bluray release and its earlier HD counterpart and one of the laserdiscs…

…because, well, there’s nothing quite like revisiting a relatively big budget, big name, genuine cinematic oddity that could be said to create its own particular take on psychedelia, back out to the country utopianism and heavy, heavy (man) post 1960s comedowns…

Or to quote myself:

“It feels like a genuinely psychedelic and dreamlike experience in many ways… a dissonant, challenging blockbuster/spectacle film in a way, full of “I can’t actually believe that this was allowed to come to the big screen” moments, questioning of societies actions, elements of 20th century fairy tales and philosophy amongst, well, the thigh length boots, nudity, guns and entertainment.”

Now, you could spend all day (well, a fair few hours) browsing the various Zardoz related memorabilia, although largely it would be variations on similar themes – a handful of period magazines, the varying video/DVD/Bluray/laserdisc releases and different countries posters and lobby cards.

Zardoz-contact sheet-A Year In The Country

One of the few actually different items that you may come across though are a handful of contact sheets.

Its hard to know if these are the original “tumbled out of the dark room from back when” sheets or reprints but I’m quite drawn to them.

Although I’m not somebody who has a didactic, either/or view on digital versus analogue technology and processes, I have found a certain magic to occur within dark rooms and contact sheets seem like very genuine, scarce and precious artifacts.

Laserdiscs meanwhile seem like such, to use that word again, oddities in the modern world. Or maybe that should be stranded artifacts.

They’re very solid, almost monumental seeming things, heavy, physically large and films sometimes came on more than one disc in gatefold sleeves and are an interesting way of seeing related artwork – collectible in themselves even without the ability to play them.

Laserdisc-Zardoz-A Year In The Country-2 Laserdisc-Zardoz-A Year In The Country

Despite the fact that this laserdisc copy of Zardoz is fading and corroding I know there may well be a frame or two of He who fights too long against dragons, becomes a dragon himself” tales on there somewhere,

However, on this side of the pond and on this particular island laser disc players were such relative rarities and the technology required so specific that it is a genie (or should that be a reverse wizard of Oz?) caught in a relatively inoperable jar.

Even with something like say old 35mm trailer reels without a projector you can still hold them up to the light to see the individual frames and with cassette tape there are still plenty of cassette players knocking about the world and  tapes themselves are still being replicated.

…but laser discs.

Nope.

The last new disc was released in 2000 and although the players themselves were still sold in very limited and fairly pricey quantities until 2009, decent used working players in the UK are increasingly hard to find.

(I say decent as surprisingly, although they look like a forerunner to DVDs, as with vinyl, audio and video cassettes this was an analogue system and so the better players give a better picture and sound.)

 

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

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Day #177/365: Zardoz… in this secret room from the past, I seek the future…

Day #356/365: Audiological Reflections and Pathways #6; fading vessellings

Elsewhere in the ether:
Details of laserdisc players here (or electro-mechanical helium-neon laser players and Discovision).

 

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From The Furthest Signals Pre-Order: Artifact Report #24/52a

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.

Dawn Edition £11.95. Night Edition £24.95.
From The Furthest Signal-Night and Dawn editions-A Year In The Country
Available via our Artifacts Shop, our Bandcamp Ether Victrola and Norman Records.
Pre-order 13th June 2017. Released 27th June 2017.

Artifact #3a

Featuring audiological explorations by Circle/Temple, David Colohan, Sharron Kraus, A Year In The Country, Time Attendant, Depatterning, Field Lines Cartographer, Grey Frequency, Keith Seatman, Polypores, The Hare And The Moon, Pulselovers and Listening Center.

From The Furthest Signals takes as its initial reference points films, television and radio programs that have been in part or completely lost or wiped during a period in history before archiving and replication of such work had gained today’s technological and practical ease.

Curiously, such television and radio broadcasts may not be fully lost to the wider universe as they can travel or leak out into space and so may actually still exist far from their original points of transmission and places of creation, possibly in degraded, fractured form and/or mixed amongst other stellar noises and signals.

