FIVE ENGLISH FOLK SONGS is a collection of marginal traditional singing techniques and songs dug out by Neil and Mimi. These five songs all explore magical forms of communication with non-human energies; Flora, Fauna, Deities, The Dead, and the Quasi-Dead. The idea that song, and the performance of song have some kind of efficacy or sympathy beyond the realm of living humans is an idea that lives and thrives in places far flung from this cluster of mild islands, but has gotten lost and buried in 21st century Western empiricalness. We hope this opens some windows for you.

Some liberties have been taken with interpretation; melodies swapped out, lyrics changed, structures altered, sounds invented, stories retold, truths averted.

PHALAY
Secret Reformation-era Votive Antiphon from Stoke Minster (anon).

LICHENS
Early Renaissance Invisibility Spell from England & Denmark. Adapted from The Grand Grimoire (misc., anon.)

EVERGREEN
Setting of HeartKickUK™ defibrillator manual text, accompanied by vaguely traditional leaf-blowing techniques.

OH GREAT GOAT
Animal Husbandry Song, (anon. Yak Herders), circa Ambleside.

JANET HAS A FRIEND
Folk song from the 1980s about The Enfield Poltergeist, sung to the tune of “The Bow Gallows”. The story concerns a case of a notorious poltergeist haunting in a small residential house in Enfield between 1977-1979. A family including two young daughters (Janet was one of them) were tormented by flying objects, toppled furniture, levitations, loud banging. The ghost, who introduced himself as “Bill” spoke through Janet’s own vocal cords in a gruff, low register. 

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released May 1, 2023

Recorded at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany, and live at Cafe Oto, London, UK
Recorded, mixed, edited by Neil Luck
Cafe Oto live recordings made by kyle acab

Cover illustration by Monika Czyzyk

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"arte povera brilliance" - Edward Henderson, The Wire Magazine

 

"Luck and Doulton demonstrate that it is possible to create an exciting and relevant blend of the past with the present by paying homage to the English folk heritage, while radically reinventing it at the same time". - Marat Ingeldeev, All About Jazz