Crowlink

Album: Crowlink (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • English folk singer Shirley Collins has been recording albums since the late 1950s and was a significant contributor to the English folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s. Here, she pays tribute to one of her most beloved settings. She told Uncut magazine: "'Crowlink' is one of the Seven Sisters on the South Downs, and is one of my favorite walks. It's just a magical place."
  • The song features Ossian Brown on droning hurdy-gurdy and Matthew Shaw providing electronics and field recordings from the actual location. Collins told Uncut:

    "I sent my son, Bobby Marshall, and Matthew Shaw to record the sound of the sea and the birdsong, and it was so evocative. Then Matthew wrote music alongside the recordings and it just fitted, Bobby said: 'Why don't you have it on the album?' I said, 'Well, it's not traditional. But I'm very glad it's there because it seems to evoke old memories for me and it nudges me into the future - it makes me aware that there are other ways of doing things."

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