Sandokan

Just came across this title sequence, no idea what it is, but I love it. Anyone ?

Berberian Sound Studio

We're very excited here about the new film by Peter Strickland. Starring Toby Jones, soundtrack by Broadcast and titles and design by Ghost Box's own Julian house. 31st August.

The Ghosts of Bush

Some of you may be familiar with Robin the Fog from Jonny Trunk's wonderful OST show on Resonance FM, but Robin (Warren)'s day or more usually night time job was as a studio manager at the BBC's World Service in Bush House, in London.

Before the BBC finally left Bush House in July, Robin put in some long and late hours haunting its massive Portland stone corridors to capture the sounds of the building and produced a Radiophonic sound collage of the results in one of the basement studios. I use the word "Radiophonic" in its strictest sense here, given that the album was produced entirely on tape using found sound sources and hand edited and produced in a BBC studio. Although not an official BBC recording, I think its fair to say that this may be the very last piece of true Radiophonics that will ever be produced. There's an interview with Robin at The Quietus here , and below is a clip from a World Service programme about the making of the album.


"The Ghosts of Bush" is a beautiful monument to the work of the World Service during its 70 year tenure here and more importantly perhaps to this awe inspiring building. Declared the most expensive building in the world when it was built in 1929 and said to be the inspiration for Orwell's Ministry of Truth.  The soundscape is more mournful than ghostly to my ears, really capturing a sense of loss - with beautiful moments when mechanical and ambient sounds swell out with an almost choral or orchestral feel. All the more impressive when you consider no artificial reverbs or other digital effects were used. I get the sense that this love letter to a building has been recorded and presented with great humility by Robin - light on concepts, ego,  mission statements and artifice (unlike a GB project )  and topped off with a pleasingly daft tip of the hat to Eno and Byrne in the title.



You can listen to the project below and also download here on Robin's blog where you can  pre-order a very limited edition vinyl copy of the album. Please pay generously for this as all proceeds will be donated to BBC Media Action (formerly The World Service Trust), helping  to 'harness the power of media and communication to help reduce poverty and assist women, children and men to claim their rights'.

Belbury Youth Club night, Glasgow, October 31st

Tickets available now from here.

Radio Belbury Programme No. 10

English Game

Free Land Equivalents Track

Jim Musgrave, ace drummer, Land Equivalents main man and occasional Belbury Poly rhythm section has just offered up this free blissed out dub version of  "...to spare the defeated". Give it a whirl here.

Wilder Mann - Charles Fréger

You may have noticed things have been quiet here for  a while, well we've just moved into a new vicarage, and I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a copy of this from a good friend as a house warming present.

 Its a collection of photographs from around Europe by Charles Fréger of what can loosely be termed "Wild Men". These are costumed folk characters from various traditions all representing the wild and atavistic element of  human communities that are variously celebrated or purged during ritual festivals. In the UK we're familiar with burry men, obby osses, green men and mummers but these look like rented fancy dress costumes compared to these scary beauties. Below are a few of my favourites from Charles  Fréger's website. The UK version of the book is available here.

All images from Wilder Mann , 2010 © Charles Fréger

Study Series 08: "Inversions"

In the next single in the Study Series, The Advisory Circle cover Wildpsot, a tune taken from the first Belbury Poly album, The Willows and Belbury Poly re-imagine a more recent Advisory Circle piece called Now Ends the Beginning. The results are bright, light and naggingly familiar.

Available now on 7" and download.

Radio Belbury Programme No. 9

RIP Ceefax

Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1 & 2 on Vinyl

Pye Corner Audio's The Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1 & 2 is due out on 4th May. Its a limited edition double LP and to make sure you don't miss it pre-order now from our favourite on line record store Norman Records.

And as the Black Mill rolls on, work nears completion on PCA's album for Ghost Box. More news on this as soon as we can track down the ever elusive Head Technician.

Moonplay

A shameless repost from the boundless delights of Toys and Techniques - a beautiful film clip from Norway resurrected by AV Geeks.

Belbury Poly T Shirt

There's a new Belbury Poly T-shirt over in the Ghost Box shop. Its a two colour screen print designed by Julian House on a heavy weight cotton shirt in ecclesiastical red.

The Belbury Tales and Radio Belbury Programme 8

The Belbury Tales is finally here on Vinyl, CD and download, with sumptuous Julian House designed packaging and sleeve fiction by Electric Eden author Rob Young. Vinyl cutomers to the Ghost Box shop (only) get a free download version. If you've not already seen it here's a video for the track Summer Round, and you'll find more album art, info and clips here.

(By the way if you'd like to see or download more Ghost Box flyers like the one above they're here.)

To mark the release there's a new Radio Belbury programme which features another Belbury Tales album track along with Francis Monkman, Spacedog, Fingerbobs and Black Sabbath.

Dieter Rams Reconstructions

Jon Brook's and Pye Corner audio put the trusty old alarm clock through its paces yet again on a new download single, available from Cafe Kaput.

The Seasons on Trunk

A very exciting new release on Trunk this week, its The Seasons by the BBC Radiophonic workshop's David Cain and poet Ronald Duncan.

Trunk says: "Originally made as part of the BBC’s Drama Workshop broadcasts, this album was meant for educational purposes. Coming in the later period of what is commonly known and remembered as “Music and Movement” or “Movement and Mime Classes”, the album was issued briefly as a teaching aid for the modern thinking 1960s classroom. The idea was to play the album and get the school children to dance, improvise, think and create to the sounds and words."

David Cain

The original is now worth around £200 and probably one of my luckiest ever charity shop finds a few years back.(In your face Sue Ryder ! ). Its an album that's very much part of the DNA of Ghost Box; the perfect example of the spooked educational media we  reverence and reference so often. A few familiar sounds here to BBC RW aficionados, with much more besides. There's a disitnct folksy / early music feel with Ronald Duncan's icy, not quite child friendly poetry running throughout.

A long time in the making for Jonny Trunk, this one but lavishly kitted out with photos of the original slides made to accompany the record, notes by Mr. Trunk, Jon Brooks and an interview with a surprisingly curmudgeonly David Cain by Julian House. This one definitely will be on the exams so make sure you get a copy. Vinyl and CD in the Trunk shop now or through the usual iffy channels for those of you on the Trunk mailing list.

Ghost Box in The Wire's Invisible Jukebox feature

Julian House and I were recently invited to take part in Wire's very own version of Name that Tune. We consistently failed to "name the tune" - but had a very nice chat to Rob Young anyway. Its in issue 337 (with the mighty Earth on the front cover) in shops now-ish.

We give the Wire photographer our best "like you've just seen a ghost."



Summer Round Video

This is an excerpt from Julian House's film New Summer Wavelengths. The track Summer Round is taken from the new Belbury Poly album The Belbury Tales.

FACT Magazine Mix and Chat

Kiran and Tim from FACT magazine dropped in to the vicarage the other day for a chat and a pot of tea and left with some valuable spiritual guidance, several pamphlets, and this Mix...

Belbury Poly's mix for FACT

You can read what we talked about here. The Mix includes another exclusive preview track from The Belbury Tales and an a completely new one by The Advisory Circle.  A couple of other tunes maybe familiar to Radio Belbury listeners, who might also be relieved to hear that my tiresome and factually inaccurate links are absent this time.