Recorded on a cellphone from March - September 2021, Hail Star of the Sea! is equal parts composed and improvised. A sonic pilgrimage of plucked and bowed guitars, embroidered with bells, bowls, and rattling rosaries, drenched in droning organ and harmonium. These tones are accompanied by the shrieking of a scraped and attacked untuned violin, set to field recordings of crashing waves, radio transmissions, unlocking doors, footsteps, alarms, barking dogs, gathering storms, falling rain, struck matches and rising flames, creaking floorboards and chairs, monkeys chattering in the trees with insects and cicadas singing in the cold night air, and a grove full of birds greeting the rising sun. The journey is dense but rewarding.
Recorded on a cellphone from March - September 2021, Hail Star of the Sea! is equal parts composed and improvised. A sonic pilgrimage of plucked and bowed guitars, embroidered with bells, bowls, and rattling rosaries, drenched in droning organ and harmonium. These tones are accompanied by the shrieking of a scraped and attacked untuned violin, set to field recordings of crashing waves, radio transmissions, unlocking doors, footsteps, alarms, barking dogs, gathering storms, falling rain, struck matches and rising flames, creaking floorboards and chairs, monkeys chattering in the trees with insects and cicadas singing in the cold night air, and a grove full of birds greeting the rising sun. The journey is dense but rewarding.
credits
released January 12, 2023
Written, performed, recorded and mixed by William Graham Randles
Mastered by Anders Peterson @ GS Mastering and Post Stockholm, Sweden.
Layout and design: Cam Lofstrand
Instruments: acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, recorder, violin, harmonium, organ, singing bowl, Tibetan tingsha, khartal, bells, two-string cardboard box dulcimer, piano strings, and rosaries
Crossing the Abyss // The Magician's Journey is based, in part, on The Quest of the Magi by John Henry Hopkins Jr.
Artwork by Tara Cawthra & William Graham Randles
Special thanks to: Tara, Duncan, my family, Mike, Anders and everyone else who has supported me. I am incredibly grateful.
supported by 6 fans who also own “Hail Star of the Sea!”
This album makes you feel like a better world is possible and somewhat close at hand. It isn't, clearly, we're stuck in dystopia, but it's so beautiful to dream. Fabio Viola
supported by 6 fans who also own “Hail Star of the Sea!”
Oh how I long for this album in vinyl format! Such smoothness. Such warmth. Such execution. This music begs to be taken along and woven into memories. Everyone I’ve shared this album with has loved it. The music speaks far and wide. Shouting out to a fellow follower, Brian Lehmann, for his excellent taste in music. If not for him, I likely would have never stumbled upon this absolute gem! Plinchmo Larduktin
They may be named for a “Twin Peaks” villain, but there’s nothing menacing about Wyndham Earl’s rich and stirring psych soundscapes. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 15, 2020
Marvelous experimental music from this Tel Aviv musician that fuses outré noise with almost folk-like arrangements. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 13, 2022