Rowan : Morrison set to release a limited two-disc edition of In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses
18th November 2022
Rowan : Morrison (the chosen moniker of the musical collaboration
between The Rowan Amber Mill (Stephen Stannard) and Angeline Morrison.
2022 have separately been very busy this year. Stephen has two albums released (one
as part of the pysch folksters Meadowsilver, the other the English Civil
War themed album by The Rowan Amber Mill, and is currently in the middle
of recording a brand new album. Angeline has released two albums (The
Borwn Girl and Sorrow Songs) which have both been garnering rave
reviews, she has appeared at numerous festivals, been interviewed and
performed on BBC radio 2, 3 and 6, her recent album is included in MOJO
magazine's Top 10 Folk Albums of the Year list. She also made her
national TV debut on Later with Jools Holland.
As a busy year draws to a close, Rowan : Morrison have been working on a very special re-release of their critically lauded 2019 album
In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses.
This expanded re-release is avaiable from 18th November 2022, ahead of its release date of 2nd December 2022. The special release will fature re-worked artwork and include the original album, plus
a 79 minute bonus disc which includes live tracks from their Woolf II Festival appearance, plus previously unreleased and rare unavaiable versions of songs. The Standard
Edition digipack release will include an eight page lyric booklet. The Deluxe Edition digipack includes the eight page lyric booklet alongside an A4 poster, three prints,
art stickers, three art cards and two metal badges, all of which are housed in a very special screen printed artisan bag.
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.
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!
