Alula Down - Homespun - Concrete Islands

Alula Down lead listeners through peculiarly mapped out fields of Weirdshire and it proves difficult to leave in a hurry

I like to think that Weirdshire is an actual place (rather than a Herefordshire community of folk musicians) which may be visited if you have the right maps and have found a key (likely a black stone with queer markings upon it rather than a key in the strictest sense). Perhaps one can jump on an Electric Eden bus in the centre of Belbury and it’ll take you there if you pay the correct fare.

Mark Waters and Kate Gathercole are Weirdshire residents and as Alula Down tour town halls and village fetes across the imaginary county. What they play is avant-folk that tends towards minimalism. It’s an approach that modernises the traditional while also pulling the listener more completely into communal pasts. Homespun offers scope to imagine beyond the present moment.

Photograph © Imran Shaikh

A liner note on their interpretation of the traditional “Master Kilby” explains that it was learned from the singing of Nic Jones and Alasdair Roberts; passed down and then across. “We’ve bent the tune a bit”, the note continues, a phrase which gets at what Alula Down are all about. Indeed “Master Kilby” builds a mesmeric drone out of careful guitar work and double bass. The overall experience is akin to smoke-filled scenes from Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England or the “Fog on the Barrow-downs” chapter of The Lord of the Rings; ghosts populate the landscape.

“Hereford Garden Dreaming” ushers in clear skies, although the horror and decay of myth isn’t far away. “Cold wooden tears / Carpeted floors”, sings Gathercole, her voice reaching into the depths of folklore. “Cold wooden fears / Carpeted sores”.

Alula Down conjure their vision with fields of minimalist sonic repetition and tell whispered tales of the people who wander by. Homespun invites the listener into their peculiarly mapped out space of Weirdshire and it proves difficult to leave in a hurry.

aluladown.bandcamp.com