Virginia Astley

man this album is making me seriously anticipate spring

on an english farm in the spring

I thought all britishers lived on farms? at least that's the impression I got from all creatures great and small

I meant to link the blog post below here when I first stumbled across it. Oh well, better late than never.

http://fruitierthanthou.blogspot.com/2007/11/ravishing-beauties-john-peel-session.html

(NB - check the comments also)

this is the aforementioned some bizarre comp, va track was called "waiting to fall"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Ifyoucantalbum.png

Virginia Astley = 100% classic, though. Sad to say, almost nothing by her is available anymore which is a fucker, because she made some of the most beautiful music ever. "From Gardens Where etc" is a lovely pastoral instrumental type thing, but my favourites are the 7" "Love's a Lonely Place to Be" and this comp on disques du crepescule which hads a bunch of her early stuff, incl "A Bau a qu" & some other stuff. I'm getting the chills just thinking about the music contained therein. I wish they'd do a good fucking CD reissue programme of her material for fuxake, I mean you can get nearly all of shirley collin's stuff now, and she's totally obscure. Her music is up there w/popol vuh, s & d collins, dead can dance, 11 shadows, & all that sort of spiritual-beauty type stuff. Having said that the album she did on Virgin, w/guest vocals by dave sylvian (who fuxing WISHES he had 1/10 the musical poetry of VA) was a little overcooked IIRC.

Pash 100% OTM upthread

didn't she do Spring is Grey with Vic Godard?

i only know 'from gardens where we feel secure' and it's really special....hearing her sing is like woah! love that song rionat posted.

jabba OTM.

I just wish i haden't sold "Hope in a darkened Heart" her duet with Sylvian was grebt.

thanks for bumping this thread rionat, been listening on repeat since ;)

"From Gardens" was the intro music at my wedding! Wonder if I was supposed to pay a royalty for that?

def a "the kick inside" influence. more pastoral, less fantastical. like sunlight through a farm window in the english country.

― sir ilx-a-lot (cutty), Tuesday, February 2, 2010 5:54 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

lol if an english poster posted this they'd get given a kicking by their countryfolk (by which i mean townfolk). we have a fucked up country.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/nechronical/oct2009/6/2/image-1-for-gallery-viz-comic-celebrates-30th-birthday-214754786.jpg

<3 <3 <3

yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUy_OpIpOs

<3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erFnyRhEDCQ

i love the way sylvian's voice contrasts with hers and rubs up against the music (produced by ryuichi sakamoto!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3Onw0SMtuI

also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdaK2djnYHI

The debut sounds pretty swell in a post-election haze.

Yeah we listened to that earlier this week

i just created a sample bank using the first track from 'gardens' and pitched them down and im making a slow jam out of this, it is so beautiful

And she's on Bandcamp now

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/

Cor, I was at that Riverside Studios show that’s on Bandcamp

Thanks for the heads up. I must have listened to "Hope In A Darkened Heart" a hundred times over the years. My copy is a white label without a sleeve (it was dirt cheap and I was poor) so somehow I never knew until now that it was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto, even though now having that information it is glaringly apparent.

Very!

I just bumped the Sakamoto thread for Hope in a Darkened Heart. Really odd, peculiar record that I think anyone who is interested in that era of Ryuichi shouldn’t overlook.

There are some older posts on her FB that detail the process of making that record.

Oh good call -- there are actually a bunch of fairly recent posts describing the sessions.

Here's a B-side that a Facebook-er says John Foxx was a big champion of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67jA6xHFODQ

Thank you to everybody who made purchases last Friday (and any other day!!) and for your continued support.
Hope to put up something new very soon
VA xxx

Simon Reynolds review of IGWWFS on Pitchfork.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/virginia-astley-from-gardens-where-we-feel-secure/

Sent just now via Bandcamp message:

With great excitement and anticipation I can share the digital release of my 1996 album HAD I THE HEAVENS, an album very dear to my heart.
It will be released digital only this coming Friday to take advantage of Bandcamp's very kind offer to waive commission for a 24 hour period
I will make this album at 8am on this coming Friday morning
With great appreciation of your continued support in these trying times

:DDDD

New album!

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-newton-ecliptic

!!!!!

aw yeah

I was... not expecting a spoken-word delivery on all of these songs

great news. been listening a lot to her this year, but didn't make the connection until the other day that she plays on a record I very much love, Anne Clark's Joined Up Writing (Clark has had some amazing collaborators: John Foxx, Vini Reilly, Patrik Fitzgerald, David Harrow...).

listening to 'Hope In a Darkened Heart' for the first time... wow

"Darkness has reached its end" is a hymn. I'm gonna play it all Christmas.

Listed with an apostrophe on Spotify which is detracting from its simple beauty.

Infuriating.

Listening to her second record makes me realize how much her voice sounds like a boy soprano.

New album!

https://virginiaastley.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-newton-ecliptic

― Ned Raggett, Friday, March 5, 2021 12:57 AM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Missed this at the time...afaik the two new albums are all material from 2006-07. Both originally sold only online but unavailable for donkeys years, so I'm glad she's finally made them available again.

A new note from Ms. A:

Bandcamp Friday has come round again and thank you to everyone for supporting me. I am up in the Highlands of Scotland visiting my lovely friend Martin Stephenson so apologies if I’m a few days late getting orders sent out. It’s beautiful up here and I hope to get some writing done while I’m here!
This month there will be an interview with Andy Beta being published on Bandcamp!

i love that this is on her bandcamp description:

Finally the manifestation of the cult classic 'From Gardens Where We Feel Secure'
Every household should have this record, every age and every culture
It is one of the most unique and visionary recordings ever to be released
Quintessential English and pioneering New Age
This is why Gini ended up working with high level artists, because she too is high level, and a true artist

And that interview with Andy Beta she mentioned is live

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/virginia-astley-discography

this is a couple of years old but I thought this was good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu4K9FFeoQg

"Magnitude of Love" from Sondre Lerche's new double album is a rather, uhm, direct homage to "Some Small Hope".

(The song is also mentioned repeatedly in a bonus track I've not heard.)