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The debut album by The Owl Service, A Garland of Song, was released by Southern Records on June 30th 2008. 13 tracks, 43 minutes, a collection of traditional ballads interpersed with original compositions housed in beautiful packaging with stunning design from Dominic Cooper. Already hailed as a classic by Terrascope and "the best traditional album" of the year by Foxy Digitalis, glowing reviews have been forthcoming from the Sunday Times, Plan B, Word and Uncut magazines and tracks from the album have been played on BBC Radio 2, BBC6 Music and regional BBC radio in Lincolnshire, Shropshire and Scotland. The album was released in the States on January 27th 2009 and is available via Chicago Independent distribution. The album can be ordered on CD and vinyl from the Midwich Records webstore.

The story of this release goes back to a brief exchange between Owl Service main man Steven Collins and Alison O'Donnell (of the legendary Irish prog-folk group Mellow Candle) on a social networking website in the Spring of 2007. The Fabric of Folk is a collision between two ages of folk-rock; Alison was intrigued by the sound of The Owl Service, Steven had been in awe of Swaddling Songs for many years and so a collaboration seemed inevitable. Fabric... contains two original Collins/O'Donnell compositions (one with lyrics penned by Dominic Cooper of the Straw Bear Band), a short instrumental interlude, and two traditional reworkings. The original songs bookend the EP in perfect fashion and Alison's treatment of the traditional material in between is masterful. From the ominous opening track The Wooden Coat to the epic finale The Fabric of Life, the listener is taken on a journey through themes of life and death, all handled with a pathos and poignancy so rarely heard in modern folk music. A Fabric of Folk is out now on vinyl (limited edition of 500 copies on clear wax) and is available from the Midwich Records webstore.

MIDWICH RECORDS is our own label and is distributed by our friends at Southern Records. So far we've released albums by from Nancy Wallace and Ellen Mary McGee, we have plenty more to come from Jason Steel, The A. Lords, The Straw Bear Band, The Kittiwakes and more. Visit the website and sign up to our newsletter for all the latest happenings.

"...a tentative sitar drone and plucked minimalism pick their respective paths across a yawning chasm of O'Malleyesque fug" PlanB magazine

"...combines the best parts of the British folk-rock boom with a sense of occult psychedelia that's never overbearing" Uncut magazine

"Icy female vocals and crystalline electric guitars thread through sinister traditional tunes, recalling Trees' 1970 classic 'On the Shore' and Fairport Convention's 'Liege & Lief'" Stewart Lee, Sunday Times

"British spooky/avant folksters whose muse is slightly more medieval than post-modern, but recalls Black Mountain and Lightning Dust as well as Vashti Bunyan and Steeleye Span" Time Out

"...we highly recommend checking out the finest “traditional folk” album we’ve heard all year" Foxy Digitalis

"...the result sounds like a lost album of '70s UK folk ...female singers who have that quality to provoke a world of a cultivated sensitivity ...all tracks flow beautifully from one perfect mood to the next" Psyche Homestead

"...pure genius" DJ Magazine

"A deeply intoxicating and alluring listening spectacle." Losing Today

"A quiet, contemplative work of art that'll warm the cockles of any cold, cold heart" Foxy Digitalis

"...wonderful and inventive but by no means contrived, ...an EP that is full of surprises and beautiful moments. As with many EPs, "Wake the Vaulted Echo" ends a little too quickly and I found myself wanting to hear more" Progressive Ears

"This is one elusive butterfly of a record: a CD you'll want to play all the way through again and again, ond pause only to wish it were longer" Terrascope Online