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Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders – Unreleased Variations Away From Bricks And Mortar: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #28/52a

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders seven inch-Finders Keepers Records-Record Store Day 2017-2Well, for folk who don’t happen to live near a bricks and mortar record shop, it was good to see Finders Keepers Records 2017 Record Store Day release Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders 7″ release available to buy/stream at Bandcamp and their website.

The EP is released ten years since they originally released the soundtrack and is said to contain:

“…further unreleased variations, vocal tracks and newly resurrected themes from the original master tapes of composer Luboš Fišer.”

Here at A Year In The Country we have something of a softspot for the fantasias of Czech New Wave films such as Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Daisies and Malá Morská Víla (which influenced Jane Weaver’s The Fallen By Watch Bird album, that was an early point of reference and inspiration for AYITC).

The soundtrack to Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders is a particular favourite and each time I hear the Main Theme I seem to transported to some other place, it conjures a sense of its own world, of belonging to some parallel place and time.

Along which lines…

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders seven inch-Finders Keepers Records-Record Store Day 2017The soundtrack has been mentioned as an influence on both Broadcast and Espers and it could almost be a tumbling backwards and forwards through time to their work, both of which could be said to create and weave their own worlds.

Listening to these new tracks, I also thought of Cat’s Eyes’ soundtrack to The Duke Of Burgundy and its soundtracking of its own particular imagined European pastoral hinterland…

So, without further ado…

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders 7″

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

 

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The Modernist / Sacred Suburbs / Concrete Belief Systems: Wanderings #28/52a

The Modernist-Faith Issue 19-Sacred Suburbs-A Year In The Country

There are a fair few book, website etc appreciations of brutalist / modernist architecture out and about in the world but I thought that The Modernist / The Modernist Society was a nice take on such things.

It has a certain classy stylishness to it that appeals.

The Modernist-Issue 19 Faith-A Year In The Country

The printing is all subtle, soft halftone printing rather than high resolution photographic reproduction, which I have wandered when reading it whether that was a deliberate choice rather than something decided by financial restrictions, as it seems to be in line with some kind of spirit of say information booklets from back in the day.

The Modernist-The Faith Issue 19-A Year In The Country

Sacred Suburbs-The Modernist-A Year In The CountryI particularly like the packaging of their publication Sacred Suburbs, which is described as:

“A celebration of postwar places of worship built around Greater Manchester between 1945 and 1975.”

The cover design brings to mind some kind of sense of occult (used in the referring to hidden knowledge manner), almost England’s Hidden Reverse-esque symbolism.

Issue 19, which is themed Faith is something of a companion piece to Sacred Suburbs and together they provide an interesting viewpoint on brutalist/modernist architecture which is more often associated with utilitarian corporate/municipal buildings or vast swathe like housing blocks than something as abstract as matters of the soul and belief.

 

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

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Week #33/52: Bunker Archives #4; Paul Virilio’s Bunker Archaeology and accidental utilitarian art

Week #49/52: The Wanderings Of Veloelectroindustrial

Wanderings #7/365a: Brutalist Breakfasts

Elsewhere in the ether:
The Modernist.

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A Year In The Country – Undercurrents – Coming Soon: Artifact Report #28/52a

A Year In The Country-Undercurrents album cover

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 25th July 2017. Release date 8th August 2017.

Undercurrents was partly inspired by living in the countryside for the first time since I was young, where because of the more exposed nature of rural life I found myself in closer contact with, more overtly affected by and able to directly observe the elements and nature than via life in the city.

This coincided with an interest in and exploration of an otherly take on pastoralism and creating the A Year In The Country project; of coming to know the land as a place of beauty, exploration and escape that you may well drift off into but where there is also a sometimes unsettled undercurrent and layering of history and culture.

I found myself drawn to areas of culture that draw from the landscape, the patterns beneath the plough, the pylons and amongst the edgelands and where they meet with the lost progressive futures, spectral histories and parallel worlds of what has come to be known as hauntology.

Undercurrents is an audio exploration and interweaving of these themes – a wandering amongst nature, electronic soundscapes, field recordings, the flow of water through and across the land and the flipside of bucolic dreams.

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

(File Under: Encasements / Artifacts – Artifact #4a)

 

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Zardoz, Space 1999 And Psychedelic Strands In 1970s Science Fiction: Ether Signposts #28/52a

Space 1999-still 2

I remember being completely fascinated by the television series Space 1999 when it was originally broadcast, as I expect were many children of a certain age at the time.

Aside from the spaceships, ray guns and monsters that were much of what caught my eye back when, watching it today I was quite surprised in that it’s a curiously grown-up series in terms of its themes, dealing with mortality, parallel worlds and ways of life.

