the neo-folkish / neo-pagan / acid folkish inspirations of

The Rowan Amber Mill

CDR (2009), CDR (2010)

Miller Sounds Prod.      The Rowan Amber Mill : Midsummers -picture cdr- (UK,2009)**°'   

Besides that I fell a bit cheated by this picture CDR posing as a real CD (I told you a million times that you won’t be able to play CDRs after some time so that they are rather momentual editions which as a collector are nearly worthless), the music is of course what I expected.

The Rowan Amber Mill has something of the English nature, an almost pagan feeling underneath the music, while being based partially on the English folk heritage, from medieval folk and a flavour Victorian romantism towards folk-rock revival times, but in a more primitive poor setting, while keeping the English nobleness intact with nature's calls in mind. There’s a nice female folky lead voice with dual singing, lots of nice picking instruments (banjo, mandolin, bouzouki,..) and nice recorder arrangements but I also heard a little bit of keyboards or other more droning instruments, like a psychedelic haze of mystery over the music as a camouflage for the, still attractive, relative simple fundaments of the music. A welcome addition for lovers of the neo-pagan and Wickerman remembrance days and medieval music and events celebrations in the woods and on the hills.

Info & audio : http://www.myspace.com/therowanambermill & http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/therowanambermill

& http://www.reverbnation.com/therowanambermill

Label info : http://www.millersounds.co.uk/cd.htm

Other review : http://www.theshadowscommence.com/rowan.html

Miller Sounds Prod.      The Rowan Amber Mill : Heartwood-picture cdr- (UK,2010)****

As being only a trio (Sharon Eastwood, Terry Stacey and Stephen Stannard) with perhaps a limited availability of musical instruments and musicians, they have arranged their songs in such a  way, especially on the first couple of tracks, I thought some of it must have been some the most perfect and in that way impressive additional melodic use of keyboards imitating classical instruments I have heard, it is unclear on the liner notes whether they are real instruments or not, but on the later tracks you can hear the difference more clearly. Never the less such strings and such were added under patiently produced studio conditions. Together with acoustic guitar pickings, bouzouki/banjo and such, clarinet and flute arrangements of a sometimes more baroque classical than folk nature, electric and double bass led by convincing folk vocalists (solo, duet, harmony voices). All tracks were self-penned but were rooted in the UK folk tradition recalling the folk area period of Spriguns and Trees and such. Hearing these at times impressive perfectly arranged moods songs I realize the band is destined to become more known and come to a real album some day, because this unfortunately still is a silk-screened cdr, a medium which will not last long in time. The songs can have something dramatic like English folk traditionals can have, mixed with old chamber music flavours with modern studio contrasts. Other tracks are with more sparse arrangements, with keyboards playing more moodily than being folk-classical in nature. An improvement to the previous release. Check out !

Info & audio : http://www.myspace.com/therowanambermill

Label info : http://www.millersounds.co.uk/cd.htm

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