The 100 lathe-cuts sold out so I’m now offering CD and digital versions. 3 tracks on a red and white splatter compact disc in a lovely gatefold card case, with 2 inserts. 50 hand-numbered copies.
The Century of Sounds project I mentioned last year is now complete, and here is my contribution ‘Eulogy for Freddy Hill’.
As a starting point for this project, I did some research into the person who played the barrel organs on the recording. It transpired that Freddy Hill (born 1932 in Sussex, UK) was a very gifted man. The son of a headmaster and a clockmaker by profession, he also taught carpentry and music and was an expert restorer of antique musical instruments including the chamber barrel organs in this recording. Freddy was a founder member of the Musical Box Society of Great Britain which was established in 1962. The three barrel organs being played here were built between 1764 and 1850, and the recordings were made in April 1967 after Freddy’s repairs and restoration. Most of the sounds on this 42-minute recording are of Freddy speeding through the barrel organ cylinders to check functionality, however the “Morning Hymn’”and “Evening Hymn” sections are played through at a nice pace and stood out to me, so I extracted these as the base for my work.
After a number of abandoned approaches, rather than “reinterpret” the sounds, I have built a world around them, orchestrating with strings and brass, and blending sounds both natural and unnatural into the mix aiming to give the finished track a widescreen feel. I considered contacting Freddy to tell him what I was doing, but he died in 2005. It was at that point I realised that this piece could be my small tribute to his life, hence the title I have chosen. Via Facebook I managed to locate someone who knew Freddy, and they have agreed to inform his only known relative; his nephew Michael Richards – of this project and submission.
Freddy’s collection of clocks, musical instruments and barrel organs were bequeathed to the Royal College of Music.
WHAT IS A CENTURY OF SOUNDS?
A Century of Sounds is a collaborative project between Cities and Memory and the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, to celebrate and creatively reimagine a century of ethnographic sound recordings from the museum’s archives. The project features 100 rare and previously unheard recordings from around the world. Artists from across the globe were invited to select one recording and create a new composition in response, exploring themes of history, culture, emotion, and memory. The resulting 100 compositions are showcased in the museum’s unique ‘sound shower’ space.
I have new music out. Two tracks taken from the forthcoming A Farewell To Hexes album ‘TODMORDEN’ which soundtracks the strange PC Alan Godfrey Incidents of 1980 in Todmorden, West Yorkshire.
Feral Child Recordings have released 100 x 5″ translucent red lathe-cut singles – with inserts – containing the tracks:
A. The Eyewall // B. They Actually Examined My Left Foot
Sold out at the label but I have a few artist copies HERE
I am honored to have been selected along with 99 other sound artists worldwide to participate in the Cities and Memory project:
A CENTURY OF SOUNDS
ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS FROM THE PITT RIVERS MUSEUM’S COLLECTIONS
A Century of Sounds is a partnership between Cities and Memory and the Pitt Rivers Museum, inviting listeners to explore a century of incredible recordings from the museum’s collections in brand new ways.
One hundred recordings from all over the world, dating back as early as wax cylinder recordings from 1914, have been curated to showcase the amazing breadth of the museum’s sound collections, as well as to provide fascinating, exclusive material for artists to work with.
Many of these recordings have never been publicly available to listen to before – and they are some of the most extraordinary sounds a Cities and Memory project has ever included. Artists were invited to choose a recording that speaks to them, and create a composition based on their response to that sound, and to the resonances of history, culture, society and emotion that come from it.
The Century of Sounds collection will not only offer a unique window into global cultures past and present with rarely-heard recordings, but a new way of experiencing these sounds through the composition, sound design, music and imagination of our community of artists.
Many thanks to those who bought the CD edition of ‘Rendlesham’. This has now become my best-selling album, approaching 450 copies sold across all the formats. Thanks, thanks, thanks. I’m working on a follow-up now.