I often think it was made in the wake of the success of Star Wars being released in 1977 but actually it was first broadcast in 1974.

Space 1999-still

It had quite high-end production values, particularly compared to much of 1970s television, which while not on the same level as Star Wars they can often hold their own quite well.

However, in terms of pacing it is a world apart from the relentless blockbuster momentum that Star Wars heralded; Space 1999 is a much calmer, reflective viewing experience.

It’s actually quite psychedelic.

Not so much in a 1960s-esque bubble-trip aesthetics manner, although it does have some quite overtly psychedelic effects, more in a general exploratory and often dreamlike sense and a passing through into portals and other realities that often happens within the series.

Zardoz-1973-John-Boorman-A-Year-In-The-Country-collage

The psychedelic, dealing with adult themes aspect put me in mind of John Boorman’s film Zardoz and its story of an enclave of humanity known as the Vortex which is inhabited by the Eternals who have become immortal and who now live a pampered, almost new age way of life where their folkloric rituals are underpinned and supported by advanced scientific technology.

Zardoz-1973-John Boorman-A Year In The Country 2

The connection between the series and the film is quite overt in the Space 1999 episode Death’s Other Dominion, where also a group of human’s have become immortal and they lead a life which contains a curious intertwining of medievalism, craft and scientific research and methodology.

Space 1999-mirrored still-clapperboard

Alongside which in both Zardoz and Space 1999 one of the results of their immortality has been that some of their number still live but have become trapped in a mindless, stupefied immortality (known as The Apathetics in the former and The Revered Ones in the latter).

Also, in both Zardoz and Space 1999 there is a sense of flawed or corrupted Edenic paradises; in Zardoz this is via the parasitical Eternals enclave which can only exist through its exploitation and control of those excluded from it and which is slowly drifting into dissolution, in Space 1999 it is expressed in the various planetary idylls that the stranded moon base dwellers come across, only to find that their initial hopes are dashed by their inhabitants hidden darker intents or the planet’s destructive properties.

Curiously, both Zardoz and the first series of Space 1999 were released in 1974, which makes me wander if the psychedelic/exploratory aspects were a reflection of 1960s experimentations seeping out into more mainstream channels in not so obvious ways.

Christopher Lee-Brian Blessed-Space 1999

Another aspect of Space 1999 which comes as a welcome surprise as the episodes unfold are the number of revered and cult actors and actresses who appear as guest stars.

In a list that reads like a film and comic con memorabilia guest signee wish list, this includes Joan Collins, Ian McShane, Julian Glover, Peter Bowles, Isla Blair, Michael Culver, David Prowse, Pamela Stephenson, Peter Cushing, Leo McKern, Billie Whitelaw, Valerie Leon, Judy Geeson Patrick Troughton, Brian Blessed, Catherine Schell and Christopher Lee.

(And talking of Star Wars, a fair few of those above guests would later appear in it…)

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
The Space 1999 Bluray brush’n’scrub up trailer
Zardoz trailer
Space 1999 props and memorabilia that are either already gone or would break the bank balance a tad or two

Local places of interest:
Day #177/365: Zardoz… in this secret room from the past, I seek the future…

 

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John Boorman, Excalibur And Celluloid Myths/Realism: Wanderings #27/52a

Gone To Earth-Philip Kemp-John Boorman-BFI-Sight & Sound-January 2001-A Year In The Country

I recently(ish) came across this article by Philip Kemp in the January 2001 issue of Sight and Sound magazine which takes as its starting point the work of John Boorman and in particular his 1989 Arthurian film epic Excalibur.

Pre the more recent overt interest in such things, it is in part an exploration of myth, fable, folklore and the hidden tales of the land in British cinema (and a touch or two of television)…

It is a highlighting of the tendency within British cinema to shy away from and almost be embarassed by the possibility embracing the grander or more esoteric aspects of myth and mythology.

Excalibur-1981-John Boorman-A Year In The Country-4 copy

Here are a few excerpts that caught my eye:

“Listen carefull to the echoes of myth. It has much more to tell us then the petty lies and insignificant truths of recorded history (John Boorman).”

“While writers from the Romantic period onward have oten turned to earlier mythic narratives for inspiration, British film-makers have rarely felt comfortable about drawing their stories from the national myth pool. The legends of native folk culture tend to admit an unworldly, if not a spiritual dimension that sits uneasily with the buttoned-up realism of British cinema…”

“Blake, Fueseli, Palmer and Turner, to name but a few, all explore visually intense recreations of mythic landscapes that are entirely their own yet as British as Bramley apple pie…”

“It’s this tradition that bursts through in the work of Powell and Pressburger. In the 40s and 50s the lush romanticism of such films as A Canterbury Tale and Gone To Earth, rooted in loving depictions of rural landscapes and a deeply felt, quasi-pagan notion of Englishness, was even then seen as eccentric and faintly embarassing, out of tune with the prevailing mode of monochrome documentary.”

