Jane Weaver - Fallen By The Watch Bird (2010) + Jane Weaver / Demdike Stare / The Focus Group The Watchbird Alluminate (2011)

Antikvarne folk-pjesme s albuma Fallen By The Watch Bird preradili su Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk, Susan Christie, Samandtheplants itd. i braću Grimm pretvorili u braću Quay. 

Jane Weaver, Fallen By The Watch Bird (2010) 

An enduring presence on Manchester's music scene, Jane Weaver returns with a new collection of antiquated folk songs that boldly draws influence from "Eastern European children's cinema, Germanic kunstmärchen, 70's television music and early murmurs of 80's synth-pop". As that billing would suggest, The Fallen By Watchbird is a very Finders Keepers-ish affair and calls upon some suitably distinguished and obscure guests. Susan Christie and Wendy Flower (one half of '60s psych-folk legends Wendy & Bonnie) both make notable appearances, as do Andy Votel and Gruff Rhys collaborator Lisa Jen. The Fallen By Watchbird occupies that part of folk heritage that's so beloved by the likes of Meg Baird, Josephine Foster and anyone who's spent rather too much time learning the songs from The Wicker Man soundtrack; it all feels at once ancient and staunchly rooted in the prog-influenced sounds of '70s acid folk. The arrangements are haunting and beautifully pieced together, with eerie chimes running through the lovely 'Turning In Circles' and fuzz-serated electric leads taking charge of 'Whispers Of Winter' - there's even a spot of Ghost Box-esque synth-scaping for 'Noctilumina' to consolidate that blurry, nostalgic view of the 1970s. Closing track, 'Silver Chord' proves to be especially irresistible, coating itself in wonderful string melodies and weightless vocal harmonies. Recommended. - boomkat



Jane Weaver / Demdike Stare / The Focus Group, 
The Watchbird Alluminate (2011)

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Remaining faithful to her influences of Germanic märchen tales, Eastern European children’s cinema and mechanical pop music, Jane Weaver expands her critically acclaimed Fallen By Watchbird concept album in this ten chapter sequel-of-sorts by employing a cast of new actors and narrators to reinterpret her surreal “cosmic aquatic folklore” 12 months after the first installment. Here Jane experiments with volks-music in its purest most innocent form using modern tools to re-tell and recycle second hand stories. Inspired by post-war cinematic interpretations and hand-me-down mistranslations of global folk tales Jane has collaborated with a close-knit group of musicians, noisemakers and vocalists/narrators to create automatic-music and re-illuminate an eleven-page novella about telepathy, technology, lost-love, wiccan, war and watchbirds.

As part of ongoing voice and electronic experiments with the people behind Pre-Cert Records The Watchbird Alluminate includes a wordless vocal introduction and interlude from both Demdike Stare and the elusive Anworth Kirk while the spoken-word narrative of Finders Keepers’ lost American pop folk singer Susan Christie is reinterpreted by Ghostbox’s Focus Group with results comparable to Ruth Whites 1968 electronic/vox interpretations of Baudelaire’s Flowers Of Evil. Jane’s own Bird Records label roster contributes two new cover versions of Weaver’s self-penned tracks re-sung by Italian singer Emma Tricca and Rochdale’s time-slipped falsetto soloist Magpahi (in a track evokes cinematic scenes from Night Of The Hunter or The Innocents). Elsewhere vintage soft-pop royalty appears in the form of a lead vocal from Wendy & Bonnie’s, Wendy Flower, a close friend and confidant of Jane’s since their first collaborations in New York and London in 2006 at the request of Jarvis Cocker for his guest curation at the Meltdown festival. Other lead performances from Weaver add a new poetic twist to the story in both solo capacity and alongside Samandtheplants’ Sam McLoughlin whose Supernatural Lancashire library project (with Alison Cooper) from 2010 still resonates as one of the finest new releases of last year.

With a unique approach to making non-linear mechanical music this pop-up collective adds a further creative perspective to the oft mistreated “concept album” virtually eliminating genre distinction in favour of communal noise – a unique product of genuinely independent music in 2011 which continues to sprout further branches.
- www.finderskeepersrecords.com/

Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk, Susan Christie and Samandtheplants, among others, rework songs from Jane Weaver's 'Fallen By The Watch Bird' LP, pressed up on this beautiful vinyl edition for the Finders Keepers affiliated Bird imprint. Taking influences from Eastern European children's cinema, Germanic kunstmärchen, 70s television music and early murmurs of 80s synth-pop, the album is described by the label as a "new conceptual pop project featuring cosmic aquatic folklore" - and the source material is here handed over to a suitably cosmic cast of characters. Demdike Stare open proceedings with their first ever remix - an extended and engrossing revision of 'Europium Alluminate', shapeshifting Jane's vocals into a sustained breath of glooming haar rolling down over pulsing bass and submerged, mechanical rhythms sounding like the echos of overworked mill machinery. Working in the background of Susan Christie's recital of poetry by Michael Hill, Focus Group give 'A Circle And A Star Part 1' a droning backdrop, while Anworth Kirk unfurl a tenderly psyched collage of folksy detritus, fuzzed guitar and languorous drums for 'Noctilumina'. With Emma Tricca, Wendy FLower, Magpahi and Susan Christie all making further contributions, the album runs like a slightly smudged fairytale, replicating the sense of wonder portrayed on that suitably ethereal cover image. - boomkat