Product Description This facial treatment music taken from the Lush Spa rows you out from the smugglers' village of Moonfleet, along the Dorset coast line, past Chesil Beach into a sea of petals, herbs and oils. As the boat drifts West, you pass the moonlit Devonshire hideouts of Start Point and Slapton Sands into an ocean of deep relaxing, healing sleep full of dreams, love and validation, arriving back on the prom for a jaunty stroll. The musicians assemble under three different names--Walking With Ghosts, The Nightjar Orchestra and The Petrels. The latter duo comprises Jackie Oates and Belinda O’Hooley. The other two aggregations are made up of Simon Emmerson plus various musicians drawn from The Imagined Village and further afield including Richard Evans, Simon Richmond, Martin Carthy, Kate Garrett, Andy Gangadeen, Ali Friend, John Metcalfe, Rose Doonan, Barney Morse-Brown, Eliza Carthy, Ben Murray, Show Of Hands, John Jones, and others. ****Mojo: "a delightful quartet of albums, each a soundscape described by orchestra score and lavish birdsong, with vocals from folk starlet Jackie Oates among others"fRoots: "as inspirational as it is unexpected" Review 'as inspirational as it is unexpected' -- **** Mojo P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); About the Artist Is this the most unusual and unlikely collaboration so far in folk and rock music? Simon Emmerson, leading light in both The Imagined Village and Afro Celt Sound System, teams up with long time collaborator Richard Evans and Lush Cosmetics co-founder Mark Constantine for a set of four CDs that draw deeply on both a love of folk music traditions and bird song. The result is an innovative project, put together partly to act as a sound accompaniment to Lush's various spa treatments and massages yet also a stand-alone musical pleasure. Given folk music's use in the past for such social functions as seasonal celebrations, crop fertility and dancing, it must be the first time this has been extended to massage and spa treatments. What will surprise many listeners, however, is that the music here, rather than being a commercial response to this collaboration, remains as bold and innovative as that produced in recent years by The Imagined Village and others pushing the boundaries of folk tradition. Across these 4 CD's the musicians assemble under three different names - Walking With Ghosts, The Nightjar Orchestra and The Petrels. The latter duo comprises Jackie Oates and Belinda O'Hooley. The other two aggregations are made up of Simon Emmerson, Richard Evans plus various musicians drawn from The Imagined Village, Peter Gabriel's band and further afield including Simon Richmond, Martin Carthy, Kate Garrett, Andy Gangadeen, Ged Lynch, Ali Friend, John Metcalfe, Rose Doonan, Barney Morse-Brown, Eliza Carthy, Ben Murray, Angie Pollock, Show Of Hands, John Jones, and others. See more
T**R
FILE UNDER : FOLK / AMBIENT / WEIRD / WONDERFUL
This review actually covers 4 connected albums; From Source To Sea, Validation, Synaesthesia & The Spell all released under the "Fresh Handmade Sound" banner. The music was originally commissioned to be used as a soundtrack to treatments in the spa centres being opened by Lush Cosmetics.Some of my favourite music is that which defies being put into one of the usual categories that the music industry and press would like to pigeon-hole all recorded music ... the music across these albums very definitely fits that bill.Having seen the Walking With Ghosts band perform many of the From Source To Sea tracks at the launch show in London a few weeks ago, I initially picked up that album plus Validation at the gig. I enjoyed those albums so much that I ordered the other two titles via Amazon.The whole project was put together by Simon Emmerson (of The Imagined Village & Afro Celt Sound System) with Richard Evans (from Peter Gabriel's band) and includes an amazing array of musicians; Jackie Oates, Eliza & Martin Carthy, A Show Of Hands, Belinda O'Hooley, Simon Richmond (The Bays), Andy Gangadeen (The Bays/Chase & Status/Massive Attack), Barney Morse-Brown (Duotone), Ali Friend (Red Snapper/Beth Orton), Ged Lynch (also from Peter Gabriel's band), John Metcalfe (who was responsible for all the orchestration on Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back project) and many others. All of the above plus bird song samples recorded by The Sound Approach and also archive recordings of Stan Kelly, Ewan MacColl, A.L. Lloyd & Harry H. Corbett. The tracks are listed as being by "Walking With Ghosts", "The Nightjar Orchestra", "The Petrels" etc. depending upon the mix of musicians involved on that particular piece.FROM SOURCE TO SEA has a very nautical feel to it. Mixed in with traditional