After a short intermission, Crossness returns today with a release I'm very excited about. Having worked together on her own divine debut back in 2020, anrimeal and I have renewed the union between Crossness and demo records to bring you new music from our hugely talented friend Freda D'Souza.
Freda's debut EP is called Windowledge, and it's a small but mighty suite of five heart-swelling folk songs, exploring the trials of intimacy and the value of introspection and forging space for reflection. It's something quite extraordinary, and I'm honoured to be part of its journey out into the world.
Today you can check out the video for title track 'Windowledge' - thanks to Folk Radio for yesterday's premiere! - and pre-order the full EP on Bandcamp. Pre-order options include a range of cyanotype prints and download cards made with plantable seed paper, all hand-crafted by Freda to accompany the EP.
Come and see Freda play at Green Note on 2nd July for the EP launch, and see here for more upcoming tour dates. She will also support the legendary Mount Eerie at his sold out show at Grand Junction on 13th June.
Today, Crossness has teamed up with our beloved Demo Records once more to bring you Could Divine, Remembered - a meditative companion piece to anrimeal's debut album Could Divine.
An immersive audio documentary about the making of Could Divine, the release features a beautiful collaboration with fellow Crossness fave The Silver Field - Elegy For An Empty Ocean (The Silver Field Mix) - as well as contributions from post-rock pioneer Butterfly Child and ambient cosmonaut Xqui. Alongside these you'll find demos, reflections, confessions, rituals, and even the artist's own heartbeat. Think 'Song Exploder', but with many more layers to explore.
We'll be donating all profits from this release to a charity of Ana's choosing, the Portuguese refugee support organisation Plataforma de Apoio aos Refugiados. As always, Bandcamp is the place to go to make sure the largest part of your purchase benefits this important cause.
The debut album by anrimeal, Could Divine, is out today on vinyl and all streaming services; a DIY folk record combining field recordings, strings, silence, meticulous sound design and mellifluous vocals to create something magical and wholly new.
To celebrate, Ana (anrimeal) and housemate/musical collaborator Freda D'Souza will be sharing an improvised set live from home at 6pm GMT this evening, accessible via this link. Ana has also shared a beautiful new homemade video for Encaustic Witches, which can be viewed here.
I feel hugely indebted to everyone who has been so supportive of this release, despite all that the year 2020 has thrown at us. If you'd shown my weird and precocious 13 year old self the name of her future record label written in the pages of The Wire, I'm not sure she would have believed you. To paraphrase Ivor and Linda: weird girls of the world, take over!
Today we’ve shared a second track from the debut album by anrimeal, Could Divine. ‘I Am Not’ is a heady emotional ride, building from a melancholic simmer to a fever pitch of dissociative vocals and discordant guitar. To make matters even more exciting, we’re releasing the track with an industrial remix B-side by the fabulous Corvax and a homemade video that places Ana’s free-associative poetry front and centre (premiered by God Is In The TV earlier this week).
While the rest of Could Divine was recorded solo, ‘I Am Not’ sees contributions from guitarist Huw Roberts and percussionist Miguel Crespo. “The Beefheart-like instrumental chaos at the track’s peak was very much intentional,” says Ana, “And I knew from the beginning that I'd have to ask for help. Collaborating isn't very natural to me, simply because my work is so personal. In the end, calling on friends for help made this song exactly what I wanted - because of their incredible talent!”
Both A- and B-sides can now be streamed and downloaded from Bandcamp and all other platforms. Could Divine is out 20th Nov on limited edition yellow vinyl, in collaboration with Demo Records.
I’m back sooner than I thought I’d be with a new release from Crossness. My friend Ana, who records as anrimeal, has very kindly brought me on board to help release her debut album Could Divine. Ana gave me a little preview of this record last year and I’ve been waiting for it to drop ever since. The idea that I’d actually get to release it myself felt like a pipe dream at the time, but here we are now, and I’m extremely psyched to share this beautiful collection of songs with the world.
A ‘computer folk’ record exploring the use of texture, limitation and repetition, Could Divine takes its cue from post-minimalism, particularly from Eva Hesse and other women artists who pioneered the movement. Informed by Ana’s full control of the record-making process and the bedroom environment where it was created, the album is a deeply personal window into a protean creative mind – at times devastating, playful, mystical and earthbound, often in the space of a single track.
