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CD
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FF 001X-CD
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Broadly speaking, the music of Stella Kola could be labeled psychedelic folk, although the term feels limited and pedestrian when one encounters the elegant majesty of the work itself. While drinking from the same well as Shirley Collins, Fairport Convention, C.O.B., Pentangle, Anne Briggs, Bridget St. John, and the like, not for a second does it play as a retro exercise. The music wears its influences comfortably, swimming in the atmosphere of its forebearers without feeling beholden to stylistic conceits or overt reference. If you're looking for flashy hipsterism, you've stumbled into the wrong tavern. It's a dream band, impossible to place, arising from somewhere beyond the individuals responsible. Stella Kola is an entity larger than all that. A small tear in the fabric of time allowing some light from The Land of Timelessness to come dancing through. RIYL: Bridget St. John, Slapp Happy, Broadcast, C.O.B., Julie Tippetts, Myriam Gendron, Tia Blake, Julee Cruise, Blossom Dearie, Vashti Bunyan, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World.
"Robert Thomas is known for raising a wide variety of rackets inside the Sunburned Hand of the Man multi-verse. He has also shown himself to be a dab prog hand with Dalthom, his duo with Gary War. But this project -- Stella Kola -- a duet with the great Beverly Ketch (Bunwinkies, Jow Jow, Weeping Bong Band) has a sneaky genteel vibe that is new for him. Bev and Rob wrote all the material together, having decided to collaborate in the early days of the Plague. Things came together at their own pace, with lots of friends enlisted to help. These include P.G. Six, Jeremy Pisani, Wednesday Knudsen, Willie Lane, Jen Gelineau, Gary War and others. But the shape of the material was determined by the prime movers, and possesses a shocking amount of charm and beauty. Admittedly, this is often the case with Bev's endeavors, but Rob was able to get a new flow going that compliments her calm. And the results are boss. I was a bit surprised how 'pro' the arrangements are -- strings, horns and keys are employed as though this was a big budget slab. But it manages to create a certain whiff of left field early '70s major label albums that sailed under the radar. And that is a beautiful bed in which to rest. Let Stella Kola cradle your heavy head for a bit. You'll be glad you did." -Byron Coley, December 2022
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LP
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ZORN 113LP
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Originally self-released in 2023, Stella Kola, the debut album from Beverly Ketch (Jow Jow, Weeping Bong Band) and Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man, Dalthom), now returns in a renewed edition -- bringing wider attention to a record that already felt like a quietly essential artifact from the moment it first appeared. Given the pair's respective roots -- and the presence of collaborators drawn from across the Northeast experimental underground -- one might expect "a brutal blast of acid swirl." Instead, what emerges is something far more unexpected. The album is "steeped, not in noise and dissonance, but in the fragrant, captivating folk of Linda Perhacs, Judee Sill, Karen Dalton, and Bridget St John." From the opening moments the record reveals its core sensibility: "a ballad that digs deep into the psychedelic-folk tradition until it takes root in a freshly sporous permaculture." What follows is a set of songs that feel both carefully assembled and organically grown -- delicate structures held together by a wide circle of contributing musicians, including Wednesday Knudsen (flute), P.G. Six (harp, guitars, keys), Gary War (synth), Jen Gellineau (viola, violin), Willie Lane, L. Gray, and others. Rather than functioning as studio additions, these collaborators form a genuine collective presence. Like many of the '60s folk records it echoes, Stella Kola carries "the feeling of community and camaraderie" at its core, shaping a warmth that runs through the entire release. The album's emotional palette leans toward a quiet, persistent melancholy. Its sound edges into the terrain of Fairport Convention and Pentangle, with references to "Beggar's, Kings, Dark Damsels, and Tarot," yet never settles into revivalism. Instead, Ketch and Thomas extend the tradition outward, refracting it through their own distinctly American, underground language. Even among a prolific and unpredictable network of underground musicians, Stella Kola stands apart. With its return in reissue form, the album reasserts itself not just as a hidden gem, but as an essential document of contemporary folk experimentation -- an intimate, collective work that continues to unfold with time.
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