Video Premiere: Bridget Hayden and the Apparitions – Lovely on the Water (from Cold Blows the Rain)

Those of you familiar with Folklore Tapes and their ongoing explorations of the native arcana of Britain and beyond may already be familiar with it Bridget Hayden and her more experimental work. your new album, Cold blows the rainShe is a completely different beast when it comes to her singing at the center of the booming accompaniment of The apparitions while singing traditional folk songs that she has known all her life.

The newly interpreted traditional folk songs will be presented Cold blows the rain are shaped by the country and the weather. Shrouded in mist and drizzle, the creeping drone of low, heavy clouds over lowland moors, the sound of the dark soil of the Calder Valley and the sun-starved hills of West Yorkshire in northern England. It is fitting that our introduction to this album is the traditional ballad, Nice on the waterwhich AL Lloyd once described as beginning like a sunny day that turns cloudy¹. The accompanying video features footage from Films of Britain – British Council Film Division Catalog – 1940 – 1943, highlighting the timeless quality of Hayden’s remarkable voice.

Since the album remains local, it has also found a home on the Todmorden label Basin rocks (Jim Ghedi, Michael Chapman, June Habel, Trevor Beales).

Cold blows the rain will be released on January 10, 2025 and will be available Pre-order today on Digital/CD/Vinyl via Bandcamp and Basin Rock.

In Todmorden, the West Yorkshire market border town with the strange name and habit of enjoying the strange and wonderful, a ray of sunshine is a precious thing. Even in the depths of winter and at any time of the year, the city’s residents are used to wind and rain, fog and haze. As much a part of the city as the characteristic deep valley in which it lies, the landscape here invites the weather, as do the many musicians, artists and unique characters who have called this place home over the centuries.

Bridget Hayden is one such soul who has found a home in these hills. The experimental musician who invites the spirits to the classic folk songs of her stunning new album knows all too well about this weather and how rare and precious the breaks from it are. Her favorite activity in the valley is “making the most of every tiny minute of sunshine,” she says.

Such efforts almost caused the recording of the film to fail Cold blows the raintheir new eight song collection, released via Todmorden based label Basin Rock. After Hayden hired the city’s Oddfellow’s Hall to record these new songs in late summer 2022, the weather was so good that she enjoyed every second of it, only going into the house to start recording at sunset and deep into the Work went into the night to make up for the time.

However, there’s a good chance it had to be that way. The songs that come together Cold blows the rain are not suitable for sunlight. Instead, they are shrouded in fog and covered in drizzle. These elements shape the album, as do the voice and instruments within, as real but ambiguous as the ghosts lurking in the shadows. The sound of the dark valley floor.

Bridget’s work focuses primarily on meditative and experimental improvisation and has spent more than two decades recording and performing in the underground music scene. She has also toured internationally both as a solo artist and as part of bands such as Schisms and The Telescopes, and has worked on various side projects with the likes of Folklore Tapes.

For all this sonic exploration, much of her work is based on elements of traditional folk aesthetics. Over time, she began compiling a collection of reinterpreted traditional songs that she had picked up from her mother as a child: from The Dubliners and Muddy Waters to Bessie Smith and The Leadbelly Songbook. Bridget harvests the love of Nina Simone, Karen Dalton, Margaret Barry and others and transforms it into something uniquely emotional.

“It goes back to the uterus,” says Bridget about this connection. “I wouldn’t call it a memory because it’s so deep in my blood and bones. My mother was the source, she sang all the time, as part of life. So it was a very calming and natural introduction. “It seemed normal to me to hear her – unbeknownst to her – singing to the beat of a raindrop dripping on the window,” Bridget continues. “I’ve always wanted to make a folk record because I love these songs so much. It’s much more natural for me to sing other people’s words, especially when they’re as beautiful as these old verses.”

Accompanied by waves of analog reverb and led by Bridget’s stirring and weathered voice, the songs on “Cold Blows the Rain” drift and creep like low, heavy clouds on flat, land-sculpted hills. The background is equally captivating, ever-so-subtle gloom cast in shadows, a gentle but distinct swirl of textures created from harmonium and violin courtesy of The Apparitions (Sam Mcloughlin and Dan Bridgewood-Hill).

“The weather speaks most eloquently about the loss of people,” says Bridget, expressing these feelings. “It’s good to feel enveloped by something so much bigger than ourselves. The rain and the tears become one.”