Excalibur-1981-John Boorman-A Year In The Country copy

“Hammer and its competitors reclaimed the tradition of supernatural horror from Universal studios and replanted it in indigenous soil. Nigel Kneale explored the interface between folk-myth and science fiction in his Quatermass cycle, as did (mainly for television) the playwright David Rudkin, whose Penda’s Fen… combines visions of such legendary figures as King Penda, the last pagan ruler of England, with a quasi-mystical view of the English landscape.”

Avoiding such things may in part be due to budgetary restrictions but I suppose interestingly, if you look at films such as Puffball, In The Dark Side and Kill List, you can see some kind of interweaving between the more realist or almost documentary like side of British film making with elements of folklore and myth, without the need for huge, more expensive spectacles.

And finally, the image below… Shades of Zardoz perchance?…

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

Excalibur poster-1981-John Boorman-A Year In The CountryIntertwined wanderings around these parts:
Day #21/365: In The Dark Half

Day #135/365: Kill List

Day #197/365: Huff-ity puff-ity ringstone round; Quatermass and the finalities of lovely lightning

Day #191/365: Penda’s Fen; “Cherish our flame, our dawn will come.”

Day #313/365: The curiousities of Puffball… “Everything has changed, we don’t belong here…”

Day #326/365: Harp In Heaven, curious exoticisms, pathways and flickerings back through the days and years…

 

Week #36/52: Gone To Earth – “What A Queen Of Fools You Be”, Something Of A Return Wandering And A Landscape Set Free

Week #45/52: Quatermass finds and ephemera from back when

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

Elsewhere in the ether:
The issue in question of Sight And Sound

 

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The Layered Seams And Explorations Of Buried Treasure: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #27/52a

Buried Treaure-The Delaware Road-CDs and albums-1

Buried Treasure is described as a “UK label specialising in archived electronic, tape, radiophonic, jazz, psych, folk & library sounds”.

They have released library music reissues such as Rare Psych, Moogs & Brass – Music From The Sonoton Library 1969-1981, archival Radiophonic Workshop recordings on the Vendetta Tapes – John Baker & The BBC Radiophonic Workshop album and musical experimentalism from behind the Iron Curtain on the Yuri Morozov Strange Angels album:

1970’s experimental & electronic music recorded in soviet Russia by Yuri Morozov. Banned by the KGB for its esoteric content and references to forbidden spiritual texts, Yuri recorded over 46 albums between the 1970s until his death in 2006. Only available on cassettes passed around in secret within the Russian music underground until now.

Alongside such archival releases, they have also sent out into the world a number of often conceptual records that at times explore spectral/hauntological concerns, while also at points interweaving such things with the undercurrents and flipside of folk, pastoralism and bucolia.

Buried Treaure-The Delaware Road-CDs and albums-3

Revbjelde’s The Weeping Tree EP (some of which also appears on their eponymous album) takes as its starting point folkloric concerns but also seems to contain echoes from many different seams of the layers of musical history and experimenting, accompanied by the fluttering vocals of Emma Churchley of Silversmoths that at times put me in mind of the folk reinterpretations of Lutine…

While their For Albion EP is music from the furthest reaches, where hazy shades of Dead Can Dance, folk, electronica and the avant garde meet amongst the landscape of Penda’s Fen, as Martin Denny dances with a distant cousin of Astrud Gilberto over the far off brow of a hill.

Buried Treaure-The Delaware Road-CDs and albums-4

The Delaware Road album is a themed concept album which features the likes of Howlround, Dolly Dolly, Revbjelde and The Rowan Amber Mill:

London. 1968. Two pioneering electronic musicians discover a set of unusual recordings which leads to a revelation about their employer. Fascinated by the seemingly occult nature of the tapes they conduct a ritual that will alter their lives forever… an occult conspiracy thriller & an audio-visual treat for fans of archived electronica, far out jazz & haunted folk grooves chronicling the musician’s obsession with sound, sex & magic.

At points when listening to the album, it made me think variously of the soundtrack to a curiously very British Radiophonic giallo film, the glam stomp revisitings of Earl Brutus, never before heard archival library music that is caught in a portal just to the side of reality, folkloric chamber music and late night jazz filled rooms back when.

The Delaware Road At Kelvedon Hatch-Map and Guid Booklet-Buried Treasure

(In an additional layering of The Delaware Road album and project, it is being brought to life and further explored in the real world, via a subterranean event at decommissioned Cold War installation Kelvedon Hatch, which I have mentioned around these parts before. Visit details of the event here.)

