First song for series 2 of Old Tunes Fresh Takes. Start point was from Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpele’s collection, words then mainly taken from Dave Van Ronk’s recording.

Arranged for Kazoo & Bottles......

Lady Gay

Willie o Winsbury recorded for Old Tunes Fresh Takes

W.O.W!

Our glitchy version of an old favourite for Old Tunes Fresh Takes

Willie O Winsbury

Another one for the Old Tunes Fresh Takes Podcast submission. 
I started out with the idea of making it as a murder ballad but my voice doesn't have that much grittiness. Added some bass and chucked on some FX on the bass the mix, I don't play bass, but I liked the weird sounds at various spots that my bad  bass playing added.

Chld Owlet Ballad

This episode we're joined by Debbie Armour who is asking you to reimagine the dark tale of Child Owlet, with themes of incest, cuckoldry and grisly execution. 

Debbie is a Glasgow based musician, working primarily with traditional song. Broadly, her work is motivated by ideas of persistence, resonance and deep cultural roots. In her primary project, Burd Ellen, she uses British and international traditional song to explore women's narratives. She is also a founder member of critically acclaimed contemporary folk a cappella group Green Ribbons.

Check out Burd Ellen’s album Says The Never Beyond here: https://burdellen.bandcamp.com/album/says-the-never-beyond

/// TAKE PART ///

Chords, scores & lyrics (.pdf): https://oldtunesfreshtakes.com/s/otft-scores-ep-9-child-owlet.pdf 
Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5afQ2f41ht41qm1SncgHGH?si=8070092c3e8c4808

Find a quick guide on how to submit here: https://oldtunesfreshtakes.com/how-to-submit

Debbie will be back again to listen to your takes in the second part of this episode released Monday 19 July. Remember to get your takes to us by Monday 12 July to feature! Drop us a message if you have any questions.

/// COMMUNITY ///

If you’re interested in getting deeper into the conversation, come and join our group on Facebook. There’s been some amazing chats over the last month with people sharing demos, feedback and ideas.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldtunesfreshtakescommunity

Meetup: If you’d like to join us for a chat about old tunes, we’re also having an informal Zoom meetup on Saturday 26 June at 11:00. Stay for the hour or just pop in to say hi! 

https://www.facebook.com/events/527453455063109

/// MUSIC CREDITS ///

4:30 - Coventry Carol - Burd Ellen
9:42 - Cutty Wren - Burd Ellen
14:30 - Sans Day Carol - Burd Ellen
20:25 - Hela’r Dryw Bach - Burd Ellen
26:15 - Corpus Christi Carol - Burd Ellen
32:23 - Chylde Owlet - Ewan MacColl
36:27 - Child Owlet - Fay Hield
38:48 - Child Owlet - Eric
43:43 - Child Owlet - Steeleye Span

Child Owlet // Debbie Armour - pt 1

A short sound collage made for Old Tunes, Fresh Takes podcast inspired by a piece I saw performed live by John Cage in Huddersfield, I think in 1989, it was Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake. I was captivated by the location recordings from places in the book that he used, this was mixed with musical excerpts played by Irish musicians and dancers.

I tried to weave my own little music excerpts into the sound recordings I made in and around Newport, plus a little bit of Dylan Thomas at the start. I was also reading a novel called ‘The Hopkins Manuscript’ by RC Sherriff about a countdown to the end of the world (due to a collision with the moon) where the main character is frustrated by the way people take this devastating news in their stride, without panic etc and my wife noticed that there are modern day parallels with Global Warming etc. I used recordings of a couple of old chaps in Newport talking about rugby, and people generally just getting on with life, shopping etc without particularly thinking about their own destiny.

Lyke Wake Dirge

Vegetal Negatives is a game of sonic mutations, mimicry, inversions, and association inspired by a text called "On pataphotograms", by the French writer René Daumal – a quasi-metaphysical essay that toys with breaking the conceived separateness of natural forms through poetic imagination. 

The four electroacoustic compositions on the album combine and arrange field recordings, electronic feedback, Buchla and ARP synthesizers, bowl gong and harmonium, textures of detailed acoustic sound, and sustained tones with gentle microtonal beating into a precise musical narrative. She juxtaposes recordings of rooms and empty vessels, natural and artificial climates, spontaneous and staged events. Ahti draws upon Annea Lockwood's ideas about associative movements between sounds based on shared characteristics and sonic energy. Her approach to field recordings is neither diaristic, documentaristic, nor purely acousmatic, but rather it starts out from somewhere in between these notions: the sounds hover between abstraction and the deeply familiar, moving into a realm of poetic metaphor where they are set in relation to each other, fleetingly mirroring or shadow-dancing. Acoustic environments mutate into synthetically derived shadow forms. 

The opening track, "Coastal Inversion”, moves from a seemingly familiar seascape into an ocean of wavelike synthetic staccato patterns, turning itself inside-out on the shore, before diving back into a sea of resonance. ”Rooftop gardens” arranges a series of largely unprocessed field recordings into a dream-logic sequence of upward movement towards the clouds. On the other side, ”Symbiogenesis” brews a slow evolution of wet, airy and earthy sounds and resonant friction. The closing track, ”Chora”, imagines a meditative space of breath: filter resonance posing as organ pipes against a backdrop of breezy industrial hoovers merges halfway with a harmonium improvisation that foregrounds the frictions of the wooden instrument itself, just before filtering out into resonant harmony. 

Releases March 29, 2019 via Hallow Ground 

Marja Ahti: composition, production, field recording, Buchla 200 and ARP 2600 
Recorded at EMS, Stockholm, WORM, Rotterdam, and on locations in Greece, Alaska, Finland and Sweden. 
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi 
Designed by Ruth Stofer

Lyke Wake Dirge

Julian Hayman