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<< Books/Products >> Win a Limited Edition of the geo-questing album Skylark by Jonathon Heron

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 20 October 2017  Page Views: 2482

ReviewsCountry: England County: Cornwall
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Skylark by Jonathon Heron
Skylark by Jonathon Heron submitted by Andy B : Read the Review here (Vote or comment on this photo)
Win one of a very limited edition of the geo-questing new album Skylark by Jonathon Heron, each with different custom artwork and booklets. Jonathon's music is deeply rooted in the landscape and appreciation of ancient places, I've reviewed the album track by track, tied in with links to some of the key locations

Jonathon - who is perhaps better known in psych-rock circles as his alter ego Darkships - wanted to support our work by offering some of his own, and we were very happy to accept - barter being such an ancient form of trade of course.

So we have limited edition CDs, prints and art booklets from the new album for you to enjoy - some versions now sold out I think. In real money it's about £80 worth of stuff so don't look a gift horse (hungry pony?) in the mouth.

If you would like to win one please see the bottom of this page - the first of two competitions on the Megalithic Portal this month - exciting!

Jonathon writes: I am a practicer of phenomenology and landscape interpretation - Skylark focuses on Craddock Moor, which is part of Bodmin Moor (Cornwall). I am interested in giving identities and significance to features in the landscape. We are the landscape, energy contained within our physical outline. As flicker of light on a mountainside, between two eternities. The wilderness isn’t a place to be afraid of. It is freedom. A place for magic and enchantment. Enter the wilderness to find yourself.

I have imprinted my own layer on the landscape of the moor. My narrative. Walked the paths. Visited and returned to places described here. Sat and watched the ebb and flow of cloud and light. Location as trigger. Sat with “ghosts” of 1000s. Their own moment of light. Granite worn smooth with the touch of hand or lanolin stained from the scratch itch relief of animals.

So what is it all about? Here's my review:

Psychedelic acoustic shoegaze spacerock - no none of these limited labels seems quite right - this is pretty unique stuff. I'll take you through the tracks with my thoughts, and Jonathon's as well.

Theme for to the Wilderness
AB: Sets the scene with a good bit of 70s woo woo synth grooove and doubletracked guitar. On a subsequent listen I felt this would work better later on in the running order as I want to get on to the story. Which is coming next:

Heron Pool AB: A tone of intrigue (or is that a ton of intrigue?) - bright sounding multi-layered acoustic guitars - don't sleep by the pool!
JH: The strong south westerly wind compressed all surface matter, living or otherwise, towards the eastern shore of the pool. It sent the living to seek shelter within the water crows foot that grew at the margins. The only free standing water in the local area. A focus point. Read More
Location: About 40m from Craddock Moor embanked avenue
Heron Pool (N50°31.337' W4°28.674') = SX 2445 7210

Skylark
AB: As billed, very pleasant skylark birdsong with phasey looped synth - birding binoculars at the ready! (and that's not a bad pun - skylarks don't have bills they have beaks)

The other path
AB: Jolly electric piano groove, mellow guitar - a bit much voice reverb - I would have preferred more of an outdoor feel - 'I can't help wondering where the other path would lead me' - profound

Conversation with a pony at Caradon Circle
AB: The story of a hungry abandoned pony - playful and jolly, but the mood changes abruptly like the weather on a windy moor into...

Because of the Sun
AB: 'We are where we are because of the sun' - well indeed - what can I add to that.
Location: Craddock Moor circle (N50°31.205' W4° 28.304') = SX 2488 7184

Again a mood change into Hill of Swallows - lots of interest here.
JH: Supernatural stones and places create mythology that I think ultimately protects wildness areas by naming them and giving them value. There are indeed faces in the rocks around Sharp Tor, its orientation north east south west and proximity to Stowe hill must have made it significant to the locals. It's an excellent summer solstice location too.
Faces on Sharp tor (N50°32.222' W4°27.411') = SX 2599 7369

Solution Pool
AB: JH has introduced me to the wonders of solution pools - can you literally search for solutions?

