Thank you for reading Uncanny Landscapes. This time I've got another episode of the podcast; an interview with artist, illustrator, musician and label-boss Frances Castle. As you know, this is a free project, both newsletter and podcast. If you're able to support my work through a paid subscription - thank you!! I truly appreciate it. And if you're not, perhaps you can support by telling a friend (or two, or 100) about the Substack's free subscriptions and accompanying podcast.
As always, books, records and events ‘n’at here: https://linktr.ee/oldweirdalbion
Links:
Clay Pipe Music
Frances Castle Illustration
This episode includes several tracks from Clay Pipe releases, listed in order at the bottom of the page.
I simply can’t get enough of Frances Castle’s record label Clay Pipe Music. Artists such as Andrew Wasylyk, Vic Mars and Castle herself (as The Hardy Tree) as well as their label-siblings have made many of my favourite recordings of the past few years - records that cross lines between neo-classical composition and simple folk melodies; electronic and hauntological sounds and sublime atmospherics.
In this interview, Castle - the one-woman show behind Clay Pipe - talks about turning an experiment in sleeve design into one of the most beloved cult labels of modern Britain. She also dives into her own work as a musician, as The Hardy Tree, and as an illustrator working on books, a graphic novel and other materials both of her own and for hire.
To me, Clay Pipe is a great example of taking inspiration from the great place-based works of 20th-century Britain - artists from Ravilious and Nash to Shirley Collins and Vaughan Williams - and drawing out both the light of their love of the city and countryside, and the darkness of work made in transformative times. Clay Pipe produces albums which, through their music and artwork, invoke a truly uncanny picture of our landscapes, offering a picturesque vision of place that simultaneously asks, ‘what lies just outside the frame?’
Music in this episode, all available from Clay Pipe Music’s Greedbag:
A Confluence by Andrew Wasylyk
Walter R Stokes by The Hardy Tree
Saxon Chapel by Tyneham House
Broken Circle by Zyggurat
Adlestrop by Gilroy Mere
Sun Caught Cloud like the Belly of a Cat by Andrew Wasylyk
The Spire of St Mary's by The Hardy tree
Face in the Window, Seaforth Crescent by The Hardy Tree
Stagdale in the Snow by The Hardy Tree
Holloways by Vic Mars
Uncanny Landscapes podcast: Clay Pipe Music