I’ve always wanted to write a song to wind up Welsh nationalists. My friend described me as a ‘part-time Welshman’. I’m not a patriot. I can’t be bothered to learn our national anthem. Can you forgive me, cariad?

This is about Cardiff and the UK becoming a building site. It is about a vision of the high street becoming a shanty town for spice addicts. It is about the bureaucrats who wave the dragon flag with shit-eating grins as they turn our homes into dormitories for students and hoteliers.

I vividly remember writing this in my manager’s office at work, looking out over the well-kept back gardens of Pontcanna. Two unused lines: ‘For the uncle who called me a faggot/I’m happy being a maggot in the apple’.

I would say I have a massive chip on my shoulder, but I don’t want to lean into the stereotype that all Welsh people eat is chips.

(National Anthem is set to Unearthed from the album, Ritual Cloak).

- Autumn Juvenile

A Human Being Is The Best Disguise

National Anthem

Ritual Cloak follow-up an ambitious year of releases (Divine Invasions, A Human Being is the Best Disguise & Orange Crush) with a collaboration between the duo and photographer Michal Iwanowski.

Witaj w Domu was recorded during the Divine Invasions sessions, but it felt like the track deserved to stand alone. Having been inspired by Iwanowski’s photographic project, Go Home Polish, Ritual Cloak composed a piece of music in response, inviting Iwanowski to contribute spoken word, drawn from writings of his 1900km journey between his two homes - Wales and Poland. Michal narrates three stories, all different, yet all similar and asks, just like the photographic project, where is home? The answer is elusive and complex, a riddle that transcends time and administration.

“The title of the song was inspired by images of Michal’s mother and family awaiting his return as he walked the final stretch towards the family home in Poland, holding the sign Witaj w Domu (Welcome Home). We wanted the title to completely contrast the hostility of the graffiti that Michal felt compelled to respond to. The composition even features audio sampled from a live streamed video of his arrival at his family home. The sounds and voices of his family played a key part in closing the track as these are the people that mean the most to Michal, especially the sound of Michal’s mum’s laugh weaving between the piano notes that brings an emotional texture.” - Ritual Cloak

This is hiraeth. This is heimet. Home.

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Ritual Cloak kontynuuje ambitny rok pełen wydań utworów duetu we współpracy z fotografem Michałem Iwanowskim (Divine Invasions, A Human Being is the Best Disguise & Orange Crush).

Witaj w Domu został nagrany podczas sesji Divine Invasions, jednak sprawiał wrażenie utworu zasługującego na szczególne wyróżnienie. Zainspirowany fotograficznym projektem Iwanowskiego Go Home Polish, Ritual Cloak skomponował w odpowiedzi utwór muzyczny, zapraszając Iwanowskiego do współpracy poprzez słowa i teksty spisane podczas jego 1900-kilometrowej podróży pomiędzy jego dwoma domami - Walią i Polską. Michał opowiada trzy historie, wszystkie różne, ale jednocześnie podobne i pyta, jak i w jego projekcie fotograficznym, gdzie jest dom? Odpowiedź jest nieuchwytna i niejednoznaczna, zagadka wykraczająca poza czas i administrację.

“Tytuł utworu jest inspirowany wizerunkiem matki Michała i jego rodziny trzymających w rękach napis Witaj w Domu w oczekiwaniu na jego powrót, podczas ostatniego odcinka jego pieszej wędrówki w kierunku rodzinnego domu w Polsce. Chcieliśmy, aby tytuł całkowicie kontrastował z nienawistnym wydźwiękiem graffiti, na które Michał czuł się zobowiązany odpowiedzieć. Kompozycja zawiera fragmenty audio z transmitowanej na żywo relacji z jego przybycia do rodzinnego domu. Dźwięki i głosy jego rodziny odegrały kluczową rolę w finale utworu, ponieważ są to osoby, które znaczą dla Michała najwięcej, zwłaszcza dźwięk śmiechu mamy Michała, który przeplata się między nutami fortepianu nadając utworowi emocjonalną teksturę.” - Ritual Cloak

To jest hiraeth. To jest heimet. Dom.

Witaj w Domu

Witaj W Domu (Instrumental)

Witaj W Domu (Polska Wersja)

Witaj W Domu (English Version)

Following on from their second album (Divine Invasions), collaborations with Welsh poet Autumn Juvenile and Polish Artist Michal Iwanowski, plus an R.E.M cover, electronic post-rock duo Ritual Cloak are back with a brand new single.

