We’ve been visiting Old Chapel Farm, near Llanidloes, since 2011 and its a special place for all of us. Fran and Kevin, who run the farm, have become friends, and people whose commitment to a way of living we have the utmost respect for. This is how they describe what they are trying to do:

At Old Chapel Farm we endeavour to live close to the land – growing our food, tending livestock, practising ancient crafts, living together, celebrating the seasons in their passing.

On our trip in 2018 my daughter Bea and I collected objects we found around the site and gathered them together in a straw bale hut suspended over a stream in a wooded valley which the farm’s owners made available for us to use. We recorded small performances with them, brushing, scraping and rubbing them to produce a wide range of intimate sounds. We also made field recordings around the site, including using a piano which had been exposed to the elements for some time.

Back in the studio in Brighton, I arranged the recorded sounds into a new work. I wanted to try and communicate some of the mystery and revelation I’ve experienced on my visits, and the connections I feel with the land and people I encounter when I visit the farm.

I’m pleased that Crónica agreed to release the work, and Miguel Carvalhais from the label did a brilliant job mastering it and making a sleeve. It will be released on May 11th as a limited edition cassette, and is available now on pre-order.

There’s more about the release on Crónica’s website

The Old Chapel Farm website