Folklore Tapes Calendar Customs Vol.III: Mid-Winter Rites & Revelries
Artists: Various
Format: Embossed cassette box including printed green cassette. screen printed sleeve, research booklet, essay, evergreen bough, poster, download code.
Release Date: 04/12/15
Edition: 250
Tracklist:
Arianne Churchman - Fourth Solo Cutty Wren Ritual
Dean McPhee - The Devil's Knell
Rob St John - Fire Rites
David Chatton Barker - Wheel of Life
Sam McLoughlin - Tangerines in Socks
Magpahi - The Lady of the Mountain
Mary Stark - Holly & Ivy
Ian Humberstone - Carrying the Clavie Fire
Carl Turney & Brian Campbell - lo Saturnalia!
Mary & David - Wassailing
Mid-winter is the low ebb of the year, the heart of the lifeless
season when the sun describes a wearily flattened arc across the sky:
its luminosity dimmed and wan, its passage brief. Shadows lengthen,
branches grow bare and bony, temperatures drop and darkness prevails.
There is a need for cheer, for hope and conviviality, for reminders of
Spring’s renewal to come. Old mid-winter rites and rituals, centring
around Christmastide observances and celebrations, bring a little warmth
and light to this chill time of scarcity and spiritual despond. And it
is these rites to which Folklore Tapes turn their collective eye in this
the fourth season of the solar year.
The artists contributing to this limited edition cassette compilation
have each researched a particular mid-winter ritual and, informed by
their findings, conjured a sound piece in response. The movements take
their listener on an audiological journey around the old ways of winter,
with acousmatic carolling, text-sound collage, composed music and
augmented field-recording. These are playful retellings of
long-forgotten observances: library sounds, carried on a wisp of smoke
from the bonfires of winters past.
The cassette comes housed in a hand-numbered and stamped box,
accompanied by a detailed booklet and essay focussing on the customs and
rituals covered. Also inside is a poster and evergreen bough to cheer
the peruser through the long, dank night. So come gather round the
ceremonial fire as Folklore Tapes toll the Devil’s knell, hunt the
sacred wren, light the Yule Log and enact saturnalic mischief in the
deepest depths of winter’s long night.
Available from the Folklore Tapes shop.
