Dystopic Visions, Alternate Realities, Paranormal Quests and Exploratory Electronica
Released 5th July 2023.
Author, artwork and design: Stephen Prince. 237 pages. Paperback and Ebook.
Paperback and ebook available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and their various other worldwide sites and also from Lulu.
The paperback is also available to order from other online and bricks and mortar shops; please contact them directly for more information.
A Year In The Country: Lost Transmissions weaves amongst brambled pathways to take in the haunted soundscapes of electronica, the rise of the occult in the 1970s, cinema and television’s dystopian dreamscapes and hauntological work which creates and gives a glimpse into parallel worlds. It is a recording of a personal journey that delves amongst both the esoteric fringes and mainstream of culture, and which at times holds a shadowed scrying mirror up to the modern world and some of its ills, while also reflecting visions of a hopeful future in its depths.
Alongside other experimenters in electronic sound the book explores Boards of Canada’s invoking of “the past inside the present”; Paul Weller’s visiting of Ghost Box Records’ elsewhere universe; work by Cosey Fanni Tutti, Hannah Peel and the reformed Radiophonic Workshop, and their collaborations across time with electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire; Dominik Scherrer and Natasha Khan’s summoning of “pastoral spook” via a hidden language of angels; and takes a trip in the company of fairground and rural ghosts conjured up on records released by Castles in Space.
Alongside these it examines the paranormal and “worlds beyond” via the semi-lost supernatural-orientated television series Leap in the Dark which included work by Alan Garner and David Rudkin, Sharron Kraus’ contemporary investigations into the preternatural and the conjuring of modern-day phantasms in Luciana Haill’s artwork.
The book also includes an intertwined consideration of the “deluxe dystopias” that can be found in films such as Rollerball and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca and prescient views of the future’s past and media collusion in film and television including Nigel Kneale’s work and the overlooked corners of science fiction.
The full chapter list is below:
Preface: A Definition of Hauntology, its Recurring Themes and Intertwining with Otherly Folk and the Creation of a Rural and Urban Wyrd Cultural Landscape
1. Leap in the Dark, Alan Garner, David Rudkin, Fay Weldon and Russell Hoban: The Rise of the Paranormal
2. 77 Posters/77 Plakatow, Quest for Love and The Man Who Haunted Himself: The Phantasmagoric World of Polish Film Posters and Other Celluloid Alternate Realities
3. Boards of Canada: The Past Inside the Present
4. Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca, In Time and Anon: Striving for the Stars and Tales of Near Tomorrows
5. Andy Votel’s Styles of the Unexpected and Bridge and Tunnel: Revisiting Hauntological Precursors
6. Rollerball, Three Days of the Condor and The Anderson Tapes: Deluxe Dystopias and the Cinema of Paranoia
7. Paul Weller’s In Another Room and Broadcast: Psychedelic Reimaginings and Signposts Towards Ghost Box Records’ Elsewhere Universe
8. Luciana Haill’s Apparitions: A Modern-Day Conjuring of Dreamlands
9. Burial: Spectres of Spectres Awash in a Landscape of Static
10. Death Watch, The Vision, The Year of the Sex Olympics and Network: Prescient Views of the Future’s Past
11. The Heartwood Institute’s Tomorrow’s People: Exploring Far Off Utopian Flipsides
12. Delia Derbyshire, Caroline Katz, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Hannah Peel, Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society, The Radiophonic Workshop and Drew Mulholland: Forging Bridges Across Time
13. Michael Radford’s 1984: Searching for a Last Inch of Space
14. Castles in Space, Nick Taylor, Pulselovers, Keith Seatman and Dave Clarkson: Otherly Geometries and Ghosts of the Seaside
15. Dominik Scherrer and Natasha Khan’s Soundtrack for Requiem: The Unexpected Appearance of the Language of Angels
16. Sharron Kraus’ Preternatural Investigations, Simon Reynolds’ “Haunted Audio” and Oliver Assayas’ Personal Shopper: Journeys on the Edge of Knowing
Appendix: Songs for A Year In The Country
As with the A Year In The Country project as a whole the structure of the book is inspired by the cycle of the year and the passing of time: as with the seasons in a year, the book is centred around four main themes: dystopic visions, alternate realities, paranormal quests and exploratory electronica.
A Year In The Country: Cathode Ray and Celluloid Hinterlands is one of a number of books released by A Year In The Country. More details on those can be found either by clicking here or using the site’s menu to visit the A Year In The Country book page.
All of which just leaves me to say thanks to…
All who have bought, streamed and otherwise supported the A Year In The Country music releases, books and artifacts and everybody that visits the website and/or shares etc posts elsewhere online.
All the performers who have contributed music to the A Year In The Country releases. It’s been a pleasure.
The people who have sold and distributed the A Year In The Country releases and/or lent their advice, including amongst others: Jim Jupp of Ghost Box Records, The state51 Conspiracy in particular, Shaun Yule and all at Norman records especially Ant and Phil and Justin Watson of Front & Follow.
All the many many people who have written about, commissioned pieces on etc A Year In The Country and its releases including to name just a few John Coulthart, Cathi Unsworth, Simon Reynolds, DJ Food, Jude Rogers, Ben Graham (who I must also thank for the “scrying mirror”), Neil Mason, Ian White, Matthew Sedition, Grey Malkin, James Gent, Massimo Ricci, Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills, Andy Morten, Melanie Xulu, David V. Barrett, Push, Sukhdev Sandhu, Alan Boon, Dave Thompson, Bob Fischer of The Haunted Generation and everybody else at Starburst, Fortean Times, Shindig!, Electronic Sound, Moonbuilding, We Are Cult and Moof. Also to all at, amongst other publications, sites etc Music Won’t Save You, Bliss Aquamarine, Wyrd Daze, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Mojo, Goldmine and Folk Horror Revival.
All those who have included A Year In The Country released tracks in their radio broadcasts, podcasts etc including Stuart Maconie, Gideon Coe, Nick Luscombe, James Papademetrie and Pete Wiggs of the The Séance, Kites and Pylons, Sunrise Ocean Bender, Flatland Frequencies, Gated Canal Community Radio, On the Wire and many others.
Ian Lowey for the dab hand design and editorial work for A Year In The Country and also Suzy Prince for the equally dab hand editorial work.
Verity Sharp for inviting me onto BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction and playing tracks from the A Year In The Country released albums and Rebecca Gaskell for her admirable production of the show, Gary Milne of BBC Archives for his compiling and curation of video spectres, Tales from the Black Meadow author Chris Lambert for the audio journeys he created to accompany the A Year In The Country: Wandering Through Spectral Fields book and William “Billy” Harron as always for accidentally pointing me in the direction of the undercurrents of folk.
Also, my family for the ongoing support and to everybody whose work has inspired me on the wanderings, explorations and pathways of A Year In The Country.
Thanks, and a tip of the hat to you all!
