One of my favourite books is Patrick Wright’s A Village That Died For England. It’s ostensibly the tale of the Dorset village of Tyneham, occupied by the army for training purposes in World War II, but as well as the narrative of the villagers who never got to return home as promised, it brings in the power of the Dorset landscape, local mystics, connections between the German far right and the British ‘back to the land’ tradition, and much more. How could we refuse, then, lo-fi group Way Through’s video shot in the villages of Tyneham and Imber, similarly taken over by the authorities during the Second World War. Way Through release their LP of self-described "pastoral punk" in November. This is what they have to say: "Whilst Tyneham has decayed into a nature reserve with adequate picnic facilities and infoboards, Imber now boasts the eerie addition of a recent housing estate of obliterated concrete houses with corrugated roofs. Both were visited by Way Through in a narrow window of access at the start of the new year when the firing ranges were dormant. The song’s lyrics were penned onsite, alongside the collection of field recordings which informed the music and the footage of the resultant video, documenting the uneasy silence of the ruins, the portal-like nature of the destroyed buildings, the often surreal signage and the countless instances of water pouring out of the ground."
WATCH: Way Through Video
Inspired by and shot in abandoned English villages
