The first edition of the Isobel Gowdie project: a full 8" square 16-page booklet of artwork and lyrics, plus a cd of the album. This concept album is a collaboration between artist Julia Jeffrey and Gillian Chadwick of Ex Reverie. Working closely together for years, Gillian wrote songs and Julia created full-scale paintings inspired by the legendary confessions of Isobel Gowdie. Put on trial for witchcraft in 1662, Isobel's testimonies are infamous and as powerful today as they have ever been.
Recorded with a version of Ex Reverie composed of some of Glasgow's finest musicians (members of Big Hogg, The Hidden Masters, Trembling Bells, and Trashcan Sinatras) on location in an old mill building in the shadow of castle ruins in Strathaven, Scotland, the album takes a heavy psychedelic trip through the world of a defiant witch. Full of powerful freedom and gleeful malice, Isobel's story is one of raw sexual and magical energy. A woman under heavy societal and religious restrictions, Isobel chose the act of total rebellion in the face of danger and judgement. A complicated and inspiring heroine for our times.
Includes unlimited streaming of Isobel Gowdie
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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lyrics
Wild are the winds combing the grass outside my window
I watch them through panes of heavy glass
still as a widow
Once I would run, fleet as the hare
through hawk or howl
Now I sit and sew, while the winds blow
condemned to watch
My father gave my hand to a godly man
as stern and cold as the stone
as old as him
Once all the men of our town would smile to see
my red hair free
in flight and free
Wild are the winds combing the grass outside my window
Today is the one day of the year I have leave to go
Margaret and I set upon the path
Sun high and bright
A figure stands before us on the road
And crows take flight
Yes I was walking to the fair
When I came upon a strange man there
He was dark of dress and dark of hair
Offered a hand
Offered his hand
Now I go in the Devil’s name
But I will return again
Now I go in the Devil’s name
But I will remain Isobel
Set your controls for the heart of the next closest sun that you can find. This is the soundtrack for transfiguration, divination and disintegration. You will absolutely lose yourself in this psychedelic eddy of drones, swoops, and other-worldly glister. Aurora Borealis is highly redolent of the closing credits for the classic TV show UFO, full of foreboding and a bubbling under the surface menace Paul Sands