The explorations of From The Furthest Signals are soundtracks imagined and filtered through the white noise of space and time; reflections on those lost tales and the way they can become reimagined via hazy memories and history, of the myths that begin to surround such discarded, lost to view or vanished cultural artifacts.

Listen to clips from the album at our Soundcloud: Mark II Ether Victrola

 

Dawn Edition. Limited to 104 copies. £11.95.
Hand-finished white/black CDr album in textured recycled fold out sleeve with inserts and badge.From The Furthest Signal-Dawn-front cover-A Year In The Country From The Furthest Signal-Dawn-back-A Year In The CountryFrom The Furthest Signal-Dawn-opened-A Year In The CountryFrom The Furthest Signals-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, 1 x large badge, 1 x round sticker, 1 x landscape format sticker.
From The Furthest Signal-Night-front-A Year In The Country From The Furthest Signal-Night-opened-A Year In The CountryFrom The Furthest Signal-Night-all components-A Year In The Country From The Furthest Signal-Night-opened booklet page-A Year In The CountryFrom The Furthest Signals-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) 1 x round sticker, 1 x landscape format sticker.

 

From The Furthest Signals-landscape sticker-A Year In The Country

Further Audiological Exploration Details:
1) Circle/Temple – The Séance/Search for Muspel-Light
2) David Colohan – Brass Rubbings Club (Opening Titles)
3) A Year In The Country – A Multitude Of Tumblings
4) Sharron Kraus – Asterope
5) Time Attendant – The Dreaming Green
6) Depatterning – Aurora In Andromeda
7) Sproatly Smith – The Thistle Doll
8) Field Lines Cartographer – The Radio Window
9) Grey Frequency – Ident (IV)
10) Keith Seatman – Curious Noises & Distant Voices
11) Polypores – Signals Caught Off The Coast
12) The Hare And The Moon – Man Of Double Deed
13) Pulselovers – Endless Repeats/Eternal Return
14) Listening Center – Only The Credits Remain

Artwork / encasment design by AYITC Ocular Signals Department.

Library Reference Numbers: A009FTFSN and A009FTFSN.

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

From The Furthest Signals-landscape artwork 2-A Year In The Country-2

(File Under: Encasements / Artifacts – Artifact #3a)

 

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The Wicker Man / Don’t Look Now Double Bill And Media Disseminations From What Now Seem A Long Long Time Ago: Ether Signposts #24/52a

The Wicker Man-Dont Look Now-double bill-The Guardian and The Observer DVDs

Fairly recently I was in a charity shop and on the counter they had a box full of the DVDs and CDs that used to come free with newspapers…

That time now seems long, long ago, before the advent and popularity of online streaming services for films.

The Wicker Man-Dont Look Now-double bill-The Guardian and The Observer DVDs-2

Anyways, a while after I got home I realised that two of the DVDs I had gotten from the shop were effectively the original double bill cinema release of The Wicker Man and Don’t Look Now.

The version of The Wickerman on the DVD is one of the shorter ones with a runtime of 84 minutes but nonetheless I suppose for Wickerman collectors and completists this would still be something to look out for.

Finding them also made me curious if there had ever been one of those double bill cinema posters for the two films.

They were once quite popular and now seem to often capture previous era’s styles and aesthetics.

The Wicker Man and Dont Look Now-double bill adverts

However, despite quite a search for one of those double bill posters I couldn’t find one, only a couple of newspaper/magazine adverts.

So in lieu of an actual double-bill poster I thought I would repost a double page spread from a copy of Film Review magazine back in 1974, showing The Wicker Man side-by-side with its cinematic partner:

The Wicker Man-Dont Look Now-Film Review Magazine-A Year In The Country-1200

Directions and Destinations:
Day #90/365: The Wickerman – the future lost vessels and artifacts of modern folklore
For Summer Isle completists: The Wickerman and Don’t Look Now

 

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

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The Viewing Portals of Children Of Alice: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #23/52a

Children Of Alice website-1

I’m rather taken by the Children Of Alice website: it seems to harken back to a time before the busy hustle and bustle of today’s ever-updating and information full social media and online world.