‘Shell’ will be released on 23rd November across all digital platforms.
Shell is about being in a dream where you’re constantly searching for someone but never quite finding them. It’s an idea that’s been floating around for a few years and gone through a number of different versions before becoming what it is now.

Originally Shell was written for acoustic guitar and had a completely different feel. Dan remembers re-listening to Metals by Feist and being inspired by the dramatic intimacy of the album, leading to Shell being rewritten for piano. When the song was brought to the studio Sanders suggested taking the vocals outside of the usual comfort zone. The inspiration for this method of production was taken from Bon Iver and Mogwai, experimenting with vocoder and the deliberate use of autotune for the first time. As a result the song entered new musical territories, and served as a reminder to the band that there are no rules in what they do.

Shell

Gweledigaeth was the last song to be written and completed for the EP. The song just came to Dan and was written and recorded in one take, with the name aptly meaning ‘vision’ in Welsh. Vangelis’s music is something that has definitely seeped into our musical identity and steered us towards embracing otherworldly synth-scapes like this song. It felt right for Gweledigaeth to start the record and set the scene.

Vanished in Transition

Gweledigaeth

Left Behind wouldn’t exist without the influence of George Harrison and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. The song revolves around a sitar-like guitar line that we knew we wanted to have constantly looping to create a meditative drone. The lyrics are a collage of different lines and ideas that when brought together create a story of a long-forgotten ‘saviour’ that’s coming back but nobody needs them anymore.

Left Behind

Originally intended to be on Divine Invasions, work on Ornamental began back in early 2019. Dan doesn’t consider himself an accomplished pianist but was pushing himself to write more stretching pieces on piano. Despite the song being somewhat finished, it didn’t make the cut for the final tracklist of the album as we felt it was missing something. We gave the track some space whilst we worked on other material, until Dan read The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. There was a chapter that contained the poem, ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by American poet Sara Teasdale from 1918. The words described perfectly to us a world, absent of people, where relics of a vanished civilisation remain like ornaments. It felt like fate.

Ornamental

Half of My Life is a reflection on the melancholia of getting older. It started off as a gentle solo piano piece but we could hear the potential to lift the song emotionally. Using crunching footsteps to create rhythm and playing guitars with violin bows really brings the song to life. Karl Griffiths of Morning Arcade’s guitar created an air of positivity to the song. We had some big storms last year that Dan recorded and when we put them to the music, it was like it was meant to be there.

Half Of My Life

Reprise

When we started writing Vanished in Transition we didn’t expect it to end up where it did. We weren’t totally prepared for how Rob Smith of Wonderbrass and Harri Rees of Wylderness would transform the direction and feel of the song towards a Pharoah Sanders style jazz odyssey. It really is the centre-piece of the EP. The song is about the romanticism of disappearing and what the reality is for those left behind.

Vanished In Transition

When we started writing Vanished in Transition we didn’t expect it to end up where it did. We weren’t totally prepared for how Rob Smith of Wonderbrass and Harri Rees of Wylderness would transform the direction and feel of the song towards a Pharoah Sanders style jazz odyssey. It really is the centre-piece of the EP. The song is about the romanticism of disappearing and what the reality is for those left behind.

Taken from the forthcoming EP, Vanished in Transition, Ritual Cloak take a more introspective and meditative direction, venturing into new musical territories that draw influence from ambient, jazz, doom metal and George Harrison’s Indian explorations. Leaning into down-tempo rhythms, drums have been exchanged for heart-beats, as if this EP is the duo breathing deep in readiness to face the next chapter.

VALIS

I Accuse History

Conversation (Blackmail)

Opaque Crater is the first new material from our forthcoming second album Divine Invasions.

Opaque Crater

As Ritual Cloak’s sophomore album draws closer, we’re excited to bring you another nugget from the much anticipated long-player. High Teens, Low Twenties will be released digitally on the 2nd April 2021. The track follows in the vein of the previous singles Opaque Crater and White Noise with the duos unique approach to post-rock, cinematic soundscapes.

“High Teens Low Twenties is one of our favourite tracks to come out of the second album's recording session. It came about as Dan had forgotten he'd stored a reversed loop of a simple arpeggio on his loop pedal. When we were setting up in the studio for a session Dan clicked the looper on as it was flashing and this sound just burst out! We both looked at each other and got to work immediately, and the song was pretty much finished by the end of that day.”

Divine Invasions

High Teens Low Twenties

Ritual Cloak is Daniel Barnett, formerly of the band Samoans, and drummer/producer Andrew Sanders.

Glacial sonic post-rock inspired by Mogwai, Kiasmos and Sigur Ros.

https://ritualcloak.bandcamp.com/follow_me

Ritual Cloak

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