Jake Blanchard

Last year, the excellent English label Folklore Tapes began a project called Ceremonial County Series, releasing split cassettes featuring two artists a piece performing long tracks based on folklore tales specific to certain regions of the UK.  The latest is volume XVII, and features artists Jake Blanchard and Geology Disco taking on Bristol and Hertfordshire respectively.  Listen to Blanchard's contribution, the droney "Bristol: Giants (Goram & Vincent) & Door of the Hatchet Inn" below and cop the tape here.

Dean McPhee

Folklore Tapes' "Ceremonial County Series" continues to be a fascinating sound experiment, utilizing a slew of different artists to create pieces of music inspired by the folklore tales of the various counties in England.  Volume V dropped a couple days ago and features a spectral, barely-there, and haunting track from Pefkin on the cassette's A-side, and a sprawling and somber instrumental from Dean McPhee on the B-side, "West Yorkshire: The Bradford Boar."  Check out that B-side below and grab the tape here.

Arianne Churchman

UK label Folklore Tapes is in the midst of a very cool project right now, releasing a 24 volume cassette series of 48 artists performing their own brands of mutant folk, drone, and more to create a tapestry of sound based on the myths and folklore of the 48 counties of England.  It's called the "Ceremonial County Series," and it's an epic, sprawling, and fascinating endeavor.  Check out folk artist Arianne Churchman's contribution "The Horse-Woman of Piper's Vale" from Volume II, a droney ode to the lore of Suffolk, below, and get it, along with Volumes I and III here.

Folklore Tapes

UK label Folklore Tapes managed to get under my skin and stay there yesterday while i listened through some of their discography.  The label compiles songs and projects from artists dabbling in folk, psych, experimental synth, noise, and more.  Here's how they describe themselves:

Folklore Tapes is an ongoing research and musical heritage project covering and soundtracking the folklore, mythology and occult annals of the UK in volumes of tapes and vinyl. Exploring mysteries, myths, nature, topography and strange phenomena of the counties.

Pretty rad right?  Anyway, one of the projects released this year is the compilation "When the Frog from the Well Sees the Ocean (Reports from English UFOlklore)," which is as weird and wonderful as i could have hoped, sounding like something Trish Keenan of Broadcast would have turned me on to.  Get the LP here and in the meantime, listen to Arianne Churchman's "The Luminous" below.