Watch the video for opening track 'Marching Parades' and pre-order on Bandcamp (any time) or Indiegogo (for the next 18 days, including limited perks such as signed LPs, handmade cassette infinite tape loops and more).
It's time! The new album by The Silver Field can now be heard in full wherever you choose to hear it. Bandcamp pre-orders are all shipped out, and I'm thrilled by the responses we've been getting to the record so far, including sweet words from The Quietus, NARC Magazine, The Demented Goddess and more. To everyone who's supported TSF and Crossness in any way over the last few months, you are all glorious babes, and you make it all possible.
With COVID-19 throwing a slight spanner in the works, the rest of the year may not shape up exactly how I'd planned, but I'll be back sooner rather than later to share news of what's next for Crossness. In the meantime, you can still hear me play floaty tunes on RTM every third Thursday at 9pm. Join me next week for the usual mix of recent discoveries and old favourites, including a second half with a special theme.
Hope everyone is safe and cared for, and see you on the other side.
I'm all lit up today to share with you the new single by The Silver Field, Salt Light. The second snapshot taken from new album Sing High! Sing Low!, Salt Light was an instant favourite of mine - a song that comforts, warms, and carries you in its tow. A song I find it impossible not to sing along to. I hope it buoys you up a little in these strange sequestered months - it certainly has for me.
In Coral's words: “I wrote this lyric and melody walking home from my studio while living back in the small Derbyshire town where I grew up. The recordings on this album span a good five years, but that’s the place where it really came together. My walk home took me past my old school, out through the fields, and up a big hill. Since I knew this area so well, I found that I could easily walk at night with no light, and it felt really magical and restorative – ‘taking in fear, laying down love, as I walk.’”
You can watch the lyric video for Salt Light here, download it from Bandcamp here, or if you pre-order the album in its entirety, you'll also receive first single Hearth Bite direct to your inbox. Instant gratification! There's nothing like it.
Today sees the announcement of the second official release on Crossness Records, Sing High! Sing Low! by The Silver Field. Setting sail today with hypnotic new single 'Hearth Bite', the album will be released on 12th June 2020, with LP and CD (swoon) copies now available to pre-order on Bandcamp.
The nine exploratory tracks on Sing High! Sing Low! combine to form an aural postcard - a collection of snapshots following the path of a journey. The story picks up where debut album Rooms left off, with a decisive stepping out into the world, and follows Coral Rose’s next steps, with one eye still trained on that starting point. It’s a journey well worth witnessing, and we’re hugely proud to act as its publisher.
In other news, we’ve been troubling the digital airwaves again on RTM this month, and The Silver Field’s UK tour starts next week. More plans are afoot for the warmer months (or as we call them in Thamesmead, gnat season), and we look forward to sharing them with you.
Wend your way down the estuary with me this Thursday 23rd January when I present an hour of aqueous tunes on Thamesmead's own RTM.fm. I'll be live from 8-9pm and available to listen back here afterwards. Then I'll be back again next month to do it all over again.
2020 has a lot in store for Crossness, starting with The Silver Field's upcoming tour in March. You can also check out a freshly sliced track from the band, 'Nomoon', which has just been shared as part of Infant Tree's lovely compilation I Don't Want To Be Dug Up From The Wet Earth Anymore.
Big thanks to everyone who has supported us so far, and hope to see you out on the road.
On 10th November 2019, new South London independent label Crossness Records proudly launches its website. They have also tentatively stepped out into the harrowing world of social media, with accounts newly opened on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Soundcloud.
The first official release on Crossness comes from our sister across the river, Coral Rose Kindred-Boothby aka The Silver Field, who presented her beautiful, scene-setting first album Rooms back in January 2019. Crossness now has two special limited formats of the album on offer via Bandcamp - a clear cassette tape and a CDr in a handmade sewn wallet. LPs come courtesy of the lovely and tasteful folks at O Genesis Recordings. There will be live dates in March 2020 across the UK, details of which will be revealed very soon.
For everything else, keep one ear to the foreshore.