It consists of just a set of nine animated GIF slideshows on a black background, which flicker, rotate and seem to almost slide away from view when you try to watch and focus them on the page as they create a set of screens for or portals to a very particular world.

And in contrast to much of todays online world, the only nod to functionality or user interaction on the site is that when moused over one of the GIFs/slideshow images changes from the album cover image to simply read “Children Of Alice Out Now” with three links to where the album can be bought.

Children Of Alice website-3

Rather than the more uncanny pastoral collage and themes of the first Children Of Alice album, the imagery in these GIFs seems nearer to the haunted dancehall, parallel worlds of Ghost Box Records and Julian House’s related work.

And while it contains some similar arcane imagery as may be found amongst the Ghost Box releases, it also seems to conjure a sense of belonging in part to some earlier era than Ghost Box, mixed here and there with flashes of some kind of almost Kenneth Anger-esque hipster-ness.

The soundtrack to the website mixes and filters a sense of being the theme tune to a lost children’s television series, possibly a distant animated kin to the Moomins or Clangers, along with a woozy hauntological take on the gentle escape of say Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure.

Children Of Alice website-2

While still musically experimental and layered, it is more overtly accessible and melodic than much of the work on the first Children Of Alice full release and it puts me in mind of the Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witchcults Of The Radio Age album in its more conventional moments.

Musically and visually I think the site is an interesting pointer or harbinger for future Children Of Alice work, if its creators choose to move away from the more pastoral, folkloric concepts and themes of Folklore Tapes where their work first appeared.

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide: Children Of Alice’s website

 

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Malcolm Pointon – Electromuse: Wanderings #23/52a

Malcolm Pointon-Electromuse-Ian Helliwell-Public Information

I’ve been rather taken by the Malcolm Pointon album Electromuse that was released by Public Information.

Some electronic music from earlier eras I can sometimes find more interesting culturally than as work to actually sit down and listen to.

However the tracks presented here are a different deal altogether.

Particularly Symbiosis, especially once it really kicks in around 2:30 into it’s playing time.

This is threatening, engrossing music.

It sounds like all of the contemporary electronic takes on what has come to be known as hauntology synthesized (literally) and boiled down into one piece of work.

As I listen to it again, it puts me in mind of early Human League’s darker, instrumental, artsy but not self indulgent older brother – Being Boiled Plus Plus.

Good stuff.

Malcolm Pointon-Electromuse-Ian Helliwell-Public Information-2

And talking of hauntology – the cover art – just a stark presentation of one of the original tapes seems as though it could have tumbled from a spectral hauntology film project (the made-at-home, good old British pluck companion to The Berberian Sound Studio?).

Similar could be said of the accompanying studio-like tracklisting and tape speed.

And although of its time much of the work here sounds curiously contemporary. Possibly in part because some of the sounds, styles and atmospheres to be found on the album have been revisited by some of hauntology but I think it’s more than that…

…maybe it’s that there’s a certain, hmmm, not necessarily timelessness but maybe more a sense that this is in part unexplored, un-heavily harvested work.

Something interesting I read about Malcolm Pointon was that although the members of The Radiophonic Workshop often receive much of the attention and plaudits, here was a gent separate to all that and its associated state sponsorship – this was literally personal, private endeavour and that just mentioned good old British pluck.

 

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

Elsewhere in the ether:
The album was compiled by Ian Helliwell and Public Information. It can be perused further here.

 

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Grey Frequency’s Agrarian Lament Video: Artifact Report #23/52a

Grey Frequency-Agrarian Lament video still-From The Furthest Fields

The Restless Field-Dawn Edition-front-A Year In The CountryThe video to accompany Grey Frequency’s Agrarian Lament from The Restless Field album can be viewed amongst their other hypnotic audio visual work at their Youtube channel.

Grey Frequency’s online home for their “ethereal ambient transmissions” can be visited here.

Further details on The Restless Field album can be viewed here.

