Sounds of the Fen
If you only get one album, get this. A huge, lovingly curated anthology of the best of pagan-pastoral British folk of the late 60s/early 70s. A lot of the songs on this mix are ones I had already found, through hard researching, and adored, which is a great feeling for what the other tracks might lead you to discover. From Grapefruit Records.
Various Artists Sumer Is Icumen In (2020) |
From Grapefruit Records; another anthology of 60s/70s British underground folk. Also great.
Various Artists Dust on the Nettles (2015) |
I will stan Grapefruit Records to the grave (and then return, through some arcane rite in the undergrowth, to stan once more). This 3CD anthology collects folk of the same era, but with a focus on female vocalists. Fantastic.
Various Artists Milk of the Tree (2017) |
Fantastic American novelty record, by an actual druid/pagan group, so of historic interest as well. Look this up on youtube for very sweet memories from people who knew him. Great hippy-folk-rock sound and nice lyrics; The Sungod is especially good, and I like the pagan-flavoured Lord of the Dance. also, look at that guy #goals.
Gwydion Penderwyn Sings Songs For The Old Religion (1975) |
I liked this less, and I guess I'd call the mood like 1910s Americana/spirituals?
Gwydion Penderwyn The Fäerie Shaman (1981) |
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A mix of spooky, unsettling lyrics, and 60s nonsense verse. 'The Scarecrow' and 'Fine Horseman' are standouts
Lal and Mike Waterson Bright Phoebus (1972) |
At one point, among the most valuable records in the world; and pure delight from start to finish. Buyan's family lived in a caravan while Bunyan was writing these songs, and on returning home was urged to commit them to print. Oh gosh, just delicate, haunting, twinkling, reassuring loveliness from start to finish. Her lyrics are lovely too. A rare album that me and my husband agree on.
Vashti Bunyan Just Another Diamond Day (1970) |
Pentangle's roots are in a mix of experimental blues-psychedelia, which is just as yummy as it sounds, but isn't always that generic "pagan folk" mood which you might be looking for. Still, as music, it's absolutely cracking. The standout here is 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme'
The Pentangle The Pentangle (1968) |
Live album. Blues rock/experimental, and just straightforwardly mellow and cool. You will believe it is 1968.
The Pentangle Sweet Child (1968) |
Pentangle's most iconic album; lush, bluesy arrangements, and more firmly in the folk tradition than earlier albums but still with a uniquely rich and complex sound. Willie O'Winsbury is the heartbreaker.
The Pentangle Solomon's Seal (1972) |
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Not on discogs, so perhaps it is an online-only download? In any case, this is fab. Sentimental-yet-spooky, reassuring folk - a mix of instrumentals, and perfect harmonised folk songs. I'm a big fan of the Unthanks' song "Magpie" on another album as well
The Unthanks Worzel Gummidge (2019) |
The Ensemble have released three albums (plus compilations) attempting to set all the LOTR songs to music. I am absolutely wild about their adaptations; I actually found one of their Elbereths online on like realplayer dial up as a child, and pounced at the opportunity to get a disk from a German market on a school trip? Anyway, lovely work. Dawn in Rivendell features Christopher Lee performing spoken-word chants. It's just wonderful music, sad and beautiful, I use these as performance and ritual song all the time.
The Tolkien Ensemble An Evening/Night/Dawn in Rivendell |
Recently, it's become something of a community joke to refer to this film as a "musical" - but it is, isn't it? And the presence of the music is laughing at the protagonist and encouraging the audience to laugh along with it. This is hands down, just a gorgeous folk masterpiece. Be aware there are multiple versions of the album: the cover I've chosen, when I listened to it on youtube, is just the "songs"; there's another version which is all the music cues in the film. Trunk Records spent four years arranging the rights so that surviving master tapes could be released as an album, for which we have immense gratitude.
Paul Giovanni Wicker Man OST (1973) |
Every few years, somebody will try and make patriotic-socialism happen, and it sounds a bit like this: creating a new national mythology of the common man fighting all-together against the Normans/factory-owners/Thatcher. I am absolutely the target market for this shit, and while I tend to think it's something of a dead end politically, it's good to have myths and a sense of place and purpose. A nice collection of traditional work/rebel songs, in multipart harmony and without accompaniment. I feel stronger in my soul for having learnt a couple of these. Everyone should be able to sing out a call-to-arms, you'll never know when that's a skill you need to have. There are several versions of the album, with different tracks, so do some research.
Chumbawamba English Rebel Songs (1988) |
Three-part bloke harmony, singing socialist folk updated for the modern age. Fantastic, stirring, you will need a hankie. My favourite on this album is Ghafoor's Bus, tho their cover of A Place Called England is great too. My favourite of their songs is on another album - You Won't Find Me On Benefits Street. The band do workshops at schools and festivals teaching people seashanties and work songs, which I think is marvellous.
The Young'Uns Strangers (2017) |
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Charming anthology of children's records from the 1970s, with a spooky, brown and cosy mood. Really lovely, a little bit creepy, like your grandmother's doll room. Lovingly compiled by Trunk Records.
