In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses (Two Disc re-release) by Rowan : Morrison (The Rowan Amber
Mill and Angeline Morrison)
Pre orders available direct from Rowan : Morrison Bandcamp
from 18th November 2022.
CD general release: 2nd December 2022.
Formats: Deluxe Two Disc Edition. Digipack, Two CD-rs,
A4 poster, three art cards, two metal badges,
eight page booklet including lyrics and liner notes, and four art stickers
all housed in a hand screen-printed bag.
Download. Purchases available from Bandcamp.
Track listing (Disc 1): 1. The Buzzard and the Nightingale
2. Maid of Chalk Hill 3. The Cold Stones (Circle Around) 4. These
are Golden Days 5. We Rode the Horses 6. On Ridgeway Fields / Sumer Is a
Cumen 7. Gather Around 8. Middle Acre 9. An Ending Just Begun 10. One
Place Forever 11. Hawks and Sparrows 12. The Meadow's Call (Ridgeway)
13. Overton Hill 14. Long Lost Fields 15. Valley Song 16. Fall to Sleep
17. At the Circles End pts I,II (Unspoken)
Track listing (Bonus Disc): 1. The Buzzard and the Nightingale (Live)
2. We Rode the Horses (Live) 3. The Hunter (Live) 4. Gather Around (Live)
5. The Fat Lady Sings (Live) 6. The Meadow's Call (Live) 7. The Cold
Stones (Live) 8. Bushes and Briars (Live) 9.Blood and Bones 10. Sumer is
a Cumen In (Live) 11. Long Lost Fields (acoustic mix) 12. Hawks and
Sparrows (a capella mix)
13. The Buzzard and the Nightingale (instrumental mix 2022) 14. We Rode
the Horses (live demo) 15. Maid of Chalk Hill (acoustic mix) 16. The
Hunter (live demo) 17.The Buzzard and the Nightingale (a capella
Timeslip mix) 18. The Meadow's Call (2018 remaster) 19. At the Circles
End pts I,II (Spoken)
_____________________________________________________________
In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses (Original release) by Rowan : Morrison (The Rowan Amber
Mill and Angeline Morrison)
Pre orders available direct from MillerSounds Bandcamp
from 24th November 2018. (Now sold out)
CD general release: 1st January 2019. Digital release:
30th January 2019. (Now Sold out)
Format: Deluxe CD Edition. Three prints, three metal badges,
6 panel booklet including lyrics and liner notes, a sticker and retro vinyl CD-r,
all housed in a deluxe metal tin.
Purchases of the CD from Bandcamp also includes immediate digital download option. Download available from MillerSounds Bandcamp.
Track listing: 1. The Buzzard and the Nightingale
2. Maid of Chalk Hill 3. The Cold Stones (Circle Around) 4. These
are Golden Days 5. We Rode the Horses 6. On Ridgeway Fields / Sumer Is a
Cumen 7. Gather Around 8. Middle Acre 9. An Ending Just Begun 10. One
Place Forever 11. Hawks and Sparrows 12. The Meadow's Call (Ridgeway)
13. Overton Hill 14. Long Lost Fields 15. Valley Song 16. Fall to Sleep
17. At the Circles End pts I,II (Unspoken)
"Following on from their 'Bury the Forests' e.p. comes the 17 track,
70 minute debut
album by Rowan :
Morrison (the musical collaboration of The Rowan Amber Mill and
Angeline Morrison) called 'In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses'. Written and recorded over a number of years, the e.p. and album explore the real and
imagined history of the areas surrounding The Ridgeway ancient path (taking in
Avebury, Silbury Hill, Stonehenge, Uffington WHite Horse etc). It especially
focuses in on the conflict between man, his machinery and the ancient landscape.
An allegorical tale warning of those "who know the cost of everything and yet
the value of nothing."
Other CDs are available to buy in the MillerSounds Store and Bandcamp, as well as all the usual online places Amazon, iTunes, CDbaby etc.