Seams could well be an appropriate word to use in terms of Buried Treasure; their releases are an exploration of the hidden layers of culture and the tales that lie beneath the land, mingling and interweaving a vast array of musical styles and reference points into one constantly surprising and intriguing whole.

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
Buried Treasure

Local Broadcasts:
Ether Signposts #15/52a: The Delaware Road at Kelvedon Hatch

 

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From The Furthest Signals Reviews and Broadcasts: Artifact Report #27/52a

From The Furthest Signals-clips landscape image-2

The From The Furthest Signals album has been a-wandering (transmitting?) to various places of late including:

Gated Canal Community Radio-Reform Radio-Time Attendant-A Year In The Country

Time Attendant’s The Dreaming Green and Keith Seatman’s Curious Noises and Distant Voices were played on The Gated Canal Community Radio show, which is put together by the record labels Front & Follow and The Geography Trip and hosted by Reform Radio. Visit the show here.

Sunrise-Ocean-Bender-From The Furthest Signals-radio-broadcast

Grey Frequency’s Ident (IV), Keith Seatman’s Curious Noises & Distant Voices, Pulselovers Endless Repeats/Eternal Return and Listening Center’s Only The End Credits Remain have made appearances on the Sunrise Ocean Bender radio show, which was originally broadcast on WRIR FM. Visit those episodes here and here.

Flatland-Frequencies-banner-A-Year-In-The-Country-From The Furthest Signals

Circle/Temple’s The Séance/Search for Mussel-Light was included on Flatland Frequencies radio show, original broadcast on Future FM. Visit that here (where there is also some rather fine 1972 Flamenco Moog introductory music).

More Than Human Records

While Time Attendant’s The Dreaming Green, Polypores Signals Caught Off The Coast and Listening Centre’s Only The End Credits Remain were featured on an episode of the More Than Human radio show, originally broadcast on CTR FM. Visit that here.

And then to some of the From The Furthest Signals reviews…

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

“Pulselovers whose ‘endless repeats / eternal return’ is adored in a twinkle toned orbital phrasing all shepherded and harvested upon a delicately whirling crystal cut sepia fantasia. Listening Center draws this latest report to a close with the aptly titled ‘only the credits remain’, a beautifully serene and widescreen cosmic sea spray dimpled in sleepy headed dream drifts, utterly touching and tender, need I say more.
Mark Losing at The Sunday Experience

Goldmine Magazine-Spin Cycle-Dave Thompson

“It’s a gloriously uneasy listen, as likely to creep up with folk guitars and disconnected voices (Sproatly Smith’s “The Thistle Doll”) as it is to hiss softly on the edge of your consciousness while distant choirs howl at the stars (A Year in the Country’s “A Multitude of Tumblings”).
Dave Thompson at Spincycle/Goldmine magazine

Feuilleton-John-Coulthart-logo banner

“This is an excellent collection, one of the best to date from A Year In The Country with pieces ranging from the folk-oriented balladry of Sproatly Smith to the deteriorating electronics of Grey Frequency. The album ends with a number by Listening Center, Only The Credits Remain, whose weightless harmonies wouldn’t be out of place on Apollo by Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois.
John Coulthart at feuilleton

We Are Cult website logo

The desolate chorale of Sharron Kraus’s Asterope sounds like the theme from Children Of The Stones has relocated to a far-flung, empty asteroid. The sublimely eerie The Thistle Doll from Sproatly Smith is probably the best track, sounding like it’s been partly taped-over with something you can’t quite make out, while the cosmic reel of The Hare And The Moon’s gorgeous Man Of Double Deed manages to be both crisply nearby and airily distant sounding.
Martin Ruddock at We Are Cult

Music Wont Save You-Raffaello Russo

Tra i partecipanti a “From The Furthest Signals”, oltre ad habitué quali David Colohan, Time Attendant, Sproatly Smith, The Hare And The Moon, compaiono anche le sinuose modulazioni vocali di Sharron Kraus e le sature correnti droniche di Pulselovers, tutti partecipi di una incessante ricerca di A Year In The Country, da autentici rabdomanti del suono.
Rafaello Russo at Music Won’t Save You

whisperandhollerin logo-A Year In The Country

This music creates a world of its own which could be viewed either as defiantly anachronistic or as an example of cutting edge experimentalism… Either way, any attempt to quantify it in terms of modernity or tradition seems redundant or to miss the point. Better to think of as chronologically challenged and revel in its strangeness.
Whisperinandhollerin

Violet Apple-David Lindsay-banner logo-stroke

And in a rounding the circle manner, the album is featured at the Violet Apple website, which is dedicated to the life and works of author David Lindsay. Visit that here.

