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2LP+CD
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MR 390LP
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OFFICIAL RSD 2019 release. If one is aware of high prices on online music sites or is a part of any worldwide record collectors' circles, albums from groups such as Ithaca and Agincourt might sound familiar. Producers, composers, singers and multi-instrumentalists Peter Howell and John Ferdinando are two English musicians who started their partnership in the mid-1960s. From 1968, with the release of their soundtrack for the play Alice Through The Looking Glass, until the release of a project called Friends in 1974, they put together a total of five albums, Ithaca (1973) and Agincourt (1970) being the two most expensive and collectable of all of them. Incredibly rare and highly sought-after for years, the records contained a magical world brimming with folk music, soft psychedelia, psych-pop and progressive overtones; their music is absolutely exquisite and truly unique. It is predominantly folk, but very far from its traditional format. The longer one listens to their legacy, the longer one is going to find peculiar elements of classical gestures plus many flourishes of soft psychedelia, idiosyncratic progressive overtones, acid-folk and a taste that one is always entering the enchanting toy world of psych-pop. It does make total sense that the word "cult" is frequently applied to describe their creations. On Ithaca, Agincourt And Other Psych-Folk Fairy Tales (a 21 track double LP accompanied by a 19 track CD of totally distinct material), one also has the chance to read their own words. Both of them were interviewed for the liner notes, where they reveal their secret influences and their simple but unexpected ways of creating and composing. Be subtle, be daring, and be immersed in the magic world of Peter Howell and John Ferdinando.
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CD+DVD
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ACLN 1016CD
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"The second release (1969) from the home studio of future BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer Peter Howell and his musical partner John Ferdinando, makers of legendary albums under the names Alice Through the Looking Glass, Ithaca, Agincourt, and Friends. This private press album was recorded as the soundtrack for an underground film production by (later to be) renowned television director Ian Hamilton: Tomorrow Come Someday. The soundtrack album, now presented from the master tapes, was originally pressed up in a tiny quantity for friends and people involved in the production; certainly no more than 70-80 copies were made. So what do we find here? A concept piece revolving around a village threatened by motorway expansion, and the efforts of short-skirted guitar-slinging young painter Emma Stacey and a local boy to save the day, and perhaps preserve their growing love. The film is described on the album jacket as a musical comedy, shot on location in the Sussex village of Lurgashall, during August 1969, which of course, doesn't begin to tell the tale. Think perhaps of the Kinks Village Green Preservation Society characters come to life. See for yourself! For this is both the compact disc and DVD debut of Tomorrow Come Someday, film and soundtrack, together at last in a double-disc set. Chunky booklet with plentiful photos gives the full story of what we like to call The Wonderful Musical World of Peter Howell & John Ferdinando." DVD: NTSC format; 50 min. running time; color.
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CD
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ACLN 1015CD
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"The first release (1969) from the home studio of future BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer Peter Howell (he wrote the second version of the Doctor Who theme tune for BBC-TV) and his musical partner John Ferdinando, makers of legendary albums under the names Ithaca, Agincourt, Friends, and Tomorrow Come Someday. This private press record was recorded as a musical backdrop for a stage version of Alice through the Looking Glass by local amateur dramatics group the Ditchling Players. The musical templates are inspired, Lewis Carroll's surreal poetry is as attractive as ever, and the project is colored by other English psychedelic acts of the era such as the Pink Floyd: indeed, it has been compared elsewhere to a pastoral equivalent of Piper At The Gates of Dawn.There are numerous highlights scattered throughout the album, but pride of place must go to 'Jabberwocky,' an impressive mélange of treated vocals and backward tapes that is worth the price of admission alone. With its drowsy atmosphere, myriad sound effects and languid organ-based sound, Alice certainly invokes the spirit of the psychedelic age, albeit from the perspective of photogenic Middle England rather than hallucinogenic Middle Earth. Rarely can an album or book have ended with a more apposite line: 'Life, what is it but a dream?' We are pleased as punch to be able to present the compact disc debut of Alice and with extra material, too!" Includes a 16-page booklet and 13 bonus tracks.
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