 

(File Under: Encasments / Artifacts – Artifact #2a)

 

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Nigel Kneale’s Lost Visions And A Library Of Voyages Into The Unknown: Ether Signposts #23/52a

Nigel Kneale-The Road still

As mentioned in the notes for the A Year In The Country From The Furthest Signals album, it is a strange thing in the modern world, where most of culture is endlessly recorded, stored, archived and replicated relatively easily via digital technology, to think of a time when that was not the case, particularly in terms of radio and television broadcasts.

In past eras these were often produced and transmitted live or if they were recorded then the physical media that held them were often wiped, discarded, damaged and/or quite simply just lost.

There were a number of reasons for such actions and loss, including the cost and sheer physical volume of storage space required to archive them, wishing to save money by re-using tapes, not necessarily thinking that such recordings would have worth or cultural value in the future and sometimes just the literal fragility or unstably dangerous nature of the recording media.

Day 14-The Twilight Language Of Nigel Kneale-Strange Attractor-A Year In The Country

Quite a few areas of what have come to gain a cult following in British television suffered such fates, in particular broadcasts of some of Nigel Kneale’s work.

One of his lost television plays is The Road from 1963.

This was set in 1770 and involves a country squire and “natural philosopher” Sir Timothy Hassell investigating a haunted wood where men pass away screaming after hearing strange cries “as if all the dead people was risin’ out o’ Hell”.

This is a phenomenon that occurs just once a year, on Michaelmas Eve. Sir Timothy decides to investigate, thinking it’s a past echo of a retreating Roman army… but it is actually the cries of those suffering in a future apocalyptic attack.

The idea of which is genuinely chilling and although part of me would like to see it, part of me is kind of glad I can’t.

Nigel Kneale plays-The Road-Stone Tape-Year Of-BFI DVD Stone Tape-2

Anyways, the script for The Road is available as a PDF on the out of print BFI DVD of The Stone Tape.

It was also published in book form in 1976 alongside the scripts for The Stone Tape and Year Of The Sex Oympics but the last time I looked you would need to be breaking into probably quite a few of your piggy banks to be able afford one as it’s rather rare and tends to cost in the hundreds of pounds.

Nigel Kneales The Road reading

There have been other fleeting glances of The Road; for a while there was a live amateur production of it available to watch online but that has since disappeared and transgressive horror research project The Miskatonic Institute presented a live reading of it at The Horse Hospital in London in 2015.

The Horse Hospital reading was to mark the launch of a book of essays about Nigel Kneale called We Are The Martians: The Legacy Of Nigel Kneale, which was delayed somewhat but which is finally due to appear this year, which will feature writing by amongst others Mark Gatiss, Tim Lucas, Kim Newman and Neil Snowdon.

Nigel Kneale books-We Are The Martians-Into The Unknown-Quatermass And The Pit-The Twilight Language

It joins a number of other explorations of his work in book form; the biographical Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life Of Nigel Kneale by Andy Murray (which is to be revised and republished by Headpress in 2017), Kim Newman’s Quatermass And The Pit published by the BFI and the beautifully produced, risograph printed collection of essays The Twilight Language Of Nigel Kneale, which was edited by edited Sukhdev Sandhu, published by Strange Attractor and Texte und Töne and designed in a rather fine manner by Seen Studios.

We Are The Martians-The Legacy Of Nigel Kneale-Spectral Screen edition
(The earlier version of the book’s cover.)

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life Of Nigel Kneale by Andy Murray (original version)
Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life Of Nigel Kneale by Andy Murray (revised edition)
Quatermass And The Pit by Kim Newman
The Twilight Language Of Nigel Kneale at Strange Attractor
The Twilight Language Of Nigel Kneale at Seen Studios
We Are The Martians: The Legacy Of Nigel Kneale
The Road At The Miskatonic Institute

Local places of interest:
Day #15/365. The Twilight Language Of Nigel Kneale
Day #23/365: Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape – a study of future haunted media
Day #197/365: Huff-ity puff-ity ringstone round; Quatermass and the finalities of lovely lightning
Week #45/52: Quatermass finds and ephemera from back when
Artifact Report #21/52a: From The Furthest Signals – Preorder And Release Dates

 

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Edgelands – Psychogeographical Folk Tales In An Unexpected Realm: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #22/52a

Edgelands-Marshlight software-Hoofus-3b

“Magic and folklore… entangle the modern world… in an uncanny rustic adventure…”

No, it’s not the taglines from the poster to a folk horror film that you’ve not heard of.

