Between The Fool And The Magician, by Crooked Mouth

Between The Fool And The Magician

by Crooked Mouth

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Pro duplicated and printed gold-shell cassette with full-color J-card in clear cases.

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1.	Between the Fool and the Magician 03:52	buy track
2.	Repine in Soporific Fields 04:56	buy track
3.	Guardian of the Threshold 05:02	buy track
4.	Black Madonna At the Gate of Dawn 05:50	buy track
5.	They Speak to Us 04:28	buy track
6.	Raganų Ratilai 03:43	buy track
7.	Arms of the Mountain 06:54	buy track
8.	The May Queens Radiant Astral Light 03:54	buy track
9.	Sunrise 02:37	buy track

about

We’re once again thrilled to be partnering with Crooked Mouth to release their new album, Between The Fool & The Magician, on cassette March 3 🃏🧙‍♂️
Ian Campbell is joined by an eclectic and international group of guests for this brand new dark folk full-length, featuring traditional Baltic instrumentation and wildnerness-inspired melodies of western Canada 🏔️
“As the sun sets on a European city, an alchemical process begins to take place in the space of one night. A threshold is passed under a city gate, the Blackened Mother appears, an outer journey turns inward … and then spirals outward again.”
Listen to “Black Madonna At the Gate of Dawn” & preorder the digital album & beautiful self-produced LP now at crookedmouthcampbell.bandcamp.com ✨

In January 2022, Crooked Mouth (the neofolk moniker of Canadian musician Ian Campbell) upended his life and moved across the globe to Lithuania. This was a culminating step in a long search for creative freedom and a love affair with the Baltic world that started years before. Campbell took with him a collection of unfinished songs intended for his next release, and with the help of a cast of artists met during his travels, he has finally brought it to full manifestation. The result is “Between The Fool & The Magician,” an album treading a thin middle path, ruminating about questions with no answers, and answers to questions you didn’t ask.

Campbell presents his well-known eclectic folk style, honed and imported from the mountains and coastal forests of Western Canada, in a contemporary old-world context. Guitar and voice are ambitiously aided by a myriad of instruments including accordion, harmonium, shruti box, melodium, kanklės, jaw-harp, even a birch vanta (a bushel of birch leaves used in a traditional sauna). The narrative twists between anthemic expressions of gruelling outer circumstances represented by a hard stone city (Between The Fool & The Magician, Black Madonna at the Gate of Dawn), and contrasts these with pastoral ballads representing a secret inner world serving as a refuge from outer turmoil (Repine in Soporific Fields, They Speak to Us). With an added dose of psychedelic misrule, these deep introspections find balance and levity through the freedom only found in joyous chaos. As the sun sets on a European city, an alchemical process begins to take place in the space of one night. A threshold is passed under a city gate, the Blackened Mother appears, an outer journey turns inward … and then spirals outward again.

Joining Crooked Mouth on this journey is a cast of international wyrd-folk characters. Foremost is English expat Adam Ormes, a kindred spirit also seeking transformation in strange lands. Ormes lends his hands to percussion, mostly on a trusty shamanic drum and a variety of atmospheric and sacred percussive instruments. His voice can be heard on backing vocals and orating the immolating track Guardian of the Threshold. Swiss-Canadian Æmber adds layers of resonant cello and her voice to tracks recorded earlier in Canada and carried over the sea. German neofolk legend ART ABSCONs contributes a swirling, psychedelic guitar solo to the track Black Madonna at the Gate of Dawn and a recitation of Rudolf Steiner’s words on the closing track, Sunrise. The band is also joined by two names well-known in the Lithuanian folk-milieu. The first is Agota Zdanavičiūtė, also of SEN SVAJA, and a rising star as a solo artist in her home city of Vilnius, working to popularize the kanklės, a traditional instrument of Lithuania and the wider Baltic region. The second is Virginija Pievos, veteran of the Lithuanian folk-rock group PIEVOS and now a solo-recording artist in her own right. Virginija and Ian struck up a fast friendship, and despite having to communicate through translators, have played several concerts together. Virginija plays flute, a traditional recorder from her region called a lumzdėlis, and hurdy-gurdy.

Crafted by the band’s new label, Ætheric Recordings, the LP version will come with several extra elements for a full sensory experience. Including a unique hand-made incense called Guardian of the Threshold, recommended to be burned during the playing of the album.

credits

released March 3, 2023

Ian Campbell
Adam Ormes
Æmber
ART ABSCONs
Virginija Pievos
Agota Zdanavičiūtė

Mixed and mastered by Nathaniel Ritter

Bandcamp: crookedmouthcampbell.bandcamp.com
Instagram: instagram.com/crookedmouthfolk
Facebook: facebook.com/crookedmouthcampbell

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Fiadh Productions New York, New York

𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔬𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔦𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔡, 𝔡𝔞𝔯𝔨 & 𝔢𝔫𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 🌲 𝔰𝔲𝔭𝔭𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔪𝔞𝔩 𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔠𝔲𝔢, 𝔯𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔰 & 𝔴𝔢𝔩𝔣𝔞𝔯𝔢 🐾
𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒻𝒶𝓈𝒸𝒾𝓈𝓉, 𝓋𝑒𝑔𝒶𝓃, 𝒻𝑒𝓂𝒶𝓁𝑒-𝓇𝓊𝓃✨ 𝔣𝔦𝔞𝔡𝔥𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔡𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰@𝔤𝔪𝔞𝔦𝔩.𝔠𝔬𝔪

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