Arch Garrison - I Will Be A Pilgrim CD
SKU
THM 003
"Arch Garrison are
Craig Fortnam (North Sea Radio Orchestra) – guitars, vocals, percussion.
James Larcombe (Stars in Battledress, William D Drake, North Sea Radio Orchestra) - organ, synth, piano.
Having garnered much critical acclaim for his larger scale compositions and songs with North Sea Radio Orchestra Craig Fortnam also writes and performs in singer-songwriter mode, alongside NSRO's James Larcombe on keyboards as Arch Garrison.
'Pilgrim' details Fortnam's attachment to the chalk downland of Southern England; a landscape criss-crossed with ancient trackways, droves and green lanes, and dotted with Neolithic mounds and barrows, evidence of the Great Stone Culture – all calling him to pull on his walking boots, whistle for the dogs and hit the road, to undertake a pilgrimage to nowhere. He walks the ancient paths as an act of connecting to something intangible but present in the marks left by man, be they burial mounds or pylons – it's all the same really - all grist to the songwriting mill - walk walk hum sing walk.....
An album of folk/classical guitar tunes paired with kosmische-like vintage keys, giving a beautiful, celebratory and sometimes pastoral feel."
"It follows a long line of like-minded and superb work by main man Craig Fortnam, taking in two earlier Arch Garrison albums, plus three under North Sea Radio Orchestra along with his wife Sharron and a cast of regular collaborators. Here Craig is joined by James Larcombe who is also part of NSRO, the William D Drake band and Stars of Battledress "'I Will Be A Pilgrim' is another example of English folk music's ability to update endlessly, folding fleet modernity into a timeless, ever-rejuvenating continuum.....In aligning post-war cultural memories with a cherished ideal of old Albion, I Will Be A Pilgrim is like an ancient, steep-sided country lane, tarmacked sometime in the 20th Century, and still allowing traffic today."-The Wire