‘YCLYPT’ TRACKLISTING :
1. Apollo Winceleseia (I – II – III)
2. Song for Mourie
3. Na h-Òbaidhnean
4. Symbol of an Infinite Past
‘Yclypt’ is English composer/painter/poet Richard Moult’s second album release for Second Language and the latest in an ongoing series of music for strings after 2011’s ‘Celestial King for a Day.’ The pieces on ‘Yclypt’ were composed by the peripatetic Richard during a brief sojourn in the English Cotswolds before moving on to the Western Isles of Scotland. An album of compelling, pastoral tone-poems “dictated by trees, hedgerows and magpies”, Yclypt aims, in the composer’s words, “to create a book of sacred music for wanderers of the hills and roads, taking wordless communion in the lost religions of these Isles.”
The music on the album both recalls and pays homage to a peculiar kind of ‘English magic’ as enshrined in nature – a subject which has inspired much of Richard’s music during ten years spent living in the Shropshire countryside. In addition to the influence of the gently rolling Cotswolds, and just to add further psycho-geographic British Isles resonance, Yclypt is also shaped by time spent in numinous parts of East Sussex and by what Richard refers to as “special places” on the Northwest coastal mainland of Scotland.
The term Yclypt is Old English meaning ‘to embrace’. It is still associated with the ancient ‘Clipping of the Church’ ceremony, performed annually in the Cotswold village of Painswick, whereby local youngsters link hands around the ‘mother church’ and sing a hymn. The title, Richard explains, is really just a personal reference rather than some grand mystical/conceptual signpost, however. “I was living near Painswick at the time, and used to visit the churchyard while mixing the album… I felt that I was once again, briefly, embracing the magic of the English countryside.”
‘Yclypt’ came packaged as a CD album with skeleton leaves in a glassine envelope with booklet poem and postcard art by Richard Moult.
Second Language subscribers also received this label sampler with their purchase of ‘Yclypt’ – 39 minutes plus of music by 2L artists. Tracks 7-11 are exclusive to this compilation.
‘END OF A SEASON’ TRACKLISTING :
1. The Cloisters – The Lock Keeper
2. Richard Moult – Song For Mourie
3. Memory Drawings – Heptonstall
4. Mark Fry/The A Lords – Even The Sky Goes Blue
5. Directorsound – I Hunt Alone
6. Tyneham House – The Ragged Cat
7. Piano Magic – St Martin-in-the-Fields
8. Klima – Kourouma
9. Glen Johnson – Kurelek
10. The Home Current – Fyrfalden
11. Áine O’Dwyer – A Prayer Before Bedtime
SOLD OUT
Download/stream ‘The End Of A Season’ from the Second Language Bandcamp page here