hermetically sealed bubble

aka Cultural Autism, wherein righteousness & pedantry are wont to thrive along with the idiosyncrasy, which I find so much more compelling. Folk accommodates both the eccentric & the purist, very often in the same skin; it is this bewildering duality that ensures I'll keep going back for more...

Nu-Folk, call it what you will, is a wonderland of possibility. A good place to start is the John Barleycorn Reborn compilation on Coldspring which finds Traditional Song alive and well in some quite surprising places!

Here's our version of True Thomas from 2003; we field-recorded Rachel's voice part actually by the actual Eildon Tree near Melrose, unaccompanied, along with incidental ambiences, processing it back in the studio with loops, drones and all manner of spectral leakage. Mention was made elsewhere of Diana Wynne Jones's supernatural novel Fire & Hemlock to which the ballad of True Thomas is pretty central; I see this is our Fire & Hemlock version. Best through headphones...

Venereum Arvum - True Thomas 2003 : Free & secure MP3 donwload via YouSendIt