Various - Hand/Eye (2001)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Hand/Eye label has been bringing the world modern experimental-folk and psychedelic music since the early 1990s. Hand/Eye has forged a unique and varied catalog which, along with parent label, Dark Holler, has given the world everything from deep-space astral explorations to traditional fiddle tunes. For the 10th Hand/Eye release we've gathered friends and associates from the world over, hand-picked for this celebration of music. All of the artists have provided exclusive material for this compilation. There are no convenient names for this gathering of music: Psychedelia, wyrdfolk, acid-folk, experimental, astral-folk... call it what you will, it cannot be bottled under one small label. The music shall speak for itself.

Track Listing CD1 "hand" 1. AMPS FOR CHRIST "False Knight on the Road" 2. IN GOWAN RING "On the Butterfly´s Wing" 3. PETER SCION "Cynthia" 4. SARADA "The Darkest Path" 5. ALASDAIR ROBERTS "Willie-O" 6. THE IDITAROD "The Rowan" 7. STONE BREATH "The Blood of the Woven-Vine Divinity" 8. GREG WEEKS "Night Must Fall" 9. CURRITUCK COUNTY "Paid for Grace" 10. RING "The Sun is Behind" 11. WITCH-HUNT "Two Magicians" 12. ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. "Le Satyre" 13. PRYDWYN "Hermit Song (Ianitrix)" 14. FIT & LIMO "Oh Sphinx" CD2 "eye" 1. MARTYN BATES "Seven Yellow Gypsies" 2. KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT "Leikattu Nurmikko" 3. DREKKA "In Tension" 4. TINSEL "Random Books Floating" 5. FURSAXA "Porpoise Wings" 6. TIMOTHY THE REVELATOR "Always All One, All Ways Alone" 7. SKYE KLAD "Widdershins" 8. PELT "Actias Luna Chase, or Moth Navigation" 9. DIANA OBSCURA "West Wind" 10. DEAD RAVEN CHOIR "We will not Whisper" 11. MASON JONES "Can't You See" 12. SALAMANDER "Ghost Riders in the Sky"


Info:

http://www.somedarkholler.com/


*LINK REMOVED BY REQUEST OF ARTIST*

The Iditarod and Sharron Kraus - Yuletide (2003)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Splendid e-zine review:
You know those times when you put a record on and close your eyes, and then open them again and you can't tell whether you've listened to the record or not? I'm having them more often recently. Partly it's because the day job is getting too intense and I can barely do anything except slump in my chair when I get in. But mostly it's because I'm listening to the Iditarod a lot. Imagine that a band snuck into Heaven and clipped a few blades of grass, took a glassful of water from a river and a handful of earth from a shady corner of God's garden. Once they'd floated back down to earth, they strung their instruments with the grass, passed the water around and took a few sips each and scattered the earth on the floor of the rehearsal room. And then they started to play music, music from the past, music from stone cottages, from fishing villages, from field workers, from the working folk. Folk music. And the music was good. Exceptionally good. It somehow fused the devotion of the true believer with the authenticity of a scholar and the sound of an accordion slowly exhaling. You can't imagine that? No problem, it's out on Elsie and Jack shortly.
- Jimmy Possession

Label: Elsie & Jack Recordings

Tracklist:
1 The Trees Are All Bare
2 Lyke Wake Dirge
3 Gift
4 Winter's Spell
5 Wintermute

http://www.secreteye.org/theiditarod/

BITRATE: VBR V0

CLICK HERE

Tau Emerald - Travellers Two [2008]

Sunday, January 18, 2009

1 Travellers Two
2 Evening Wings
3 Stoikite
4 Barrowlands
5 Full Moon
6 Pilgrims' Return
7 Henbane
8 Water Divining
9 Bani Caapi
10 Mermaids' Call
11 Laureola

Travellers Two is a full length recording from the duo of Tara Burke (Fursaxa) and Sharron Kraus. Togerther Kraus & Burke create an ethereal record of dark-folk magic.
Tara Burke and Sharron Kraus were due to travel to Finland together for a week but missed the flight, so instead they decided to spend the week recording together and Travellers Two is the result. The time was spent out in the fields, visiting burial mounds, and then coming back to Sharron's home studio to work. They had played previously together and done some recording but this is the first time an album was conceived.

Info

http://www.myspace.com/sharronkraus

http://www.myspace.com/tarafursaxa

CLICK HERE
192 kbps

Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses (Japanese Edition) [2007]

Thursday, January 15, 2009

1 This Place In Time (2:33)
2 Le Labyrinthe (5:15)
3 Sun Against My Eyes (4:22)
4 Les Ondes Silencieuses (6:09)
5 Blue Sands (5:16)
6 Echoes And Coral (3:09)
7 Sea Of Tranquillity (5:46)
8 Past The Long Black Land (3:41)
9 Le Bateau (7:09)
10 Unfold Out (5:36)
11 Serpentine (6:04)
12 I'll Read You A Story (5:18)

Cecile Schott returns with her third album as Colleen, the highly personal, distinctly adventurous and confident Les Ondes Silencieuses, which follows Colleen Et Les Boites Ee Musique from late 2006. This album signals a change of approach for Parisienne Schott.

