A selection of reviews, broadcasts etc of The Quietened Dream Palace album…
“You’ve got to admire the thought that goes into these releases. Just the idea of old cinemas is evocative enough – all velvet seats, flickering light… Evocative stuff.” Neil Milligan, Electronic Sound magazine issue 72
“With their latest instalment, multimedia hauntology project A Year In The Country has turned its attention to the world of abandoned cinemas… the album drifts between ethereal ambience and nostalgic electronica. Field Lines Cartographer and Grey Frequency capture the atmospheric, sci-fi flavours of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, while The Séance’s ‘Minors Club’ would not be out of place in a John Carpenter film. ‘Memoirs Of A Magic Lantern’ and ‘Only The Clock Remains’ are more in time with the current crop of experimental ambient and there’s some lovely reminisces of youthful trips to the cinema. The Steve Reich-esque ‘Scala KX82’ (ah, the glorious debauchery of The Scala) and Keith Seatman’s quirky ‘Saturday Matinee’ mix things up a bit, but overall this newest addition to the AYITC journey is beautifully melancholic.” Sarah Gregory, Shindig! magazine issue 111
“[On the album] Keith Seatman gives us a Saturday carousel of a tune, menacing and scary… Sproatly Smith appears with a song inspired by his gran who worked in the Ritz cinema in Hereford, his merry band making mischief in the background whilst she reminisces to synths and birdsong. After Ice creams it’s time for a little armchair travel with Folclore Impressionista who visit an abandoned Russian cinema… Widow’s Weeds deliver a treatise on the ‘Celluloid Ghosts’ of Scottish cinemas long lost in the mists of time. A ghostly disinterred female voice calling us from our stupor…. The Heartwood Institute… draw on past experience as a cinema projectionist to imbue ‘Carbon Arc’ with a suitable ghostly aura…” Andrew Young, Terrascope
“The album is all about faded memories of faded grandeur; buildings with extravagant Art Deco designs and names to match – the Ritz, the Majestic… Much of the music here sounds shrouded in a haze, evoking distant, slightly blurred memories, with a sense of the unreal as if translating dreams into sound.” Kim Harten, Bliss Aquamarine
The album was also featured in Sonixcursions Random Orbitings, alongside fellow AYITC traveller Pulselovers and the associated Woodford Halse Tapes label. Visit that here.
“A set of tracks rooted in real world experience, but which still manage to reach out and touch the unreal and ethereal…” Stuart Douglas, We Are Cult
“tells of… places that… have become relics of a dusty and ghostly post-modernity…” Raffaello Russo, Music Won’t Save You
“Conceptually the label appears to exist in an intersection between music, folklore and science fiction… the themes [of their releases] are intrinsically linked between both audio and visual elements… [The album] focuses on an exploration of… cinemas… which have been abandoned, become derelict, reopened as something new or demolished and there is little or no trace of any more…” Luke Sanger, Flatland Frequencies
The album was also included in John Coulthart’s series of eclectic cultural wandering “Weekend links” posts (of which there are now over 570). Visit that here.
“music that… seems to hang just out of reach, distant melodies within the strains of time and place…” Dave Thompson, Spin Cycle at Goldmine
And then onto some of the broadcasts etc…
The Heartwood Institute’s “Carbon Arc” and Vic Mar’s “Only The Clock Remains” were included on the “…And Your Father, Hasn’t Been Born Yet” episode of Sunrise Ocean Bender’s radio show, alongside work by fellow AYITC travellers Grey Frequency and Field Lines Cartographer. Originally broadcast on WRIR radio, the playlist can be found here at Sunrise Ocean Bender’s site and the show is archived at Mixcloud here.
Keith Seatman’s “Saturday Matinee” and Vic Mars’ “Only The Clock Remains” were included in an episode of Kites and Pylons radio show, alongside a collaboration between Dolly Dolly and sometime AYITC fellow traveller Time Attendant. Originally broadcast on Sine FM, the episode is archived at Mixcloud here.
Field Line Cartographer’s “Faded Flicker” and The Heartwood Institutes “Carbon Arc” were included in an episode of The Golden Apples of the Sun amongst the show’s “musical odyssey through psych-tinged realms such as pastoral folk, glitch, lo-fi electronica, hauntology and hypnagogic pop”. The tracklisting for the show can be visited at their main site here and the show is archived at Mixcloud here.
And then rounding the circle, The Séance’s “Minor’s Club” was played on their “phantom seaside radio show”. Originally broadcast via Brighton’s Radio Reverb, totallyradio and Sine FM, the episode is archived at Mixcloud here and the show’s playlist can be found at The Séance’s site here…
…and archival pictures of the cinema which inspired Keith Seatman’s track can be found at his Test Transmission site here.
A tip of the hat and thanks to all concerned!
The Quietened Dream Palace is an exploration of the ghostly spectres of abandoned and former cinemas, intertwining personal and wider cultural memories as it wanders amongst the stories and times when they still cast their spell over audiences.
It features music and accompanying text on the tracks by: Grey Frequency, Field Lines Cartographer, Keith Seatman, Pulselovers, Sproatly Smith, The Howling (Robin The Fog of Howlround and Ken Hollings), Folclore Impressionista, Listening Center, The Séance, Widow’s Weeds, Handspan, The Heartwood Institute, A Year In The Country and Vic Mars.
More information on the album can be found here.
The Quietened Dream Palace was planned and a considerable proportion of the related artwork, text and music was created prior to the global events of 2020 and 2021.
Its central themes relating to abandoned etc cinemas were never intended to refer to or interconnect with the need for cinemas to stay closed during 2020 and 2021 but we understand that the album will potentially, in part, have a different resonance in the new and changed landscape.
We wish the UK and overseas cinemas all the best in these challenging times. Here’s to many more years of them transporting audiences via the stories projected and told in them.