Tip of the hat to everybody concerned. Much appreciated.

From The Furthest Signals-A Year In The Country-Night and Dawn Editions openedFrom The Furthest Signals-Night edition booklets-A Year In The Country

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.

The album features 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-landscape sticker-A Year In The Country

More details on the album can be found here.

Clips from the album can be previewed at Soundcloud and it can be ordered at our Artifacts ShopBandcamp Ether Victrola and Norman Records.

 

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Further Signals From A Julian House Archive: Ether Signposts #27/52a

House Of Julian-Broadcast-Julian House-1

I’ve briefly mentioned the The House Of Julian Flikr group that collects Julian House’s artwork and design work before…

Though I don’t visit it all that often (it’s not actually updated all that often, which I quite like as you’re not running to catch up with it) but it’s always a treat to do so when I do…

…and I thought it would be good to revisit around these parts…

I think it’s probably the best display/collection of his work that I have come across and includes his work for the Ghost Box Records label he co-founded with Jim Jupp, interconnected work with/for Broadcast, his design work for clients via Intro (book covers, records etc) and some exhibition work and photographs.

The Soundcarriers-The House Of Julian-Julian House-Ghost Box Records-2

Although not exhaustive it seems to capture the ongoing styles, themes and aesthetics of his work.

I’m not quite sure how to define that style but occult, psychedelic, op-art, pop-culture, spectral layering and collaging may be heading in the right direction.

Julian House-The House Of Julian-Ghost Box Records

(I use the word occult more in the sense of it meaning hidden, arcane or esoteric – though there is some of the other kind in the work. Psychedelic I use more in the sense of meaning exploratory, of creating connecting points or portals to other realities than the more directly 1960s take on such things – though also here and there, there are traces and reflections of such things.)

Julian House-House Of Julian-Ghost Box Records-Intro-exhibition

Anyways, well worth a visit or two…

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations: The House Of Julian

 

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Dana Gillespie – Foolish Seasons: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #26/52a

Dana Gillespie-Foolish Seasons

Dana Gillespie’s Foolish Seasons is a curious song and album.

The aesthetics of the cover, which has more than a hint of Vashti Bunyan-esque style to it, made me think that the 1968 album was likely to be quite overtly folkish…

…rather, overall it is nearer to a kind of later 1960s mod-psyche-pop, although the title track does have a gentle lilt to it which leans towards folk rock of the time.

Listening to it now it seems like a link or transitional point between swinging London and the coming tastes for and exploring of folk from the late 1960s to early 1970s…

…or possibly folk by way of Nancy Sinatra singing Some Velvet Morning in 1967.

The style of the cover may possibly have been part of a later 1960s high-fashion take on folk that I have mentioned around these parts before (see the website Psychedelic Folkloristic, the 1970 film Queens Of Evil and Ossie Clarke/Celia Birtwell’s later 1960s fashion designs for more on such things).

What the cover also put me in mind of was the style of what came to be known as freak folk, artists from the US such as Devendra Banhart and Devendra Banhart.

Curiously, although showing clothes of a particular period style, the cover now seems quite contemporary. I don’t know if timeless is the right word but if it had been the cover to an album released in recent times by somebody who wished to reflect and evoke a particular time and culture then I would not have been surprised…

…which I suppose is possibly one of the effects of the borrowing, layering, revisiting, reinterpreting and atemporal nature of some of culture today…

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
Dana Gillespie’s Foolish Seasons

 

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Past Cathode Ray Visions Of The Future / Capturing Of Ghosts: Wanderings #26/52a

NFT-1986 festival brochure-Fantastic Television-The Tomorrow People-Quatermass-Space 1999-Dr Who-A Year In The Country

Nowadays appreciations of older fantastic and science fiction television that is part of the hauntological canon of such things are… well, if not two a penny at least reasonably commonplace in certain cultural niches and corners and sometimes in a more mainstream sense.

However, back in 1986 that wasn’t the case anywhere near as much.

And even if it was, it was considerably harder to see such things than in these reissue and digital ease of access times.

So, when I saw this 1986 brochure for the National Film Theatre festival in London it caught my eye due to the strand of showings called Fantastic Television.

As part of that they showed episodes of Dr Who, various Quatermasses, Timeslip, Blake’s Seven, Survivors, Out Of The Unknown, The Andromeda Breakthrough, The Stone Tape, Ace Of Wands, Sapphire and Steel, Doomwatch, Casting The Runes, The Avengers, The Prisoner and various Gerry Anderson programs.

NFT-1986 festival brochure-Fantastic Television-Quatermass-The Stone Tape-The Avengers

I don’t know the ins and out of video tape issues of these various programmes and series but I expect for some of them this was a particularly rare outing in any form and possibly fairly unusual to present a whole season of them as part of a major, critically lauded and non cult/niche culture orientated film festival.

