Andrew King

It’s been a long wait but thanks to the French alternative label Athanor, Andrew King’s second album of English traditional folk songs has finally emerged into the light. The “Amfortas Wound” features eleven songs underlining Andrew’s taste for tragic ballads. Andrew makes extensive use of a harmonium and mock flute organ which he sampled himself. This is in part a stylistic tribute to Shirley and Dolly Collins whom I also much admire, but Andrew’s interest in experimentation takes the marriage of a traditional singing style with innovation a lot further.

Andrew has worked professionally on collections of traditional song recordings for the National Sound Archive of the British Library (now known as the British Library Sound Archive). Although you might regard his singing as ‘folk music’, Andrew winces at mention of the term. He has strong views about the 70s folk revival which he regards as “popular music with folk mannerisms”, but his commitment to an authentic traditional singing style does not inhibit his own enthusiasm for the use of drones and samples more usually associated with the gothic-industrial/experimental scene, a camp in which Andrew also has a foot, a point underlined by his collaborators. Joining him on the album is Hunter Barr (Knifeladder, Antivalium, Altered States and Infant Skull Surgery) in charge of the mastering and mixing, loops and drones, John Murphy (Kraang, Shining Vril, Knifeladder, SPK, DIJ, Whitehouse etc) on drums and Andrew Trail (Knifeladder, Antivalium, Inertia and Ministry of Love) contributing more loops and drones.

The chosen songs include versions drawn from some famous source singers including Bob Copper, Joseph Taylor, and Harry Cox, all important influences on Andrew’s approach to folk song and the style in which he sings. ‘The Wild Wild Berry’ (a version of Lord Randal) opens with an atmospheric industrial rumble, and then the harmonium comes in – a rich and menacing sound. At twenty verses, ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor’ is the longest song here. Despite having numerous Norse relatives, all English versions stem from a broadside that can be found in the Pepys collection. Cecil Sharp was dismissive of broadsides, but this is a splendid old ballad. Accompanied by drone throughout and then at the end the tune is played on flute organ. ‘The Prentice Boy’ is a dark murder ballad, motiveless in this version. I don’t like the tune, and Andrew himself describes this Harry Cox song as a “penny dreadful”, so on this particular broadside song I’m with Sharp. ‘Cruel Lincoln’ (Lord Lankin) is bloody and rather paranoid tale in which a murderous bogeyman and his accomplice, the False Nurse, kill a Lord’s baby and wife, but receive their just deserts. The pulsing harmonium almost suggests the blood pumping out of the victims.

‘Love Henry’ features ominous atmospheric-industrial pads, creating a very ghostly effect. This version of the ancient Scottish ballad comes from the Appalachian singer, Frank Profitt of North Carolina. ‘The Knight Templar’s Dream’ is unusual in being a Masonic song which survived in the oral tradition in Co Derry. Although appearing in Orange Order song books, its oral transmission is traced amongst Catholics and dates from before Masonic prohibition. ‘Sweet Williams Ghost’ was learnt from Peta Webb, a stalwart of traditional singing who runs, with Ken Hall, the Musical Traditions club in central London where Andrew himself usually sings. ‘Gethsemane’ is from a text by Rudyard Kipling in a setting by the late Peter Bellamy. A sample used in the second part is that of the only known Great War recording, the sound of a gas-shell bombardment.

The CD comes in an attractive digipak with a clearly-printed booklet featuring the full texts of the songs and copious notes. The cover and booklet feature Andrew’s own paintings.

Review: fluxeuropa