Description
Cobalt Chapel release lsquoOrange Syntheticrsquo, the followup to their much lauded selftitled debut album and its companion piece lsquoVariantsrsquo. lsquoOrange Syntheticrsquo is an exploration of the epic county they call home, Yorkshire. Written during this tumultuous turn of the decade, it is inspired by the humanity, anecdotes and folklore of the region, and the surrounding landscape.The album delves into stories which exist at the edge of history and myth the drowning of a village under Lake Semerwater, the mystery of the lost geodesic domes of RAF Fylingdales, the fate of John Hotham of Hull, beheaded for treason during the English Civil War, a psychedelic folk song about an infamous Cragg Vale farmer killed in a fight over a flock of sheep, the cry of Skylarks over Erringden Moor.nbspThe albumrsquos name stems from a line in the title track, telling the story of the fateful Yorkshire Folk, Blues amp Jazz Festival in Krumlin, fifty years ago. Hit by a violent storm, it resulted in the devastation of the site, neardeaths from exposure and the promoter being found wandering the moors, days later.Cobalt Chapelrsquos atmospheric style remains distinctively their own, through Cecilia Fagersquos crisp English vocals and choral arrangements, and Jarrod Goslingrsquos use of organs such as the Vox Continental, Philicorda, and the USSRera Elektronika Organ. These are the foundations of their rich, experimental yet melodic sound, and this album sees them expand on it with the addition of mandolin, guitars, and drawing on Ceciliarsquos classical background, with clarinets and recorders.ldquolsquoOrange Syntheticrsquo is music grounded in the Yorkshire earth its people, the surrounding nature, landscape, and its mythology, from the distant past to modern life. The story of the Krumlin Festival captures something about this island in its disaster ndash how you can start out with a dream and end up wrapped in a survival blanket, suffering from exposure, on a wild, beautiful, unforgiving Pennine hillside. Itrsquos an image which reflects the lost, endofdays feeling of where wersquore at now.rdquo