They are from one of the trailer’s for a computer game called Edgelands created by Marshlight software.

Now, it’s a fair old while since I’ve been especially intrigued by a computer game.

But…

…well, this looks lovely.

To a startling synth soundtrack by Hoofus (who shared a cassette with IX Tab in record label Front & Follow’s Blow series of releases) that quite frankly made my hair stand on end, the trailer evokes an enchanting flipside of the folkloric atmosphere that I expect I’ve been looking for in films, television etc all throughout A Year In The Country.

Edgelands-Marshlight software-Hoofus-2b

I didn’t expect to accidentally find it via a computer game.

And more than that, although I’m not any kind of up-to-date expert on such things, this is one of the first times that I’ve seen a computer game that feels genuinely personal, to be telling a personal emotional tale in the way that films or television can do.

And without the flash-bang-whallop factor of much of modern gaming.

The mechanics of the game seem in part like an evolution of the old text based adventure games from a fair few decades ago, which also adds to the appeal for me.

On that Blow cassette, one of the Hoofus tracks was called Edgeland Industries.

Edgelands-Marshlight software-Hoofus-1

And when I delved a bit further I discovered that Edgelands was created by Andre Bosman, who is also responsible for Hoofus.

In an interview he says of the game:

The inspirations and ideas behind my music are very similar to the sorts of themes I’m exploring in The Edgelands (such as uncanny beauty, rural hinterlands). In many ways it feels like Hoofus – The Game… As well as being a musician I also have a background in graphic design, and it feels like all this different creative strands I’ve been following now have a place where they can all work together to make something interesting.”

That intertwining of different layers and mediums is one of the aspects of Edgelands that makes it so intriguing…

Edgelands-Marshlight software-Hoofus-5b

And to the question “You also talked about ‘psychogeographical folk tales’ – what are they then?” he says:

Tapping into the sense of overwhelming feelings that being in a particular landscape can give you, and exploring the idea that these feelings are related to some intangible forces that are deeply rooted in that landscape. And then taking that further by imagining the sorts of folk stories that might have arisen because of how it feels to walk in a particular wood at night. And then taking it a bit further still by imagining that somebody builds a fancy restaurant or a hat factory in that wood, and what sort of atmosphere that would have, and how the intangible forces would integrate with the modern occupants, and what sort of modern occupants would feel comfortable in that situation… and then turning that into yet more folk tales. Ambiguous magical stories based on ambiguous magical feelings in the landscape caused by ambiguous magical forces.

Edgelands-Marshlight software-Hoofus-4

On the Marshlight website the game is described as:

The Edgelands is an atmospheric adventure set in the present day, based on real and imagined folklore.

Beginning in a house in the forgotten rural backwoods beyond the City, you soon find yourself exploring an uncanny rustic twilight landscape in which familiar rural landmarks overlap with otherworldly occurrences, creating a dream-like blurring of the ordinary and the supernatural.

The Edgelands is focused on exploration and atmosphere, not brain-taxing puzzles and inventory juggling. It is a sedate and eerie experience, with an ambiguous narrative designed to enhance the mood of dusky ramblings in mysterious places where urban and rural environments overlap.

Interest piqued, as they say. Definitely something for further investigation.

(File Post Under: Cathode Ray & Cinematic Explorations, Radiowave Resonations & Audiological Investigations. Sub-section: Psychogeographic Folkloric Gaming)

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
The Edgelands Trailer
The Edgelands Teaser Trailer
An Interview with Andre Rosman on Edgelands
Edgelands at Marshlight Software
The Hoofus Edgelands soundtrack at Bandcamp
Loomings from the trailer’s soundtrack
Blow Volume 1 at Front & Follow

A Year In The Country Broadcasts & Wanderings:
Day #115/365: Edward Chell’s Soft Estates – documents of autobahn edgelands
Day #160/365: Edgelands Report Documents; Cases #1a (return), #2a-5a.