The CD edition sold out really fast thanks in part to a fantastic review by Neil Mason in Moonbuilding. Neil is a writer who really knows his electronic onions having previously written for Electronic Sound, NME, and Melody Maker and his view of ‘Rendlesham’ is:
“This is classic stuff, properly great”
The full review is reproduced below.
A FAREWELL TO HEXES ‘The Halt Tape In Colour: Rendlesham Expanded’ (Tectona Grandis)
Multi-instrumentalist Adam Leonard is one prolific music-making dude. Chances are the Londonderry-based producer will have served up something or other you have listened to in the last 20-odd years whether you know it or not. Most likely you will know him as Invaderband or most likely as A Farewell To Hexes who return here with a re-rerelease of their magnum opus, which you will know probably know as ‘Rendlesham’.
The album was originally released on tape by TDO Cassettes in 2021, the run sold out in a day, then on vinyl on Polytechinc Youth in 2022, which sold out in under a week, and now it’s here making a CD debut in expanded form. So that’s two extra tracks and a bunch of inserts that include a passport photo of Charles Halt, a button badge, a mini Halt Memo and some actual pine needles from Rendlesham Forest all in a metal tin.
Said it before, but you can tell the quality of an artist by the label company they keep. Adam has a long relationship with Dom Martin, releasing on his Great Pop Supplement label as well as PY, which you hardly need telling is a total seal of approval in my book. Dom has a great pair of ears, I don’t need telling twice to listen to anything he releases. He certainly wasn’t wrong when he backed Adam and, of course, ‘The Halt Tape In Colour (Rendlesham Expanded)’ is excellent.
As you will probably know if you’re from round here, the record is about one of the UK’s most prolific UFO sightings near an airforce base in Rendlesham, in deepest, darkest Suffolk. A long time ago, while I was still at art school, I used to take advantage of the wild amounts of high-quality AV equipment my college had and use it to shoot pop videos. I shot one on location in Suffolk, including a scene deep in a forest not that far from Rendlesham. We had a slew of film lights that must’ve been visible from miles away. Indeed, we were buzzed, and at a fairly low level, by a USAF helicopter with a huge searchlight. One of those moments in life that could have worked out differently if they took against us.
Rendlesham is in such an interesting part of the world. The kings of the East Angles was based there, the Sutton Hoo ship burial isn’t too far away, nor is the expansive Orford Ness and spooky Shingle Street on the coast. This album builds on the legend of the place where at 3am on the morning of 26 December 1980, a security patrol near the east gate of RAF Woodbridge saw lights descending into Rendlesham Forest.
The Halt Tape is a voice memo recorded by deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt when he visted the site of the reported landing in the early hours of 28 December, during which he had his own UFO sighting. “This is straaaange” he drawls at one point. I mean no wonder my makeshift forest film set was buzzed.
Musically, the record brings rich, spooky radiophonica to the fore. Despite the weirdy-woo subject matter it is delightfully tuneful. ‘East Gate Expedition’ could even be described as jaunty. The track ‘The Halt Tape In Colour’, all 18 plus minutes, draws on that recording and will fair send a shiver down your spine. It highlights the utter power of audio. Hearing Halt talking while he was taking in what he was seeing for the first time is mindbogglingly good.
Mysteriouser and mysteriouser. This is classic stuff, properly great.
Echoes for Palestine is a labor of love and solidarity, a charitable project brought to life by Rafael Diogo (Deep Dive Sound) in collaboration with Cities and Memory, with every penny of proceeds flowing directly to Hope and Play, supporting the children of Gaza.
From over a hundred submissions of original, sound-based compositions from artists around the world, we have woven together 25 tracks for Volume 1.
This collection unfolds like a journey through diverse sonic landscapes — experimental electronic pulses, drifting ambient textures, intricate electroacoustic designs, intimate spoken word, and evocative narrative soundscapes. Each piece hums with the spirit of resistance, whispers resilience, carries memory, and offers hope, preserving the cultural heartbeat of Palestine.
