Video here: https://youtu.be/cqYePwUwyDg

Nan Tuck is a story of fear of the other and outsiders in the community; in this case the witch hunt of a young woman living in Buxted in the 1600s. There are different versions of her story, one being of a young girl with mental health problems, pursued by the villagers. She continues to be a focus of fear, as the ghost of Tuck Wood.

Bonfire parades have a long tradition in Sussex, pre-dating the gunpowder plot, and this track features field recordings from parades, sampled and layered to create a new voice. In addition, woodland field recordings have been used in their entirety.

I See Fairises

Nan Tuck

The Legend of Nan Tuck

Inspired by the ancient folklore custom of telling the bees about important family events such as deaths, births. The belief was held that if the bees were not told, they would leave their hive, stop producing honey or even die.
A Sussex beekeeper also kindly spent time telling me about his life with bees.

Chalk Horse Music Chapter II

Telling of the Bees

Hegemony out on 7" vinyl with download link for a Midsummer release
Website: http://www.chalkhorsemusic.com/video

Our new single Hegemony is coming out midsummer. It's a hybrid of traditional song Sweet Lemeney, collected by The Copper Family, with lyrics from Green Gartside's reinterpretation in 1978 and our own arrangement.

It's being released as a 7” vinyl with download link, along with b-side The Devil and the Farmer.

It was only last year we realised Hegemony's folkloric links and that it had been inspired by the traditional song Sweet Lemeney, that's traditionally sung at midsummer. The melody we've used is closer to the traditional version and I'm grateful to Green Gartside for allowing us to use his ever relevant lyrics without hearing what we would do with it.

Hegemony... leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others

hegemony, hegemony
you are the fairest creature
you are the fairest creature that ever I have seen,
and it's all for Monopoly
on all those pretty sensibles
that rot and raze a nation the capacity for change

hegemony, hegemony
you are the foulest creature
you are the foulest creature that set upon a race,
you can generate and dissipate
but only very stupidly
such it is the splendour of popular control

how do you do this?
how can you do it to me?
when all you are is ordinary, it's pretty common sense
you are natural, immutable and everyone exquisites you
as common sense
and common sense is things just as they are

In seeking licensing permission we approached Rough Trade’s Geoff Travis. He said, ‘a very pleasant surprise… didn’t expect those horn blasts… a lovely spirited full-bodied version.’

Hegemony

The Devil & The Farmer is the b-side of our Hegemony single out on 7" vinyl with download link
Website: www.chalkhorsemusic.com/video


The Devil & The Farmer was collected in Horsham, Sussex in 1903 from Henry Barstow. A tale of a shrewish wife that terrifies even the demons is ancient and widespread. The earliest reference is from the Hindus as a sixth century fable.

The video features dust devil footage shot in the UK, one from a Sussex farmer whilst out collecting hay. It also features some of my own footage of dancing in the May at the foot of a local ancient hill figure The Long Man of Wilmington.

The Devil & The Farmer

Along The Hidden Beach out on 7" vinyl with download link 05/03/21
Website: www.chalkhorsemusic.com/video

Set among the sea foam, shipwrecks and lost bells of the East Sussex coastline. 

The video features underwater footage from a dive off the coast here. During the dive, Sussex Shipwrecks Skipper Mike Keane recovered part of a lost harp. He used this to carry out some detective work, firstly identifying the harp's maker via the Royal College of Music and then using this information to verify the identity of the wreck via researchers working for Historic England as the SS Ondine that sank in 1860 off the coast of Beachy Head.

Liz Pearson - vocals
David Asher - lyre, guitar
Terry Pack - double bass (guest)
Darren Pearson - horn arr and keys

Along The Hidden Beach

Traditional song Turtle Dove, collected in West Sussex
https://www.chalkhorsemusic.com/shop

Richard Walder: tea chest bass
Ben Clennell: percussion
David Asher: mandolin, guitar
Adam Seigel: flute, saxophone
Darren Pearson: guitar, horn arr

Turtle Dove

Music inspired by the folklore, landscape and legend of Sussex

chalk horse music

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