JH says: Solution pools, or basins, are formed on the tallest rock outcrops on the moor, a product of normal erosion on the hardest granite. Small indentations become progressively bigger as the granite dissolves over thousands of years, quartz crystals form a layer at the bottom of the hollow. Christopher Tilly (See Ref) asserted that these basins, eroded into each other, interconnected, must have been seen as works of “antiquity” by Neolithic cultures. Ian Cooke considers the central holed stone at Men-an- tol is almost certainly a repositioned Tor top stone, the hole being an eroded through solution pool. (See Ref)
​Sharp Tor solution pool (N50°32.226' W4°27.474') = SX 2592 7370

Lament
AB: A dark, deep guitar lament - ends on a note of despair (Extra track on CD)

Cut me down
AB: I was wondering if I should I give the story away but the song title rather does - 'Cut me down' leads on to 'lay my body on the stone' - and another wild mood change half way though to hit you with a double-Hendrix psychedelic wall and very nice layered guitar work. Julian Cope fans should appreciate this one too. As the mood lifts do I interpret this to be just resting not dying - or is the mood lift the lift into the afterlife? It's all getting a bit much for your humble reviewer

Gold Diggin's
AB: very bleak and again I didn't follow the story fully. Lovely intricately finger picked guitar parts with unusual interactions between instruments

4 Tree Grove
AB: Ambient with drones and bubbling - yes I was getting bubbling - I like it
JH: Four Hawthorns in a grove. A rare haven.
(N50°31.447' W4°28.523') = SX 2463 7230
Read More

I am landscape
AB: More wooo wooo 70s influences - feels circular like a lot of this album - head spinny

Pools of light
AB: Comes in like a catchy 'single' style acoustic track but 20 seconds in dissolves to swirling guitar and synth which remains for the rest of the track - you're playing with my head Jonathon!
(N50°31.576'; W4°28.638') = SX 2451 7254

Pic (Left): Bronn Wennili ( Hill of swallows) hvélsveg himins – swallower of the wheel of heaven [the sun] lino print

Land of the Living
AB: Back to stripped guitar and vocal which builds with fuzzy and intertwining guitar parts - Like it
JH: ​Embanked avenue: (N50°31.329' W4°28.739') = SX 2437272087

Theme from my Pagan Head
AB: Lots of intertwining guitars and buzzy synth - mmmm

(The following are Extra tracks on CD)

What lives under Stone 23?
AB: Immediate set up with a pan-dimensional rabbit guarding this stone - JH is aware of the strangeness but the strangeness carries on regardless - the rabbit says "get out of my home"
JH: People who visit this place are committed. This isn’t an easy find - no visitor’s car park, no 50-yard walk – this is a tricky spot. As usual though as soon as you see a couple of stones in the row, it is obvious that it was on purpose. Read More
(N50°31.405' W4° 28.997') = SX 2407 7224 approx
Part of Craddock Moor stone row

I am the Wilderness
AB: Circular vocoder style vocalisation - going a bit acid - help!
JH: As I get older, I spend more time on the moor. I like the space. I like the clarity and the familiarity. It’s a head state. Awareness of the weather, visibility, shadows and the saturation of colour. I return to it when I need to as we will all return to the landscape eventually.

Stride Out
AB: The Skylark is back but seems to be sounding an alarm - guitars going a bit Mogwai, then going for take-off - beam me up!

Summing up: All in all I found the circularity starting to mess with my head - I feel it could work as two albums - a more acoustic storytelling one and a moody droney one. Combining these two into one truly confounds your expectations and makes for something unique and rather unsettling. Perhaps not JH's style but I would like to hear more naturalistic outdoor recording in a future geo-tied release.

If you like Julian Cope's music I think you will like this - not to suggest over-similarity - there's plenty of psychedelic water between JC and JH. Other echoes were to me of a more acoustic and stripped back tripped out Mogwai or Ride - 'for fans of' as your average music mag might say.

Find out more at Wishing Chair Records

Listen/Download: Bandcamp

Ref: Christopher Tilley (2010) Interpreting Landscapes - Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology 3
Ref: Ian McNeil Cooke (1996) Journey to the Stones

If you would like the chance of winning a Limited Edition copy of Skylark by Jonathon Heron - please say if you are a TMP contributory member as there is priority for members - but as we have five slightly different variants all with CDs and artwork to give away you are in with a good chance either way.

We have to ask a question so it's not a prize draw or something - so please answer this question: Which moor is Jonathon Heron exploring? Email Andy B at andy@megalithic.co.uk
Closing Date: End of 22nd October 2017

More on Solution Pools soon, and another competition before the end of the month...

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Re: Win a Limited Editon of the geo-questing album Skylark by Jonathon Heron by Blingo_von_Trumpenstein on Saturday, 14 October 2017
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...a double Hendrix...the ultimate axe?
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