This compilation is more than music. It is testimony, imagination, and a bridge across distance and time — a tribute to Palestinian lives, voices, and dreams, and a celebration of the profound, transformative power of sound. By listening to and purchasing the album, you help bring hope, joy, and support to the children of Gaza.
ABOUT THE TRACK
Lifta is a historic Palestinian village located near Jerusalem, notable for being the only Arab village evacuated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that has not been destroyed or repopulated. It stands as a poignant symbol of the Nakba (the 1948 Palestinian exodus) and a physical reminder of the displacement and loss experienced by Palestinians. The village, with its well-preserved stone buildings, agricultural terraces, and spring, is also recognized for its unique cultural and historical value and is currently under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status.
This piece uses elements of field recordings taken by Anders Vinjar (Mount of Olives / Ramallah Market / Ruins of Lifta), topped with a semi-composed / semi-improvised acoustic guitar line plus added synth washes.
The Ghosts of Lifta was inspired by these field recordings and current photographs of the overgrown, deserted village.
Further reading: We will return: the battle to save an ancient Palestinian village from demolition
WITH PREVIOUS CASSETTE AND VINYL EDITIONS LONG SOLD OUT, TECTONA GRANDIS NOW ISSUES THE ALBUM ON CD FOR THE FIRST TIME, REBADGED ‘THE HALT TAPE IN COLOUR’ WITH 2 BONUS TRACKS. THE PHYSICAL EDITION IS A MINI TIME CAPSULE OF THE EVENT, WITH MULTIPLE INSERTS INCLUDING ACTUAL PINE NEEDLES FROM RENDLESHAM FOREST.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES
TRACKLISTING 01 Lights Over Woodbridge 02 East Gate Expedition 03 What Is That? 04 Circling The Mechanical Object 05 In Receipt Of Zeros And Ones 06 Orford Ness At Dawn 07 The Halt Tape In Colour 08 Aftermath
BONUS MATERIAL 09 Ipswich 10 Halt Testimony (Previously unreleased)
PRESS FOR ‘RENDLESHAM’ “A ramshackle kosmiche banger” – The Quietus “A Radiophonic Workshop-evoking set of chilling electronics” – Resident Music “Fans of concept-heavy electronic albums, sci-fi, or the output of BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop may want to point your eyes and ears in the direction of this limited-to-250 LP release from Adam Leonard” – Norman Records “Haunting synths, woozy atmospherics and saturated, crackling bliss. Superb” – Piccadilly Records
In the quiet Pennine hills of Yorkshire, a story of intrigue and tragedy unfolded in 1980 with the mysterious death of Zigmund Adamski who mysteriously disappeared from his home in Tingley in June 1980, only to be found five days later and lifeless on top of a coal heap in a Todmorden coal yard. His body showed strange burns, and despite being missing for days, his hands and face and clothes were clean and free from coal dust. There were no signs of a struggle. So how did he end up on top of a coal heap and what led to his untimely death?
Police officer Alan Godfrey was one of the first to respond to the discovery of Adamski’s body. Months later in November 1980, Godfrey reported a bizarre encounter with a UFO while investigating a herd of missing cows near Todmorden. Godfrey described seeing a hovering craft and later experienced a time-lapse, leading to speculation that both events were somehow connected to extraterrestrial activity.
Both incidents remain unsolved and are still subjects of intrigue and speculation.
‘Dark Dog’ is a christmas single about the utter psychic brutality of clinical depression. Perfect for your listening displeasure whilst overdosing on Quality Street and wondering why you pay your TV licence.
THE FULL PACKAGE:
1. A one-sided black 7″ single mastered and cut by Ben Soundhog. 2. Two digital B-sides, both alternate versions of the A-side, one a guitar/harmonica take, the other a fuller, more developed multitrack version with electric guitar, piano and backing vocals. The version on the 7″ itself is NOT being released digitally. 3. A lyric insert. 4. A 25mm Dark Dog artwork button badge based on a Post-It note sketched on by my daughter Esme.
25 signed and numbered copies released on 25th December 2022. Order HERE
The Message Tapes 