I particularly like the description that accompanies The Stone Tape:

“How do you capture a Ghost? In the old days people would try with a bell, book and candle, but with today’s technology the obvious answer is a computer. The new inhabitants of a country house discover it to be haunted and decide to programme a sophisticated computer to lay the ghost.”

And also the subtitle for the season “Past Visions Of The Future”, which seems like a hauntological statement of intent before the phrase or philosophical/cultural idea had come into being.

 

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

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Well, that would be a fair few I expect but below is a selection or two;
Day #23/365: Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape – a study of future haunted media

Day #48/365: Sky: a selection of artifacts from a library of a boy who fell to earth…

Day #183/365: Steam engine time and remnants of transmissions before the flood

Day #202/365: Filming The Owl Service; Tomato Soap and Lonely Stones

Day #236/365: The Owl Service: fashion plates and (another) peek behind the curtain

Day #284/365: Sapphire and Steel; a haunting by the haunting and a denial of tales of stopping the waves of history…

Week #2/52: The Tomorrow People in The Visitor, a Woolworths-esque filter and travels taken…

 

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From The Furthest Signals Released: Artifact Report #26/52a

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 Signals-A Year In The Country-Night and Dawn Editions opened
Available via our Artifacts ShopBandcamp Ether Victrola and Norman Records.
Released today 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.From The Furthest Signals-A Year In The Country-Dawn Edition opened
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 CountryFrom The Furthest Signal-Dawn-opened-A Year In The CountryFrom The Furthest Signal-Dawn-back-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.
From The Furthest Signals-A Year In The Country-Night editions-2 copy

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-Night edition booklets-A Year In The Country From the Furthest Signals-Night Edition badge packs-A Year In The Country

 

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 image 1-A Year In The Country

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

 

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Constructing The Wicker Man: Ether Signposts #26/52a

The Wicker Man-construction-production photograph

I was recently wandering around the  The Wicker Man (1973) Wikia website and posted about its multi-layered archiving of The Wicker Man related material…

The Wicker Man-cherry picker-under construction-2

Some of the images I was particularly struck by were those that showed the literal construction of the film’s Wickerman structure/s.

The Wicker Man-under construction

The Wicker Man-1973-production notes-sketchAnd quite simply I wanted to post some of them online as well, it gives me a chance to peruse them again myself.

Also because as I mentioned in my previous post about the related Wikia site, I don’t find seeing such “behind the scenes” images takes away from the myth and mystique of the film, rather that they more seem like part of the layered myths and stories that surround The Wickerman – of which the production of the film, its intrigues and tales are an intrinsic part.

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)

Directions and Destinations:
The Wicker Man (1973) Wikia (introduction page)
Behind The Scenes (still pictures)

 

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Virginia Astley’s It’s Too Hot To Sleep: Audio Visual Transmission Guide #25/52a

Virgina Astley-From Gardens Where We Feel Secure-vinyl-Rough Trade-A Year In The Country

Well considering the recent British weather (34 degrees temperatures recorded, the hottest June day since 1976, barristers and judges allowed to remove their traditional gowns and wigs etc), I thought about now might well be a good time to revisit Virginia Astley’s 1983 album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure and in particular the track It’s Too Hot To Sleep.

This album has been something of an ongoing touchstone for A Year In The Country and back in the first year of wanderings I wrote this:

Virginia Astley photograph-A Year In The CountryI’ve just put the album on and it’s like saying hello once more to a very welcome old friend. It’s the very definition of bucolic and is an album which summates England’s pastoral, edenic dreams…

“I first listened to music from this album late one hot, hazy, balmy summer night and I was just transfixed and transported. Appropriately I think one of the first songs I listened to was It’s Too Hot To Sleep, which is a gentle lullaby of a song, all lilting and the soft hoots of owls; which in a way could describe much of the album.

As I said in that first year post, the album’s sense of otherlyness is not overt, it’s more just a quiet sense of something else, of other patterns and undercurrents on the edge of consciousness and sight and that is present in it creating a sense of almost dreamlike reverie or possibly a nostalgia for some lost imagined rural idyll.

Anyways, it’s lovely stuff and rather fine to revisit.