A whole new approach to composing was needed, both in a more traditional and, paradoxically, a more improvised way. Chord changes, greater use of space and tempo variations were all now possible. The sounds created were key to the overall feel of the record. Unlike Schott's previous album, The Golden Morning Breaks, where the sounds created from each instrument often ended up disguising their identities, Les Ondes Silencieuses creates a platform using the intended sound, and then augments it with more of her innovation and personality. With all these ingredients a new world is created, with one foot in the court of Louis XIV and the other in the imagination of Cecile Schott.

Japanese Edition With Live Bonus Tracks

10,11,12 Recorded Live In Tokyo On 4th November 2006

Info

http://www.myspace.com/colleenmusique

CLICK HERE
320 kbps

The Iditarod - The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat And The Angel (2002)

The Wire (UK) review:
From Rhode Island, the Iditarod play a minimal kind of bleak psychedelic folk that owes as much to the somnambulism of Bristol's Movietone as it does to early 70s private press semi-legends like Stone Angel or Caedmon. The time-frozen feel of their slow processionals are further heightened by the subtle use of chimes, tamboura, singing bowl, viola and banjo, which cast little shadows beneath Jeffrey Alexander's guitar picking. Vocalist Carin Wagner sings in a half-monotone as if lost in reverie. She's joined for two tracks by the German folk duo Fit & Limo who play bouzouki, dulcimer, organ and glockenspiel as well as providing vocals. The Iditarod's reading of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" closely monitors Pentangle's recorded version, while their take on a droning lament "Unfortunate Lass" - the set's highlight - echoes Steeleye Span's masterful "When I Was On Horseback".
- David Keenan

You will find more reviews of this album here.

Label: BlueSanct

Line up: Carin Wagner, Jeffrey Alexander

Tracklist:
1 The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush (3:31)
2 Black Strung Bow (1:00)
3 Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By (7:22)
4 Raga (In D#) (6:44)
5 Cycle Circle (4:40)
6 The Falling Of The Pine (9:54)
7 Ich Tanzte Weit (2:09)
8 New Magic In A Dusty World (1:58)
9 Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:55)
10 The Nameless One (4:08)
11 Unfortunate Lass (5:40)

http://www.secreteye.org/theiditarod/

Bitrate: V0

Click Here

Pollyanna - Whatever They Say I'm a Princess (2004)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

"Pollyanna is a French band led by songwriter Isabelle Casier. My first reaction was "woah, Julie Doiron." It does sound like Julie Doiron but a bit less intimate, a bit less low-key, and midway through "Matador", the first song, I changed my mind and decided it sounded more like Nina Nastasia, with haunting cellos, dramatic choruses and careful instrumentation. "You Hold the World in Your Hand" sounds really dark while "Frankenstein" leans more towards Doiron's casual weariness with lyrics like "It's hard to please with a screw stuck in your forehead." "Iron Man" reminds me of Ivy, a bit less exciting and a bit less poppy but she has a great voice and a cute shade of an accent." - Only Angels Have Wings."

DIY bedroom Folk with a soft indie rock flavour.

Label - Eglantine Records

Line-up:

Isabelle Casier - Vocals, acoustic guitar
David Lopez - Drums, arrangements

Tracklist:

1 Matador
2 You hold the world in your hand
3 Frankenstein
4 Iron man
5 In my pocket
6 The narrow door
7 Untitled
8 Song for a room
9 Romeos
10 Across the river
11 Goodbye

http://www.pollyanna.org/

http://www.myspace.com/pollyannamusic

Buy the CD - http://www.eglantinerecords.com/releases/egl007

Bitrate - V2

Click here

Mountain Mirrors - Mountain Mirrors (2006)

Friday, January 9, 2009

"If Nick Drake had regularly gone camping with the guys from Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, he might have put out albums like those of Mountain Mirrors—the psych folk/rock project of multi-instrumentalist Jeff Sanders. Sanders has a melodic yet mesmerizing style, and fearlessly explores subject matter both dark and spiritual...all with a big, cosmic, out-of-doors feeling." - magnatune.com

In other words, psychedelic, progressive, folk rock.

Line-up:

Jeff Sanders with various guests.

Tracklist:

1 Stay Evil
2 The Demon's Eye
3 Karmic Dogs
4 Your Time Has Come
5 Calm Before the Storm
6 Alone in a Crowd
7 Deploribus Unum
8 Praying Mantis

http://www.mountainmirrors.com/

http://www.myspace.com/mountainmirrors

Buy the CD - http://cdbaby.com/cd/mountainmirrors2

Bitrate - V2

Click here

Green Mistletoe - Of Bird's Song and Flower's Breath [2007]

Sunday, January 4, 2009

1. oakwine, birch twigs, and dragon's blood
2. magick song mead of the gibbous moon
3. othilaz on the knaur
4. nicippe
5. like sweet flowers of earliest bloom
6. of bird's song and flower's breath
7. druid's foot
8. the last red apple of the topmost twigs
9. greenwizardbreath through mountainwater
10. wovoka
11. hazelcromm
12. woodspryght
13. dream poliphilo, in obscure wood

http://www.myspace.com/greenmistletoe

CLICK HERE
VBR - V2