 

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George Shiras – In The Heart Of The Dark Night: Wanderings #22/52a

George Shiras-In The Heart Of The Dark Night-Éditions Xavier Barral-A Year In The Country-1

I’m rather taken by George Shiras’ photography and the book collection of it In The Heart Of The Dark Night, published by Éditions Xavier Barral.

George Shiras was a pioneer of night time flash photography, particularly regarding nature photography.

His photographs show a world never seen and/or captured in this way before and they seem to have an almost otherworldy air to them.

George Shiras-In The Heart Of The Dark Night-Éditions Xavier Barral-A Year In The Country-2

The level of patience and hit-or-miss, sometimes literally dangerous techniques for creating flash that he used somewhat beggars belief in our more “I’ve got most of the techology I need for that sort of thing in my pocket, via a small computer/optical/communication device that’s quite a bit smaller than a paperback book” days.

George Shiras-In The Heart Of The Dark Night-Éditions Xavier Barral-A Year In The Country-4

In those days it was essentially about setting fire to and quick explosions of flammable powders and the like.

Alongside spending nights and nights or months and months waiting patiently for the right moment to light the taper as it were.

The book itself is a rather lovely artifact – one of those things that you want to hold delicately as it feels precious.

George Shiras-In The Heart Of The Dark Night-Éditions Xavier Barral-A Year In The Country-3

Nice cloth cover, tipped in cover image, embossed silver spine text and paper that is glossy but subtley textured and without the mainstream ubiquity feel that gloss can sometimes have.

A fine thing to be out in the world.

 

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

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Wanderings #21/52a: Vortex Views / The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds

Elsewhere in the ether:
In The Heart Of The Dark Night at Éditions Xavier Barral.

 

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From The Furthest Signals – Clips Online: Artifact Report #22/52a

From The Furthest Signals-clips landscape image-2

From The Furthest Signals album clips are online for listening to.

Visit them at our Soundcloud Mark II Ether Victrola.

Pre-order 13th June 2017. Release date 27th June 2017.

From The Furthest Signals-album cover art-A Year In The CountryAudiological explorations by Circle/Temple, David Colohan, Sharron Kraus, A Year In The Country, Time Attendant, Depatterning, Field Lines Cartographer, Grey Frequency, Keith Seatman, Polypores, The Hare And The Moon, Pulselovers and Listening Center.

Further details on From The Furthest Signals can be found here.

 

(File Under: Encasments / Artifacts – Artifact #3a)

 

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The Aural/Parallel Science Explorations Of Radionics Radio: Ether Signposts #22/52a

Peter-Reich-A-Book-Of-Dreams-The Delaware Road-The Creeping Garden

Of late I seem to have been accidentally stumbling across and exploring various areas of what is sometimes known as pseudo or fringe science: scientific study, research and practises that are not accepted by and/or are outside the realms of conventional scientific thought.

Radionics Radio-album-1That has wandered from reading the almost hallucinogenic world of his father’s that Peter Reich describes in his autobiographical A Book Of Dreams (which inspired Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting song and video), to the related and intertwined imagery and themes of artwork from The Delaware Road, via the science fiction-esque experimentations of The Creeping Garden and through to the Radionics Radio album by Daniel Wilson.

A brief description of radionics is below:

“A system of alternative medicine based on the supposition that detectable electromagnetic radiation emitted by living matter can be interpreted diagnostically and transmitted to treat illness at a distance by complex electrical instruments.”

Radionics Radio album-logo

While the Radionics Radio project and album:

“…draws upon the fringe-science of radionics, with its invisible forces and psychic resonances, to spawn electroacoustic and electronic compositions employing very alternative tuning systems. Radionics’ idea that thoughts can be represented as frequencies is vigorously explored on this new release through microtonal compositions which range from mutating drones to electronic sambas, with nods to Raymond Scott and Daphne Oram along the way.”

