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Six years after staging the first Woolf Music festival in 2013, Ptolemaic Terrascope and Terrascope Online founder/editor Phil McMullen had the urge to do it all again.
Once more held in the manorial setting of Cleeve House in Wiltshire, the former home of the extended Virginia Woolf family, Woolf II – A Terrascope Celebration represented a gathering of musical friends, old and new, each one beloved of the ever-discerning Terrascope. Befitting its location, the event was a statelier and more compact version of Phil’s revered and hugely influential Terrastock festivals that criss-crossed America during the 1990s and 2000s. The principle behind Terrastock would carry forward into Woolf; an intimate event where performers were chosen not only because we happened to like their music, but because they are nice folk, with no separation between audience and musicians (most of the audience being musicians).
Phil’s brief to me was to find “a few semi-acoustic acts”, which in the end stretched to 27 performers squeezed into two days, not all of whom could be accurately described as “lightly amped”. High on our list were Trembling Bells, who’d done us proud at a sell-out Terrascope event at London’s Café Oto in 2018. Alas, their leader Alex Neilson explained, they were no more, but we jumped at the chance of bagging his current project, Alex Rex, off the back of a great new album, Otterburn, and with a live sound freshly honed from their first tour.
What transpired was the scintillating set we have here. Drawn mainly from Otterburn and what would become Andromeda, the strength of the material is underscored by some uncomfortably raw soul bearing. So what if it was the only time it rained all weekend? Somehow that seemed entirely fitting. Dylanesque is a lousy and downright lazy term. Even so it’s an apt description of ‘Coward's Song’ and ‘The Cruel Rule’ both of which successfully knock the past forty years of Bobness into a cocked hat. Much of the rest of this fine collection is eminently worthy of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy at his best, whilst Alex Neilson’s idiosyncratic count-ins were positively…Neilsonesque? There are pleasing nods towards later era Incredible String Band, too, which is quite appropriate given that there is more than one association between the two acts. However, the song that sticks like an earworm fully conversant with its squatters rights is St Augustine’s wayward prayer ’Please God Make Me Good (But Not Yet)’ off debut album Vermillion. Damn there’s something about that sentiment we just can’t resist.
Due to changes at Cleeve House there are unlikely to be any more Woolfs, and there are currently no plans for further live Terrascope forays. However if we do eventually emerge blinking into the sunlight then don’t bet against Alex Rex being involved or, failing that, any future manifestation of Alex Neilson’s singular musical persona.
Ian Fraser
For Terrascope Online, August 2021
Includes unlimited streaming of Memory, Speak: Live at WOOLF II – A Terrascope Celebration
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
Six years after staging the first Woolf Music festival in 2013, Ptolemaic Terrascope and Terrascope Online founder/editor Phil McMullen had the urge to do it all again.
Once more held in the manorial setting of Cleeve House in Wiltshire, the former home of the extended Virginia Woolf family, Woolf II – A Terrascope Celebration represented a gathering of musical friends, old and new, each one beloved of the ever-discerning Terrascope. Befitting its location, the event was a statelier and more compact version of Phil’s revered and hugely influential Terrastock festivals that criss-crossed America during the 1990s and 2000s. The principle behind Terrastock would carry forward into Woolf; an intimate event where performers were chosen not only because we happened to like their music, but because they are nice folk, with no separation between audience and musicians (most of the audience being musicians).
Phil’s brief to me was to find “a few semi-acoustic acts”, which in the end stretched to 27 performers squeezed into two days, not all of whom could be accurately described as “lightly amped”. High on our list were Trembling Bells, who’d done us proud at a sell-out Terrascope event at London’s Café Oto in 2018. Alas, their leader Alex Neilson explained, they were no more, but we jumped at the chance of bagging his current project, Alex Rex, off the back of a great new album, Otterburn, and with a live sound freshly honed from their first tour.
What transpired was the scintillating set we have here. Drawn mainly from Otterburn and what would become Andromeda, the strength of the material is underscored by some uncomfortably raw soul bearing. So what if it was the only time it rained all weekend? Somehow that seemed entirely fitting. Dylanesque is a lousy and downright lazy term. Even so it’s an apt description of ‘Coward's Song’ and ‘The Cruel Rule’ both of which successfully knock the past forty years of Bobness into a cocked hat. Much of the rest of this fine collection is eminently worthy of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy at his best, whilst Alex Neilson’s idiosyncratic count-ins were positively…Neilsonesque? There are pleasing nods towards later era Incredible String Band, too, which is quite appropriate given that there is more than one association between the two acts. However, the song that sticks like an earworm fully conversant with its squatters rights is St Augustine’s wayward prayer ’Please God Make Me Good (But Not Yet)’ off debut album Vermillion. Damn there’s something about that sentiment we just can’t resist.
Due to changes at Cleeve House there are unlikely to be any more Woolfs, and there are currently no plans for further live Terrascope forays. However if we do eventually emerge blinking into the sunlight then don’t bet against Alex Rex being involved or, failing that, any future manifestation of Alex Neilson’s singular musical persona.
Cover image by Rosie Barthram, from a photo by Audrey Bizouerne
Design by Dominic D'Arcy
Mixed by Luigi Pasquini at Dystopia Studios, Glasgow
Mastered by Ed Deegan at Gizzard Recording
WOOLF II – A TERRASCOPE CELEBRATION took place at Cleeve House in Wiltshire on the weekend of 8th and 9th June 2019 and was organised by Phil McMullen and Ian Fraser for Terrascope Audio Entertainments, who are indebted to Miriam Zaccarelli at Cleeve House, without whom none of it would have been possible or bearable.
Immaculate live sound was by Dom and Leo of Nine Volt Leap in Melksham www.ninevoltleap.co.uk
The Woolf II – A Terrascope Celebration poster by artist Brett Savage is reproduced by kind permission of Terrascope
Alex Rex is the 'ghost-rock' project of Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Shirley Collins, Current 93 et
al).
Inspired by Greek Tragedy, Barbara Streisand and Alex's own internal critic, Alex Rex perform songs of love, loss and loathing that make the detestable whistleable....more
supported by 18 fans who also own “Memory, Speak: Live at WOOLF II – A Terrascope Celebration”
Nice pop balladry with a folk influence. My first thought upon hearing this was "female Paul McCartney" but it is probably aiming for Sandy Denny territory. Lavinia was in psychedelic folk band Trembling Bells. Art Fin
On this harmonically rich LP, the Scottish singer-songwriter contrasts gorgeous soprano harmonies with strident folk-rock instrumentation. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 26, 2023
Incredible psych-rock with an undertone of grunge and a focus on tight songcraft gets a well-deserved vinyl pressing. Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2023