Reviews
Review by Shindig Magazine. "****/5. Rowan Morrison is the combined talents of Stephen Stannard
(The Rowan Amber Mill) and Angeline Morrison (We Are Muffy). It's also
the name of the missing girl from The Wicker Man, and whilst this isn't
explicitly referred to, that film's theme of the revenge of the old ways
underpins this album. It's an epic meditation on ideas that the pagan
folk genre often hints at, but has rarely articulated as fulsomely as
this, a rising up of nature against the modern age of property
development and fracking. As you'd expect, a key influence throughout is
the folk revival sounds of the early 70s, with plentiful dulcimer, flute
and accoustic guitar. Orchestral interludes in the English pastoral
tradition also add colour, and Morrison plays the maiden-child role
perfectly. Highlights include the beautiful melancholy of On Ridgeway
Fields, the spooky synth augmented An Ending Just Begun and the
yearning, Broadcast-ish The Meadow's Call. "
Joe Banks, Shindig! Magazine.
Review by RnR! magazine - "****/5. "With any album the music is more important than the packaging, but sometimes the packaging is so good it just has to be mentioned. The CD version of this album comes in a small metal tin no less, with three badges, a sticker, three prints and a lyric booklet on very high quality paper. It's a real object of desire for the music collector.
The music therein is made by The Rowan Amber Mill and Angeline Morrison, the former alt-folk veterans of more than a decade, the latter the producer of solo albums and band collaborator in the same vein for a similar period. It's a concept piece set along the Ridgeway that concerns itself with the despoiling of the earth by man and the eventual fightback of nature and
the consequences of that.
It's as ambitious as the packaging and as successful, with vaulting orchestrations, hypnotic vocals, and powerful words richly evoking the natural world and its beauty. It draws the listener in and envelopes them in its world and with its pastoral feel and quiet grandeur In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses recalls nothing so much as Vaughan Williams's mighty oeuvre. A timely emotive and powerful work. "
Jeremy Searle, RnR magazine.
"There’s a new album from Rowan Amber Mill, a one-man project from the depths of the English wyrd folk canon, united here
with singer Angeline Morrison as, very sensibly, Rowan: Morrison. And while In The Sunshine, We Rode Horses (MillerSounds) is,
sadly, CD-only, it comes exquisitely packaged in a tin stuffed with prints, buttons and a sticker, and the disc itself is what
we call a vinyl replica, so that’s alright then. Over an hour of music draws you into a world of dark wood, dappled sunlight,
ancient monuments and forgotten traditions, haunted harmonies and a gentle stillness that utterly belies the sense of
shifting shadows and flickering movement that hangs around the headphones. For this is an album for playing in solitude,
losing yourself in the lyrics’ journey along one of England’s ancient trackways, distracted from the distractions of the world
around you. Musically, it’s largely acoustic (of course) and astonishingly melodic, even if the tunes do initially hide
themselves away… the Third Ear Band come to mind in places, Trees and Pentangle too. Conceptually, however, it’s the
soundtrack to the world that we lose every time another mound of modernity is given permission to sweep away a piece of the
past. And, when it finishes and you come back to earth, you wonder why albums this spellbinding are still leaking out on
small boutique labels, when it ought to be sung from the rooftops." Dave Thompson, Goldmine Magazine.
"..... It’s a shame that as a self-released album coming so late in the year that this will miss so many of the best-of lists but then this is a beautifully packaged yet somehow understated album destined, it seems, for “lost classic” status, to be rediscovered and cherished by generations of pilgrims on the old straight track. Somehow we think they would approve."
Ian Fraser, Terrascope Magazine.
Read full review.
"In The Sunshine We Rode The Horses is an ambitious and necessarily thought-provoking work and makes an important and powerful statement that proves both irresistible and cumulatively convincing."
Folk Radio.
Read full review.
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