Various Artists Fuzzy Felt Folk (2006) |
Fantastic and cosy collection of for-schools records, little-known pastoral cuts, folky and spooky, and altogether lovely to fill your house with. Listen online at Mixcloud.
by Bob Fisher The Haunted Generation podcast (2021) |
The iconic track is "Bells of Dunwch", the true story of a little village swallowed by the sea. But the rest of the album is totally my jam - medieval-style orchestration, wavering folk vocals, delicate guitar, the lot. I think these tracks work badly as an album - too much! - but perfectly in a mix
Stone Angel Stone Angel (1975) |
I love Clannad, and they're a long-lived prolific band, so I probably won't be doing the whole back catalogue, but this is pretty classic for their sound - their earlier albums are more standard folk, and also great. 'Newgrange' is my favourite.
Clannad Magical Ring (1983) |
I've picked this as a representative, because it's the best for a good party - especially 'Ecce Mundi Gaudium' and 'Pearl', but I have all their albums and they're fab. Salva Nos is most churchy; Undrentide and Mirabilis have fairy themes; the Rose is warmer and also has some great tracks. I'm a few releases behind, but this is my first stop for "I want some Medieval vibes" for my ritual/home.
Mediæval Bæbes Worldes Blysse (1998) |
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At some point I'll probably split this out into a fave albums & albums somewhat in the trend lists, but for now I'm just going to maintain one page - stumbled upon this today and it's adorable, spoken word about the year over proggy sounds. Where The Seasons (1969) is lusty and cthonic and strange, this is intensely saccharine, and frankly I was also into it.
Magna Carta Seasons (1970) |
Oh my heart. This is just the most perfect record - haunted folk, spoken memories and mysteries of a sacred site in England, by an American who has made it home - and a perfect selection for a "sermon" or meditation when you want a gentle ritual day. And the music is just great, the text is great, the performances are great. And still available on vinyl!
Justin Hopper & Sharron Krauss with the Belbury Poly Chanctonbury Rings (2019) |
Unsettling, Stellar, atmospheric and cold; the speakers go on a walk across a haunted landscape, discussing the eerie and the buried and popcultural moments of weirdness. I love this and strongly recommend it; there's some creepy bits about the Sea, and memory and time. Both artists have written books.
Mark Fisher & Justin Barton On Vanishing Land (2019) |
Early experemental electronic, layering dark ambient drones with snippets of interviews: on God, on death, on nightmares, on the sea. Unsettling and spaced-out, Lunar-Stellar landscapes, and good for the sort of worrying medatative work which leaves you wanting a biscuit and a cuppa.
Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange Inventions for Radio (1965) |
Unsettling for-schools record, combining poems for the months of the year with discordant electronica. The words of these are just gorgeous, fantastic for use in annual rituals. Very collectable, if you ever come across an original, and lovingly re-released for the world via Trunk Records.
David Cain & Ronald Duncan The Seasons (1969) |
From Clay Pipe Music, an label I keep an eye on for hauntological purposes. This is a simple motif, repeated and layering and building, and I found that I got really, really mellowed out. It's not really in my Pagan practice, but definitely a favourite for certain days; & i'm lookingforward to getting a re-release if the timing is right.
The Hardy Tree Sketches in D Minor (2017) |
Concept album about English train stations closed in the 1960s. Nostalgic, pastoral, Solar, great for daydreaming about getting out of work on Friday, going straight to the train station, leaving your bowler hat and briefcase in the carriage, and looking out over the sea. Some sung portions and a gorgeous spoken word rendition of the poem Adlestrop, but all in all these are voice use as instrument rather than wordy lyric pieces. I have this on vinyl, and it came with a paper model to fold up of Adlestrop station. His earlier release, the Green Line, came with a tiny paper bus.
Gilroy Mere Adlestrop (2020) |
Named for the four elements; with a medieval-ethnic instrument sound, moving from chaotic improv to a very danceable jig, then quietness. I'd listen to this a second time.
Third Ear Band Third Ear Band (1975) |
Kraus did the music on my beloved Chanctonbury Rings; this is ambient folk, quite lovely, but slender.
Sharron Kraus Pilgrim Chants & Pastoral Trails (2013) |
Soundtrack to the beloved film of the same name; proggy, lots of organ and drama, and for me associated with the Luciferian current. One of my fave albums, but best encountered first as the film.
Bobby Beausoleil Lucifer Rising |
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Glassy-eyed ambient pastoral, complete with the distant bleating of sheep. Very Solar, very sleepy, very Alice in Wonderland lying on a hillside and daydreaming.
Virginia Astley From Gardens Where We Feel Secure (1983) |
Perfectly judged winter ambient; sounds like childhood and crunching ice under your boots and tinsel glinting in the fire and the first fall of fresh snow and twinkling. Good to snuggle up inside to.
Plinth Wintersongs (2001) |
I listened to this so much as a child, and read the record insert, and it curled up inside my spirit and took root there. Clannad's trademark wall-of-voices, plus synth-medievalism and forest moods, the soundtrack album from Robin of Sherwood, which is marvellous.
