Wednesday, February 16, 2022

A folk album inspired by Richard Jefferies' After London

Folk Radio reports a forthcoming album from the Brighton folk group Bird in the Billy:

In 1885 the nature writer Richard Jefferies published one of the strangest and most visionary novels in the whole of English literature. After London or Wild England was an early experiment in science fiction and perhaps the first example of what we might call an ecological apocalypse ever committed to the page, a lyrical depiction of a mysteriously depopulated country in which the monolithic edifices of the industrial revolution quickly return to nature and London is covered by stagnant water.

Brighton-based folk group Bird In The Belly (singer Ben ‘Jinnwoo’ Webb, Laura Ward on flute and vocals, guitarist and percussionist Adam Ronchetti and multi-instrumentalist Tom Pryor) have created a concept album that provides a kind of musical prequel or backstory to the novel, a creation myth for a future world, combining new lyrics with old ballads and poems as well as songs based on passages from the novel.

After the City will be issued by GF*M Records (GFM0013) on 25 February 2022. A launch event takes place on Saturday 26 February at The Harrison, King's Cross, London WC1H 8JFfrom 7.30pm.

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