Virgina-Astley-From-Gardens-Where-We-Feel-Secure-vinyl-Rough-Trade-A-Year-In-The-Country-2b-CD front and back

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

Audio Visual Transmission Guide:
Virginia Astley’s Too Hot To Sleep

Local Broadcasts:
Day #4/365: Electric Eden; a researching, unearthing and drawing of lines between the stories of Britain’s visionary music
Day #118/365: Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

 

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Stone Circle Documents / Layering Over Time: Wanderings #25/52a

Rings Of Stone-Aubrey Burl-Edward Piper-stone circles-A Year In The CountryA while ago I wrote If “Sometimes Slightly Dour 1970s Books On Windmills That Have Subtley Gained A Layer Or Two Of Extra Resonance With The Passing Of Time” Was A Quite Long Book Genre…

Well, near to that section in an imagined bookshop/library may well be the “Sometimes Slightly Dour 1970s Books On Stone Circles That Have Subtley Gained A Layer Or Two Of Extra Resonance With The Passing Of Time” section.

There are a lot of books that have been published on stone circles; tourist orientated ones, academic, photographic, photographic/text intertwined, populist etc and a quick glance at say one of the more well known online retailers will bring up a fair few recently published books along those lines.

Which is all good and fine but I tend to find that it’s the accidental older finds that I’m drawn to, books that, well have “gained a layer or two of extra resonance with the passing of time”.

Rings Of Stone by Aubrey Burl and Edward Piper, published in 1979, would be one of those.

Rings Of Stone-Aubrey Burl-Edward Piper-stone circles-A Year In The Country-2

I think it would be the above pages that first caught my eye… there’s something about them, particularly the one on the right that just seems a little too… angular? Geometric?

They put me in mind of the reflective sculptures/weapons around the dome in Phase IV.

Rings Of Stone-Aubrey Burl-Edward Piper-stone circles-A Year In The Country-3

While the above image just seems, well, wrong, while also being a good capturing of a particular atmosphere and spirit of time and place.

Rings Of Stone-Aubrey Burl-Edward Piper-stone circles-A Year In The Country-4

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

Intertwined wanderings around these parts:
Day #149/365: Phase IV – lost celluloid flickering (return to), through to Beyond The Black Rainbow and journeys Under The Skin

Week #5/52: The Right Side Of The Hedge – gardens where (should we?) feel secure and velocipede enhanced long arms…

Week #15/52: Phase IV / a revisiting / the arrival of artifacts lost and found and curious contrasts

Wanderings #9/52a: If “Sometimes Slightly Dour 1970s Books On Windmills That Have Subtley Gained A Layer Or Two Of Extra Resonance With The Passing Of Time” Was A Quite Long Book Genre

Wanderings #11/52a: Ancient Lands And A Very Particular Atmosphere From Back When

Elsewhere in the ether:
Peruse the book here.

 

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The Restless Field at Goldmine/Spin Cycle, Bliss Aquamarine, Sunrise Ocean Bender and The Séance: Artifact Report #25/52a

Artifact Report 25-52a-The-Restless-Field-Dawn-Edition-front-A-Year-In-The-Country-1600

A selection of reviews and broadcasts of The Restless Field album…

Goldmine magazine logo-Dave Thompson-Spin Cycle 2Dave Thompson has reviewed The Restless Field at Goldmine/Spin Cycle:

…endlessly evocative, a series of sonic sketches hang as heavy as history.  Field Line Cartographer’s “Ghosts of Blood and Iron” is harsh, unforgiving electronics; Vic Mars’ “Mortimer’s Cross’ is contrarily gentle, an acoustic pattern and the ghost of woodwind.  Sproatly Smith’s “Ribbons” is barely audible for its first thirty seconds, but builds around sound and effects to conjure a sense of unfathomable menace; David Colohan’s “Beyond Jack’s Gate” is a mournful organ requiem that closes the disc with heart-stopping finality.
Goldmine/Spincycle

Bliss Aquamarine-A Year In The CountryKim Harten reviews the album at Bliss Aquamarine:

…Bare Bones have links with The Straw Bear Band and The Owl Service, and tread a similar road to Stone Breath with the combination of medieval music and raw and dark Appalachian-inspired folk based around banjo and droning fiddle. Assembled Minds provide an electronic, beat-driven instrumental made with analogue synths; it could almost be called a dance track yet its cold, dark and somewhat experimental nature sets it apart from your average dance music by many, many miles. Listening Center’s whirring and chugging vintage synths conjure up images of a dystopian sci-fi movie from the 1970s. Pulselovers accompany a strong electronic melody with an effective mix of hypnotic pulsing chugging rhythm, spacey whirrs, atmospheric drones, and nature sounds.
Bliss Aquamarine

Sunrise Ocean Bender-The Restless Field radio broadcast

More tracks from the album have been played on the Sunrise Ocean Bender radio show, amongst the likes of Sinoia Cave’s soundtrack for Beyond The Black Rainbow. It was originally broadcast on WRIR FM and the show is archived here.

The Seance Radio show-wider logo

And finally, Vic Mars’ Mortimer’s Cross and Time Attendant’s Black Slab from the album were played on two episodes of The Séance’s phantom seaside radio show. They were originally broadcast on Radio Reverb and Sine FM and are archived here and here.