Clannad Legend (1984) |
I feel more shy about enthusiasm for this album since Alex Niven namechecked it as evidence of England's sudden return to the national discourse in the 00s; but the music is just great, motion and sadness, a concept album about people who went off to war, and the landscape.
PJ Harvey Let England Shake (2011) |
A really early influence for me and, frankly, I've never heard anything else like it. This is a compilation of Pink Floyd's early works, and their best album IMO. Psychedelic pastoral, twittering flutes and lazy days, mysterious girls and weeping willows.
Pink Floyd Relics (1971) |
I had this on casette when I was eight, the same time I had Relics, and so it forms part of that proto-Pagan mood. I particularly like Battle of Evermore, which still sounds like magic even now, like you've put your ear to a barrow and heard voices rising from the soil. It's definitely weird to then find out as an adult that Stairway to Heaven is a whole thing for like, most people. But hearing it as a child is like being given a promise, a secret door.
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV (1977) |
Included specifically because I didn't vibe with it, this is another Grapefruit Records release - but the mood was too rock-pop, and insufficiently pagan vibes, to fit what I was looking for (which isn't a bad review, necessarily; know thyself).
Various Artists Strangers In The Room: A Journey Through British Folk-Rock (1967-1973) |
Early Genesis is a particular kind of otherworldly, and I've chosen this as a representative, but any of their first five studio albums is on my regular rotation. I spent ages trying to define "pastoral prog", in other words, the particular thing that Genesis did - organic sounds and a certain strange Englishness - and I never really succeeded, but I suppose this list is an attempt to capture what I love in these albums and find more of it.
Genesis Trespass (1970) |
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Concept album based on the Tarot! Several lovely pieces on here: the sung melancholy of the Hermit, and the blistering menace of the Tower Struck Down. Of possible interest for people studying the Tarot, as meditation pieces.
Steve Hackett Voyage of the Acolyte (1975) |
Steve Hackett's solo albums carry the Genesis sound with them, and this is an especial favourite - the Englishness of 'Narnia', my favourite, and then 'Carry On Up The Vicarage', which is about murder mystery murders (and some nice silly voices. It's all about the silly voices!). In fact, I've not listened to this one in ages...maybe tomorrow....
Steve Hackett Please Don't Touch (1978) |
This is pretty good - spaced out nursery rhymes, musical box twinkling, hymnal chants and borderlands folkiness. If you like the title, you'll probably like the songs. Love to fill my room with this, I feel like I'm a teenage girl in a coven at a boarding school in the 1960s chalking out circles in the schoolroom attic
Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age (2009) |
the Poly are always variable, but this is good throughout; showcasing their signature technique of recutting Victorian folk recordings as new, impossible folk songs. The Willows and Caermaen are the two which I play most often.
Belbury Poly The Willows (2004) |
It took me a while to acquire a taste for this, and then I did and became quite, quite obsessed; and at one point, had a spiritual breakthrough where the clouds split in half and the moon turned red. Listen all in one go, it's one where the mood builds.
Mount Vernon Arts Lab The Seance At Hobs Lane (2001) |
Dark ambient but really quite infectious, one of my favourite Ghost Box releases. The title track is particularly delicious.
Eric Zann Ouroborindra (2005) |
The other Poly release I really enjoyed, especially Green Grass Grows and the Geography. Radiophonic moods, pastoralism, folkiness and oddments.
Belbury Poly The Belbury Tales (2012) |
Influential early work in the "sounds a bit like 70s for-schools programming" scene. It didn't impact me the way it did others I've heard write about it, but I quite like it (and especially the disorienting 'Aquarius'. Yaaaaaay.)
Boards of Canada Music Has The Right To Children (1998) |
Included for completeness, but just does not hit the spot for me. I've never liked it. I suppose it's too harsh-feeling and has none of the ~pagan vibes~ of his later work. But the silly song at the end - the Sailor's Hornpipe, recorded late at night while everyone was drunk and following Viv Stanshall around the house by candlelight as he tipsily monologues about historic houses - is pure delight. Nobody appreciates the importance of a good silly voice to 70s prog, nobody.
Tubular Bells (1973) |
I spent lockdown daydreaming about going to Hergest Ridge; flutes and the sense of hillsides and escape. That loud patch near the end is a Choice, but I always hear it as the chaos and noise of life you flee to the Ridge to escape, and then look down over everything and breathe.
Hergest Ridge (1974) |
Measured, rhythmic choirs singing a repetitive chant in no-known-language. Best moment is its final short song "On Horseback". If Hergest Ridge is pastoral, then this has more of a "world music" sound.
Ommadawn (1975) |
Side 2 is especially beautiful - his setting of the Song of Hiawatha, I could listen to forever. I was happy to find out that the best known Kalevala translation is in the same meter.
Incantations (1978) |
Couldn't get on with this as a full release, but the short version on Two Sides (2012) I've used in ritual for dancing and really enjoyed - infectious little beat - and I think that's technically side 4 of Amarok
Amarok (1990) |