British wyrd folk,rural
arcane & experimental acoustic
music
A
new home for quietly unseen musicians and artists who work outside the
mainstream music industry.
Our intent
Here at The Unbroken Circle we are keen to track and help bring together an
organic reemergence of a more wyrd form of folk and related arcane music in
Britain and the surrounding isles. This is a music that draws from the traditions, land,
environment and lore of these countries.
We
plan to complete a new page on British wyrd folk looking at such as
Sedayne,
Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, Magical Folk of the Faraway Tree,
Eighteenth Day of May, Alphane Moon and a diverse
range of artists listed below on this page,
If
you, or anyone you know, makes music of folk derivation that includes any aspects
of psychedelia, folklore, strangeness, traditional customs and festivals and the like
please do get in touch with us. We can then include the artist in the page,
our pending study and future
promotions.
The music can be traditional folk music but with stranger lyrics and does not
need to be overtly psychedelic in any way. We also welcome more overtly pagan or Wiccan music
though this page does not endorse or promote any spiritual aspect (other than
tolerance and respect).
As time progresses our plans may evolve to include a British wyrd folk record label, a CDr series,
concerts and media publicity. This page will evolve as we move forward to become our hub for
British Wyrd and Arcane music. It is the artists page so please do let us
know your news, releases and information.
We
look forward to hearing from you.
What Is British wyrd folk?
With this initiative
we are seeking to bring together artists working in a broadly sympathetic range
of music. This for us starts from a folk perspective but there are many
musicians whose recorded output bears some linkage to this that do not start by
trying to make folk music.
Some of these artists are working in areas such
as acoustic experimentation with guitars bringing in elements of folk, jazz,
raga and drone. Others are working in soundscapes that include sound
effects from nature and use themes of the land, tradition and communal
evolution.
We are not trying to label anybody or create yet another media
genre to allow easy classification and resultant dismissal. We are
aware that giving people a 'tag' is a double edged sort that can help initially
but detract in the longer term.
In this we trust the maturity of our
readers. Instead of tagging artists we are saying that people who enjoy one of these
artists, may enjoy another and that the sound of their output (irrespective of
method and intent) may support comparison and enjoyment in the listener on a
journey within and outside folk music.
In this regard whilst
some artists are clearly trying to evolve the folk tradition into new and often
wyrd forms, others are not. To us this does not strictly matter hugely,
their talent and quality is what matters as we together evolve the boundaries of
music and worry less about strict genre definitions.
As we move forward we
will be careful to describe each artist in a way that we hope they will be
comfortable with and their audience find useful in seeking out new music.
To
hear lots of new British Wyrd Folk and related
click here and choose the
"Pages From A Book Only Now Being Written" audio galleries.
In
British folklore the plough was more than just a tool, it was a folk symbol of power
and productivity
invested in the working man. In each January, the first Monday after new
year, the field working men would carry the plough around the community and were free
to undertake mischief for the day, raising merriment and collecting funds for
the disadvantaged. This was a time of year of hardship as the fields were
hard and barren. They would storm the doors of houses and landed halls,
demanding funds, enacting simple play scripts, often dressed as animals,
,Mummers with paper strip costumes and with blackened faces. The
plough has always been a strange communal symbol and we seek to invest it back
with a power which we see continued through the wyrd music of the British Isles.
See our complementary Plough Monday page. To read
click here.
Two examples of our new wyrd folk and arcane music.
Listen, the land shall reveal its secrets.
Sources
-
Plough Monday pictures used and processed for clarity from folk archives at
http://www.folkplay.info
-
Music used with permission from Xenis Emputae Travelling Band & Sedayne (links
above on this page)
