Search:di

Far above the skylark sings And beats the air with joyful wings Till all the sky with music rings At high noon of the day With 2022's critically acclaimed album Ghosts, enigmatic Shropshire group HARESS markedout their own place in a growing landscape of artists navigating the world of the traditional and the rural in new ways. Ghosts led to the normally reclusive Haress venturing out from their base in the Shropshire Hills for live performances with the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Shovel Dance Collective, Big Brave, Steve Von Till and appearances at Supersonic and Krankenhaus Festivals - not to mention making fans of everyone from Kevin Martin to James Holden in the process. Skylarks is perhaps the natural conclusion of these past few years for the group. Whereas previous Haress recordings have embraced something of the unknown in the process of their making, Skylarks sees a well-travelled group of musicians carefully craft long and expressive pieces of music in a powerful and instinctual way. The music here might be long, but it never sprawls out of control. The telepathy present in live performance has been harnessed and used to carefully compose and arrange these four pieces, narrating a journey through landscape and time that is as powerful as it is beautiful. Inspired by found folk songs, the power of nature and the power of community and Ben Myers' brutal tale of resistance The Gallows Pole, Haress have created a genuinely epic soundtrack to a world both past and future, real and imagined. The ambience and atmosphere of the recording (expertly captured by Phil Booth of JT Soar Studio on location in the group's hometown of Bishop's Castle) is entirely natural, the sound of an ensemble playing live in the room around you. The only vocal interjection this time comes from a choir of voices, replicating the communal singing that has been the centrepiece of Haress live performances. When the voices emerge, it feels truly euphoric and heavy. Not heavy as in metal, but heavy as in the Earth itself - a primal, joyful gut punch to the system. "This blissed-out psychedelia is not quite pastoral – there’s nothing twee about these unwinding grooves – yet evokes water and wood, light and shadow, a place of forgotten labour and the absent human form with a beguiling grace" - Luke Turner on Ghosts, The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2022 "That timelessness of the old sounds but with an added tripped out modernity and dissonance hooked into the past by the power of drone is magical and exhilarating stuff – they are truly spellbinding – ancient and modern like British ragas or a damp searching for the soul of England take on the desert blues of a Tinariwen" - Jon Robb reviews Krankenhaus Festival 2023, Louder Than War

Preeminent cellist / composer Oliver Coates follows his scores for
‘Aftersun’ and ‘Foe’ with a stately string and electronic orchestration for Tudor and Stuart-era period drama ‘Mary & George’. Coate’s score draws on his roots in classical, electronic and club music to accompany an adaptation of the non-fiction book ‘The King’s Assassin’ by Benjamin Woolley, which outlines the romantic affair between King James VI and I and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
The score sees Coates reaching for a suitably lavish palette of strings, from symphonic to puckered chamber arrangements, sometimes underlined with Burial-esque beats and choral pads, as in ‘France’, or alloying the two in a way recalling Nicholas Britell’s ‘Succession’ soundtrack. There’s enough harpsichord to make the ruffed-necks swoon, and Coates takes the license to distort sounds to taste when necessary, resulting a clear highpoint in his work, both solo and for film

[c] B2 Salvador Dalí– Gala, Composed By – Confalonieri*, Featuring [Cosmic Divertissement] – Dali*

[e] B2 Ghostsandshadows, Arranged By, Recorded By [Cello] – Nicole Robson

To fans of black metal, Dødheimsgard need no introduction, being one of the great purveyors of the Norwegian Black Metal creative evolution.

The band was formed in 1994 by Aldrahn (Thorns) and Vicotnik (Ved Buens Ende). The early incarnation was that of a raw and at often melodic black metal band, with their debut album also featuring Fenriz of Darkthrone on bass. In recent years, Dodheimsgard has become known for its eclectic musical ventures and poignant mood shifts, with a less chaotic, more considered approach compared to their earliest works. Following the 'Kronet til Konge' and 'Monumental Possession' opuses, there was a shift in direction as demonstrated on 1998's 'Satanic Art' EP and by Dødheimsgard's third album, 666 International, Vicotnik had taken over a lot of the writing duties, with DHG's style becoming more technical yet ferocious black metal, with strong experimental ideas and industrial elements.

Vicotnik's riffs were inspired by cult bands such as Thorns and perfectly entwined with Aldrahn's delightfully twisted lyrics and immense vocals to create something truly unique. In its 666 International incarnation, DHG (as they were later to be known) featured a line- up of well- respected Norwegian musicians including Czral (Aura Noir, Ved Buens Ends, Virus), Apollyon (Aura Noir, Immortal), plus Mr Magic Logic (Fleurety) on keyboards, as the album was constructed over a period of time. All in all, 666 International is rightly regarded as a highly influential masterpiece of avant-garde metal by many since its release in 1999.

The Secret Goldfish release their first album in 25 years in June 2025 - Empty Holster has been in process since 1996 when vocalist Katy Lironi started collating songs by her favourite songwriters Vic Godard, Davy Henderson and James Kirk (the idea for Empty Holster was a covers album of their songs).
The tracks have been recorded extremely sporadically over the past decades and were finally finished off at Green Door studio and mastered by Samuel Joseph Smith.

Empty Holster also features covers of songs by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Port Sulphur, The Beach Boys, and a long-lost Goldfish collaboration with Adventures in Stereo's Jim Beattie, Elevator, which was missing for 15 years, presumed lost. Musical guests appearing on Empty Holster include Mick Slaven (The Bluebells), Campbell Owens (AztecCamera), James Kirk (Orange Juice), Vic Godard (Subway Sect), Francis Macdonald (Teenage Fanclub), and Katy and Douglas's daughter Amelia Lironi (QUAD90). The album is pressed on Goldfish Orange vinyl at Seabass Vinyl in Scotland.

[f] A6 Independence Day; Drum Programming [Drum Loop] – Tom Rothrock

[h] B1 Waltz #1; Vibraphone [Vibes], Keyboards [Chamberlain] – Jon Brion


[k] B4 Bottle Up And Explode!; Drums – Joey Waronker; Vibraphone [Vibes], Keyboards [Chamberlain] – Jon Brion

[m] B6 Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands; Vibraphone [Vibes], Keyboards [Chamberlain] – Jon Brion

[b] A2 Rich Girl, Arranged By – Christopher Bond, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Arranged By [Strings] – Christopher Bond, Written-By – Daryl Hall

[c] A3 Factory Girls; Engineer [Lucinda Williams Vocals] – Derrick O'Brien*; Featuring, Vocals – Lucinda Williams









[m] B5 The Spoken Wheel; Vocals [Guest] – Noel O'Donovan

[o] B7 Don't Let Me Die Still Wondering; Engineer [Horns] – Jake Posner; Horns – Lee Thornburg