GAZELLE TWIN: love her or baffled by her, you cannot deny the deep, artful, playful, pranksterish, eerie, sheer damn potency of her work.
The creative extension of composer Elizabeth Bernholz, her last album, Pastoral, held a mirror up to the steadfast old folk tales and traditions of Merrie England, fucked that mirror into unimaginable and truer shards; held up those bloodied shattered pieces for us to gaze into again so we could see our real selves, with tracks such as “Hobby Horse” bewitching and enrapturing and disturbing (did you see her at last year’s End of the Road??).
If your nocturne has been untroubled of late, you’ve slept deep and woke unsullied by the things that populate your dreams, then think again. She’s back and she’s announced a new album for March next year in collaboration with the NYX electronic choir, Deep England: eight tracks for your infernal pleasure on digital download, vinyl, and CD, which will be out on March 19th.
Rooted in English pagan and sacred music, Deep England sees tracks from Pastoral, an album whose political themes have only come further to the fore in the darkening, elapsed months since, reworked alongside compositions by NYX, Paul Giovanni and William Blake.
Paul Giovanni? I hear you say. Yes. Yes. Take a listen below to Gazelle Twin and NYX’s rerub of “Fire Leap”, from The Wicker Man, the song that plays as the virgins dance to Edward Woodward’s passing horror; distended to more than seven minutes, utterly faithful while still pursuing the dark, dank essence of the song deeper into the earth.
Deep England was originally plotted for live performance in collaboration with NYX, the electronic drone choir created in 2017 by former creative director of London Contemporary Voices, Sian O’Gorman, and the former producers of Convergence Festival, Philippa Neels and Josh Thomas. It was premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last November, before being moved to the studio for further reification. Be warmly, deeply, ready for what’s next.
Gazelle Twin and NYX’s Deep England will be available on NYX Collective Records on digital download, CD and vinyl on March 19th, but you may pre-order your copy now, here.