seaman's worksongs are melodies from The Clash's Bankrobber, Jonathan Richmond's Egyptian Reggae and samples of petrels (birds only usually heard by mariners). The album opens with beautiful ambient flute, strings and birdsong before Jackie Oates' voice begins Do Me Ama. I was a fan of Jackie Oates prior to getting this album; I think she has one of the best voices in modern folk music (checkout her wonderful album Hyperboreans). Having said that, the other main vocalist on the album Ben Murray has an equally strong voice which works really well alongside Jackie. Do Me Ama also features the first of the ghost voices from the past; A.L. LLoyd. All the 'ghosts' appearing in vocal samples throughout the album have been very cleverly blended into the recordings. For Essequibo River Jackie Oates is joined by Belinda O'Hooley (as The Petrels) producing a track of sublime beauty. Other highlights for me on this album are Mr Stormalong and the wonderful medley of the traditional tune Australia coupled with The Clash's Bankrobber which works brilliantly. The album closes in true seafaring fashion with an appearance by Captain Pugwash. A mighty fine album - that it be! AAARRRRGGGHHHH!VALIDATION opens with ambient sounds of waves crashing on Chesil Beach. This is a wonderfully chilled out album featuring a lot of input from long-time Peter Gabriel / Real World collaborator Richard Evans. Another main feature of this release are the beautiful strings of The Nightjar Orchestra (including Barney Morse-Brown, Paul Sartin & Rebecca Willson). The remaining tracks are attributed to The Petrels and feature Jackie Oates amazing vocals and Belinda O'Hooley's lilting piano. The album closes with Eliza Carthy's rendition of I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside. This album would make a fantastic soundtrack to meditation or yoga, especially if, like me, you find the sound of waves and water very relaxing.THE SPELL Opens with the beautiful title track written and performed by Ali Friend (bass player of Red Snapper, The Imagined Village and Beth Orton). I was particularly excited to get this CD as it features the first new tracks by The Imagined Village since their Empire & Love album was released at the start of 2010. There are four new Imagined Village tracks spread over the album; Coastal Road, Walk Back, End Of The Day and Nocturne; all of them fantastic. The two Walking With Ghosts tracks on this release are also superb; Sweet Polly Oliver and Where Ravens Feed both sung by Ben Murray. Duotone's Walking To the Shore features looped cello and vocals by Barney Morse-Brown. Then there is the song Fire Escapes performed by Jackie Oates & Simon Richmond (of The Imagined Village and The Bays) - WOW! An utterly gorgeous track which would make a great single and give the likes of Rumer, Sarah Bareilles & Narina Pallot a run for their money. As with the other releases, the tracks are interspersed by the amazing birdsong recordings of The Sound Approach. If you are a fan of The Imagined Village, then The Spell is an absolute must have.SYNAESTHESIA has a beautiful dreamlike quality running throughout the album. It evokes images of sitting on a deserted beach at sunset. With one exception, the pieces on Synaesthesia are divided between birdsongs recorded by The Sound Approach and tracks by the musicians of The Nightjar Orchestra and is predominantly instrumental. There are some gorgeous viola and violin passages by John Metcalfe who was also responsible for most of the orchestration (John was also responsible for the orchestral arrangements on Peter Gabriel's Scratch My Back album and New Blood concerts). The album closes with an amazing version of Scarborough Fair by The Imagined Village featuring vocals by Chris Wood and the sitar of Sheema Mukherjee.NOTE - Each album also includes a DVD of the music in 5.1 Surround Sound accompanied by films by Henry Dalton. All very nice if you are into that sort of thing, but I'm an old fashioned Stereophile who will be mostly be playing the CDs.I'm struggling to pick any one of these albums to recommend over the others. From Source To Sea and The Spell are more "song" oriented whilst Validation and Synaesthesia are more ambient/chill out. All four albums are well worth investing in!
S**E
Fresh handmade sound - Validation
This CD is like being at sea after a storm, all is clam and gentle and is great for relaxing too and unwinding after a hard days work. I had a nice surprise at the end of the CD taking me back to my childhood days with a beautiful rendition of 'I do like to be besides the seaside' performed by Eliza Carthy.
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5 days ago
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