Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner - The Music from Bagpuss (Earth Recordings)

The Earth Recordings release of the gently narcotic Bagpuss soundtrack reveals the cat behind the curtain in a ready-made sample suite for hauntologists everywhere

The most enduring episode of Bagpuss in our house is “The Mouse Mill”. My children always go to it first, and will quite happily watch it over and over again. For those who may not remember, it’s the one where the mice pretend that they can make chocolate biscuits out of butter beans and breadcrumbs. It’s a fine trick they pull off, although Professor Yaffle is obviously having none of it. It seems to me that the episode boils down the magic of Bagpuss into a single routine. Rather like Orson Welles’s F For Fake, what Bagpuss achieves is to reveal what lies behind the illusion while making it seem endlessly magical after the fact. The trick itself, not the mystery, becomes the draw. Such tangible acts of magic run throughout the show; the fantastic is carved out of the everyday. Which plays beautifully off of the fact that these toys come to life, an act that seems like the most natural thing in the world.

The folk music soundtrack by Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner roots the show in tradition even as they playfully improvise and joyfully turn things around. As a result, Bagpuss feels of folklore rather than an attempt to capture wisps of the spirit of ancient tales. I was born three years after Bagpuss debuted, but it already had the air of the wonderfully ancient about it. That wasn’t all though: each episode also felt (and still feels) as if it was unravelling before my eyes in real time. A faded other time perhaps, but one happening in the right now and the always. Separating the music from the television show doesn’t shake off the magic either. Indeed, the songs are as gently narcotic unaccompanied by what was on screen. From the joyful hidden wordplay of “The Bony King of Nowhere” to the lovely pathos of that “man made all of rag”, “Uncle Feedle”, these are songs that a listener gets wrapped up in.

So how could Bagpuss possibly be made any more charming than it always was? By presenting studio outtakes on a soundtrack release, apparently. In the same way that learning butter beans and breadcrumbs cannot be transformed into chocolate biscuits, listening in behind the scenes of Bagpuss turns the dream into myth. The limited vinyl edition comes with a shop window frame where you can choose which character adorns the cover. It’s a delightful reflection of the soundtrack itself, which not only lets the listener into that shop that doesn’t sell anything, but allows one to rummage around in the back room. What discoveries await! Oliver Postgate soundchecking in character as Bagpuss is one such marvel:

“Oh, yes. Have a look at that needle would you and see if it’s hitting the red. It should go fairly well up, but not actually hit the red.”

Read it again, with Bagpuss’s voice in your head. It’s an odd sensation, bright but rather uncanny. Combine that with the character introductions and awakenings, and this is surely a ready-made sample suite for hauntologists everywhere.

earthrecordlabel.com/the-music-from-bagpuss