Thanks to Dave Thompson, Kim Harten, Kevin McFadin, Pete Wiggs and James Papademetrie for the ongoing support. Tip of the hat to them all.

The Restless Field-Night Edition-landscape sticker artwork 2-A Year In The Country

Previous transmissions, reviews etc of The Restless Field:
Artifact Report #14/52a: The Restless Field at Simon Reynold’s blissblog and the sunday experience

Artifact Report #16/52a: The Restless Field at Flatland Frequencies, Syndae and whisperandhollerin

Artifact Report #17/52a: The Restless Field at Sunrise Ocean Bender and John Coulthart’s Feuilleton

Artifact Report #19/52a: The Restless Field Transmissions and Reviews

The Restless Field-Night Edition-booklet artwork 3-A Year In The Country

The Restless Field-A Year In The Country-dawn editions openedThe Restless Field is a study of the land as a place of conflict and protest as well as beauty and escape; an exploration and acknowledgment of the history and possibility of protest, resistance and struggle in the landscape/rural areas, in contrast with sometimes more often referred to urban events.

It takes inspiration from flashpoints in history while also interweaving personal and societal myth, memory, the lost and hidden tales of the land.

The album contains audiological explorations by Field Lines Cartographer, Vic Mars, Bare Bones, Assembled Minds, Grey Frequency, Endurance, Listening Center, Pulselovers, Sproatly Smith, Polypores, Depatterning, Time Attendant, A Year In The Country and David Colohan.

Listen to clips/tracks from the album at our Soundcloud Ether Victrola Mark II and at the album’s Bandcamp page.

Further details on the album can be found here.

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

 

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138 Layers And Gatherings Of The Wicker Man: Ether Signposts #25/52a

The Wicker Man 1973-US press book

I recently went a-wandering to have a look-see if I could fine the original press book for The Wickerman – as I’ve mentioned around these parts before I have something of a softspot for press booklets from back.

As far as I can see there were two main ones back in 1973; one for the US and one for the UK.

Despite the cult and collectible nature of the film you can still occasionally find them, although they’re not necessarily cheap; the two I found were priced at/sold for around £26.00 and £325 (ahem!).

Anyways, as I was having a potter around online I found a site called The Wicker Man (1973) Wikia…

…and just when you think you know a fair bit about the film, have read a related book or two and seen a documentary or few etc…

…well, you realise you’re just scratching the surface.

The Wickerman-rating

The Wicker Man (1973) Wikia site has 138 different pages on the film, which may not sound like all that many but some of those have literally dozens of photographs, hundreds of pieces of information etc: maps, autographs, scripts, newspaper articles, behind the scenes photographs by the dozen, location photographs then and now, scripts, production notes, floor plans, reunion photographs, memoirs from cast and crew, images from missing scenes, fanzines, construction plans…

…and that’s to mention just a few of the things that can be found there.

The Wickerman-lost scene in hairdressers

Some of my favourite parts of the site are the Behind The Scenes page, in particular the images of the construction of The Wicker Man itself and also the numbered on-set and press photographs taken from contact sheets.

The Wicker Man-1973-UK press bookThose two parts of the site seem, even though they are on a public site, to offer a semi-hidden view or a glance behind the curtain at it were.

And interestingly, I don’t find that they ruin the mystique or myths of the film for me, which I can do sometimes with such photographs or “How We Made The Film” documentaries and DVD extras.

That’s possibly because The Wicker Man has such a multi-layered set of myths around it, some of which are intrinsically connected and interwoven with the production of the film itself and related backstories.

The Wicker Man-1973-Production notesWillow Umbrella-Christopher Lee-The Wicker Man-1973

The site is a real labour of love that put me in mind of the Kate Bush Clippings site that I wrote about a while ago, on which there are hundreds or more scans of related magazine etc articles.

The two sites may well also be interconnected in that both Kate Bush and The Wickerman seem to have come to represent, have spun or exist within some kind of world and myths all of their own; ones that connect with some kind of sense of arcane, layered stories, history and fantasia from this part of the world.

Because of the vast nature of the site and the way that it is built (and possibly because of my initial sense of “must try and read and see it all”) it can be a bit overwhelming, so I thought a few initial pointers towards starting points and pages that caught my eye might be helpful…

Directions and Destinations:
The Wicker Man (1973) Wikia (introduction page)
All Pages (you may be there a while…)
Behind The Scenes (still pictures)
Negative numbers (for on-set and press photographs)
Images (all images on the site)
Missing Scenes

Kate Bush Clippings Site (and around these parts)

 

(File post under: Other Pathway Pointers And Markers)