Daniel Staniforth is a classically trained cellist, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with a background in alternative rock, gothic rock and darkwave. Rebsie Fairholm is well established as a singer of mystical psych-folk with a background in British traditional music. So what do you think happened when they started working together on Rebsie's solo album? BOOM! - a massive alchemical reaction. The muses descended and gave them half an album's worth of astonishing material in the space of a few weeks, and a new project was transmuted from the various elements.
At the heart of Alchymical Muse is our combined voices. We have an extraordinary similarity of tone which makes us blend like magic. We try to make the most of that natural synergy, so we share the lead vocals and weave around each other any which way we can, with harmonies, choral chants, poems (our own and other people's), wordless lyrics and Gaelic lamentations.
Secondly but also very important is a desire to experiment musically, free from the constraints of genre. Daniel is one of the most innovative cellists around and gets an incredible range of melodic and percussive sounds out of the cello. He also plays classical (i.e. nylon-stringed) guitar in a similarly holistic way and using exquisite modal scales. Throw Rebsie's harp and 12-string guitar into the mix along with piano and keyboards (which we both play) and we have a sonic palette which enables us to wander wherever our imagination takes us. Every song is approached differently as a unique piece in its own right and there are no rules ... it's all inspiration and alchemy.
Among the songs uploaded here are a Gaelic lament written in 1746 by a woman whose husband was killed in the Battle of Culloden, a setting of William Blake's "The Garden of Love" in a bed of shuddering cello, and a very organic rendering of the brilliant Trees song "The Garden of Jane Delawney" made from an amalgamation of live and studio recordings.
The second part of the trilogy "The
Empty
Circle" by The Joy of Nature, entitled «Rastos de Sangue e fragmentos da
Tradição», has been now released by Ahnstern and it is available at The Joy of Nature's store.
In this second part a lot more instruments were used and more
musicians collaborated, like R. Coutinho, B. Ardo (Sangre Cavallum), Rui
Almeida (Massa Última), Triarca, Mara Neves and M.J.
Not only a reaction against the modern world, but
an alternative to this post-modern world.
Hi Alchymical Muse, thank you for supporting me and my music! I wanted to let you know that my new single, "Live For Today", will be out on the 12th of October! The new album, "Fragile", is due out in November. http://www.tanjamaritsa.co.uk
Hello Rebsie, thanks so much for your lovely comment.....and wow what an amazing sound you are as Alychymical Muse - a real find to meet someone (not related to you) with whom you have such an obvious and wondrous chemistry, can't wait to hear more!
Greetings! And thanks for the birthday greetings. I LOVE your version of "Jane Delawney." We used to do that in a band I was in back in 1994 called Revelations In Black, named for the Carl Jacobi vampire story.
Very beautiful music.
Cheers, Chuck Owston (the old warrior)
PS My band, Bonfire Night, is listed in "Music To Die For" by Mick Mercer
Online!
