The Rowan Amber Mill are a band playing music loosely termed woodland folkadelica. That is as close as they can get to describing their music. Since their formation in 2007, they have made music that ranges from the "Wicker Man-esque" celebration of Midsummer, through some contemporary electric and medieval weird folkery, onto woodland folk takes on seasonal tunes, and then to folk horror tunes enfused with a generous a hint of mid-1970s pastoral Radiophonicary. To date they have released three mini-albums, two albums and have also appeared on numerous compilation albums.
The Rowan Amber Mill was formed in 2007 by Stephen Stannard, being joined later by Terry Stacey and Kim Guy. Together they recorded folk devils and moral panics (2008) and Midsummers (2009) mini albums. They were joined in 2010 by Sharon Eastwood for the album Heartwood. The Rowan Amber Mill returned to being Stephen's solo project in 2011, with Stephen embarking on a series of of collaborations with other artists.
In 2013, Emily Jones and The Rowan Amber Mill collaborated on the well received folk-horror inspired collection The Book of the Lost .
In 2014, Angeline Morrison and The Rowan Amber Mill released a collection of new and traditional winter folk tunes and carols on Silent Night Songs for a Cold Winter's Evening. They also contributed a track to the Songs from the Black Meadow"" album.
In 2015 The Rowan Amber Mill contributed a song to the Delaware Road album released on the Buried Treasure label.
2016 saw The Rowan Amber Mill release a series of new songs on three A Year in the Country compilation albums The Quietened Village, Fractures, and The Forest / The Wald.
2017 saw The Rowan Amber Mill continue to work on three entirely new albums, and new songs featuring on a couple of compilation albums due for release in 2018.
2018 saw the release of The Rowan Amber MillHarvest the Ears - volume one of their folk horror archive.
Also their debut CD under their analogue synthesizer alter-egos Making Tea for
Robots. Also, finally releasing their long-promised project under the moniker
Rowan : Morrison.
2019 saw The Rowan Amber Mill continue to work on three new albums, plus
some very exciting collaborations.
2020 saw The Rowan Amber Mill release a mini album Among the Gorse to Settle Scores
and and album of traditional songs - Golden Strings to tether the Sun.
2021 saw The Rowan Amber Mill release the double soundtrack
album Disciples of the Scorpion.
2022 saw The Rowan Amber Mill release the
album Through Dark Polished Glass.
Reviews
"Romantic folk narratives with a dark-woods chill of pastoral melancholy". - Mojo magazine.
"The Rowan Amber Mill and their album Heartwood come across like a British version of first album-era Espers - all melodious vocals, earthly splendor and quiet grace." - Shinding magazine.
"The Book of the Lost spools out among the most intriguing, intense and, most of all, alluring CDs you’ll hear all year". - Goldmine magazine.
"I haven't heard anything so evocative of a golden era of leftfield British films and music, even down to the Oliver Postgate-style narration. If you didn't know any different, you'd be adamant this is a lost soundtrack from a cult classic. Utterly brilliant, it deserves a huge audience." - Lee Trewhela, The Western Morning News.
If you want to keep up with all the minutiae of what the Rowan Amber Mill are getting up to, then why not check them out on their FaceBook, Twitter or Instagram presences. At these places, they regularly reveal their internal monologues, musings, recommendations and quite a lot of photos of trees. Why not pop over and say hello!
