St James Infirmary – ‘Abandoned’
St. James Infirmary, of Ashington, Northumberland (UK), was formed in 1985 as the creative vehicle for singer, songwriter and multi- instrumentalist G.W.Lang and has been continuously active ever since. G.W.L. is assisted in producing his prolific multi genre-spanning output by an evolving and rotating cast of bandmates and (at last count), SJI has boasted in the region of 40 members. With ‘Abandoned’ GW Lang’s merry crew take on Americana, where Nashville is Newcastle, Lee Hazlewood lived in Ashington and The Byrds wrote ‘Sweetheart Of The Rodeo’ in Bedlington. Wry humour, societal reflections and dark observations, with rousing bittersweet melodies.
Look To The North – ‘A Shadow Homeland’
Look To The North is the “dronefolk” duo comprising David Colohan (United Bible Studies, Raising Holy Sparks) and Zachary Corsa (Nonconnah, Lost Trail). Recorded in 2021, “A Shadow Homeland” is 4 tracks of atmospheric other-worldly introspection; melancholic ambience interspersed with sparse piano, spoken word and field-recordings, creating an immersive transcendental twilit experience.
Nonconnah – ‘Shadows From The Walls Of Death’
Nonconnah are Zachary and Denny Wilkerson Corsa, a Memphis-based experimental music duo who explore themes of memory and the past, the lingeringly supernatural, and the profoundly American through hallucinatory layers of guitar and the spectral decay inherent in ‘obsolete’ recording mediums. Drawing on sonic traditions as varied as ambient and drone music, shoegaze, noise music, psych-rock, post-rock, and the occasional touches of old time/Appalachian folk music. The inspiration behind “Shadows From The Walls Of Death” is the trend during the Victorian era for eye-catching ornately designed vivid wallpaper, which happened to be laced with arsenic, slowly poisoning the occupants of the houses adorned with it and workers in the factories who mass-produced it. Left untouched, the wallpaper could release flakes of arsenic into the air or produce arsenical gas when conditions were damp. It was also linked to the widespread cases of mental illness at the time. Something decorative and ostensibly beautiful but potentially dangerous, both physically and psychologically. The album takes its title from Dr. Robert C. Kedzie’s book, published in 1874, warning of the dangers and containing samples of said wallpaper, collected from stores around Michigan. Thus making the book itself a dangerous artefact. The cassette outer and inner cover art features examples of the wallpaper.
Madrelarva – ‘Tierra de Silencio’
Madrelarva is a project of Spanish electronic musician Julio Tornero, who has been producing minimal techno, IDM and experimental music since 2015. Also recording as Dark Tibet, Oceanic Alpha Axis, Sequences Binaires, with his work published by a multitude of labels including Fmur, Intellitronic Bubble, Detriti, Phantasma Disques. “Tierra de Silencio” is an epic tour de force, comprised of four long-form tracks, journeying through spacious rhythms, modular arpeggios and analogue bubbles. Channeling artists like Conrad Schnitzler and Nurse With Wound, it’s a love letter to the formative years and evolution of electronic music.