Warp Records recently announced the re-release of two albums by firm tQ favourite Gravenhurst. Flashlight Seasons and Black Holes In The Sand, along with Offerings, a compilation of unreleased material, will be out on December 1 to celebrate their ten-year relationship with Nick Talbot’s alternative folk project.
Originally released in 2003 on a series of labels, Flashlight Seasons was picked up by Warp who re-released the album in 2004. It was closely followed by the six-track mini-album Black Holes in The Sand. These works cemented the Gravenhurst sound: one of ghostly atmospherics, Talbot’s delicate and idiosyncratic fingerpicking style and his bleak lyrical focus on the forces of nature.
Offerings: Lost Songs 2000 – 2004, meanwhile, consists of two early demos of album tracks, along with eight unheard songs from the period, which were unearthed in an archival search for unreleased material to accompany the reissues. While they were originally planned as digital downloads, the extent and quality of the uncovered material qualified its own separate release, with highlights including the dark, textured instrumental ‘Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm’, the stark, sour folk of ‘Gas Mask Days’ and the fuzzy psych of ‘Abilene/Still Water Outro’. Talbot and Warp have been kind enough to give us an exclusive stream of the compilation in full – listen above.
The albums will be available on vinyl, complete with essays by Nick Talbot reflecting on his work during that early period. All three will also be available as a triple-CD release, while a limited run of signed linocut prints will be available for the first 200 to buy all three vinyl reissues from bleep.com. Talbot will be taking the Gravenhurst Ensemble out on tour to support the reissue of the albums, with the group playing Flashlight Seasons in full followed by material from other albums. Take a look at the tour dates below, as well as a new documentary, which features Talbot talking about the connection between his music and his home city of Bristol, at the foot of the piece.
NOVEMBER
Thu 27 – Chiesa Metodista, Rome, Italy
Fri 28 – Bronson, Ravenna, Italy
DECEMBER
Thu 4 – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds
Sun 7 – The Cluny, Newcastle
Mon 8 – Gullivers, Manchester
Tue 9 – The Scala, London
Wed 10 – Fleece, Bristol
JANUARY 2015
Sun 25 – Ampere, Munich, Germany
Mon 26 – Laiterie, Strasbourg, France
Tues 27 – RockWoche Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
Wed 28 – Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany
Thu 29 – KFZ, Marburg, Germany
Fri 30 – Schonschon, Mainz, Germany
Sat 31 – Grend, Essen, Germany
FEBRUARY
Mon 2 – Gleis 22, Munster, Germany
Tues 3 – Rock Cafe, Hamburg, Germany
Wed 4 – Beatpol, Dresden, Germany
Thu 5 – Lido, Berlin, Germany
Fri 7 – Antigel Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