Daphne Oram and Raymond Scott

In practical terms, the album was created in this way:

“In 2014, Resonance FM’s Sound and Music Embedded Composer in Residence Daniel Wilson launched Radionics Radio. Through an online app replicating Delawarr’s Multi-Oscillator, users submitted their own thoughts and frequencies for radio broadcast… All sounds heard in the Radionics Radio compositions are strictly derived only from the respective submitted thought-frequencies.”

Radionics Radio-3

The Delawarr Multi-Oscillator? What is that I may hear you say. Well:

“In 1962, Oxford’s Delawarr Laboratories built their groundbreaking Multi-Oscillator instrument comprising multiple electronic tone generators. The Multi-Oscillator was the summation of all Delawarr Laboratories’ acoustical research into radionics. It was a strange instrument far ahead of its time. In a process best described as ‘dowsing with oscillators,’ the unorthodox device was employed intuitively to select clusters of frequencies that embodied thoughts, ailments or concepts.”

Electronic Sound magazine-Radionic Radio album

As is often the way when you look into one particular avenue of culture, you start to stumble upon more… along which lines, in Issue 26 of Electronic Sound there is an interview with Daniel Wilson where he talks about the creation of the Radionics Radio album and how the project grew from his time at the Goldsmiths University’s Daphne Oram archive:

“Which is when I discovered Daphne Oram’s interest in the esoteric field and in the very new age ideas of wave phenomena, the waves that underpin our lives. She was into everything to do with waves, vibrations, electronic sound, music, the ways you can interact with the body, even ley lines. It’s all very strange.”

Radionics Radio-logo

Aside from the Radionics Radio album’s somewhat intriguing and multilayered backstory and creation, the resulting work is particularly listenable to. Classy is a word that comes to mind. Exploratory but also rather accessible.

If you should appreciate work by the Radiophonic Workshop and other electronic pioneers, the more melodic side of Ghost Box Records releases and a kind of often playful, sometimes quietly unsettling synthesized retro-futurism then you may well find a fair bit to appreciate in it.

Also, in an intertwined manner with some of the earlier reference points, there will be a Radionics Radio performance at The Delaware Road Kelvedon Hatch event…

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
Radionics Radio at Sub Rosa records.
Electronic Sound issue 26, featuring Radionics Radio/Daniel Wilson
The Radionics Radio website
The Delaware Road at Kelvedon Hatch – featuring Radionics Radio

Local Places Of Interest:
Week #3/52: I Still Dream Of Orgonon; A Book Of Dreams, the rarity of argent chains and moments of discovery…
Ether Signposts #15/52a: The Delaware Road at Kelvedon Hatch

 

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From The Furthest Signals – Preorder And Release Dates: Artifact Report #21/52a

From The Furthest Signals-album cover art-A Year In The Country

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 13th June 2017. Release date 27th June 2017.

From The Furthest Signals takes as its initial reference points films, television and radio programs that have been in part or completely lost or wiped during a period in history before archiving and replication of such work had gained today’s technological and practical ease.

Curiously, such television and radio broadcasts may not be fully lost to the wider universe as they can travel or leak out into space and so may actually still exist far from their original points of transmission and places of creation, possibly in degraded, fractured form and/or mixed amongst other stellar noises and signals.

The explorations of From The Furthest Signals are soundtracks imagined and filtered through the white noise of space and time; reflections on those lost tales and the way they can become reimagined via hazy memories and history, of the myths that begin to surround such discarded, lost to view or vanished cultural artifacts.

Audiological explorations by:
Circle/Temple
David Colohan
A Year In The Country
Sharron Kraus
Time Attendant
Depatterning
Sproatly Smith
Field Lines Cartographer
Grey Frequency
Keith Seatman
Polypores
The Hare And The Moon
Pulselovers
Listening Center

Will be available via our Artifacts Shop and our Bandcamp Ether Victrola.

 

(File Post Under: Encasments / Artifacts – Artifact #3a)

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Spaceship – Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #21/52a

Spaceship-Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1-Forged River Recordings-a prospect of loughton brook-4

Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1 is the first track from Mark Williamson’s Spaceship album A Prospect Of Loughton Brook, which has been released by Forged River Recordings.

The music on this album was composed using extensive field recordings from Loughton Brook, a small stream in Epping Forest. Following the stream’s course from its source near Wake Valley Ponds to its confluence with the River Roding.

The link below is for the short film that accompanies the track.

Spaceship-Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1-Forged River Recordings-a prospect of loughton brook-3

Together they create a space to drift off into, five or so minutes when the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life go away for just a moment or two.

The music is formed from a lilting collage of field recordings, accompanied by a simple, minimal piano refrain. The atmosphere it creates put me in mind of Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, the looping calm, uplift and yet quiet plaintiveness of 1/1 from Brian Eno’s Ambient 1 – Music For Airports album and possibly a hint of Harold Budd.

Spaceship-Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1-Forged River Recordings-a prospect of loughton brook-2

The film contains a gently changing and fading into one another set of photographs which are largely of forests, trees and landscapes, which I assume follows one of the paths the field recordings were made.

Spaceship-Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1-Forged River Recordings-1There is a relatively brief appearance of more urban and man-made areas, which in the overall context of the beauty and escape of the more nature based images feels almost violently jarring, which I suppose may well reflect the reality of such things and related contrasts in environment.

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide: Great Monk Wood to Baldwins Pond Pt1

 

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Vortex Views / The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds: Wanderings #21/52a

The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds-Deborah Samuels-Prestel-A Year In The Country-3

And while we’re talking about nicely put together books of photography…

Deborah Samuel’s The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds.

This is a book that focuses on, well, birds but not in a normal nature photography manner – the photographs here are nearer to a fine art project detailed study of, well, the details of birds.

The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds-Deborah Samuels-Prestel-A Year In The Country-2cThe Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds-Deborah Samuels-Prestel-A Year In The Country-1b

The photographs often involve close ups of the design, pattern and colours of feathers and other features, eggs are seen in some kind of perfectly captured stillness that blends scientific photography documentation and something much more creative or expressive.

I was particularly drawn to the images of nests – the swirl, shape and seeming almost vortex of them. They veer ever so slightly towards the sinister in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.

The Extraordinary Beauty Of Birds-Deborah Samuels-Prestel-A Year In The Country-4

Well worth a stop, look and see. Just for the sheer beauty of the photographs and also to take in an appreciate a somewhat unique perspective on nature photography.

 

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

Elsewhere in the ether:
The book at its publishing home in the ether. Deborah Samuel’s home for the work in the ether.

 

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Scarred For Life – 740 Pages Of Growing Up In The Dark Side Of The Decade: Ether Signposts #21/52a

Scarred For Life-Volume One-Book-1While there have been a fair few Christmas market style humorous looks at films, television and paraphenalia from the 1970s, Scarred For Life isn’t in it for the wacky, wasn’t it all funny factor.

It’s a little more… well, dark and unsettling, particularly if you grew up in a particular era.

The book is subtitled Growing Up In The Dark Side Of The Decade and is:

“…an affectionate look at the darker side of pop culture in the 1970s. Public information films, scary kids’ TV show, bleak adult dramas, dystopian sci-fi, savage horror films, violent comics, horror-themed toys and sweets and the huge boom in paranormal paraphernalia; all this and much more is covered in depth.

It is something of a mammoth 740 page tome that has chapters on The Owl Service, Escape Into The Night, The Tomorrow People, The Changes, Sky, Children Of The Stones, Play For Today, Doomwatch, The Guardians, Quatermass, A Ghost Story For Christmas, The Stone Tape, The Omega Factor…

(Pause for breath…)

…Public Information Films (there are over 100 pages just on those), folk horror, dystopian science fiction,  the paranormal boom of the 1970s…

Scarred For Life-book-contents-c

Which are just the more overtly hauntologically related sections for starters and the book wanders down a considerable number of other avenues.

Scarred For Life-book-contents 2c

A quite phenomenal labour of dedication.

Apparently this is Volume One, which focuses on the 1970s, with a 1980s book already being worked on.

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
Scarred For Life Volume One