Vic Mars - The Land And The Garden. Pre-orders will be available from 23rd November 2015. Please sign up to the mailing list for a reminder. Release date 4th December 2015. It will also be available digitally across most digital platforms.
12" Vinyl LP, 300 hand numbered copies, reverse board mat cover, and printed inner sleeve with download code included.
12" Vinyl LP, 300 hand numbered copies, reverse board mat cover, and printed inner sleeve with download code included.
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Vic Mars is a Herefordshire born musician currently based in London, he has recently returned from spending over a decade in Nagoya, Japan. In 2008 he released the mini-LP 'Kanransha' on Kentaro Togawa's Symbolic Interaction label, and 2012 saw the Bandcamp released library music inspired, 'Curriculum For Schools And Colleges: Volumes 1 &2'.
In 2013 whilst still based in Japan but on a visit home, Vic was stuck by the reprints of vintage British Railway posters hanging in his brothers house. Back in Japan, homesick and inspired by his childhood memories of the Herefordshire landscape he started the initial recordings for The Land and the Garden, carefully piecing together string and Mellotron soundscapes using archaic tracker software, and recording direct to cassette tape. During this time he immersed himself in the music of British classical composers such as Gustav Holst, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the minimalist work of Wim Mertens and 1970’s children's BBC soundtracks such as those by Freddie Phillips, and Vernon Elliot.
In 2014 with the album half finished Vic moved back to the UK, and after a period of disruption where his equipment was still in transit, he completed the record in the spring of 2015.
This is hugely ambitious and beautifully realised, neo-classical electronic/organic chamber music with mellotron (and associated ‘natural’ tape hiss) at the centre of much of the action going on. This is the sound of memory – a psycho-geographical survey of his British homeland largely dreamt up when Vic was way out east in Japan. The Active Listener
Vic Mars delved into his thoroughly English past for this release, pulling in vintage British Railway posters, the composer Gustav Holst and, 1970's children's television programs. The aesthetic is so deeply imbued that he’s even the classic Faber & Faber typeface… So, The Land And The Garden is kind of like English hauntology but without the spooky aspect: in fact, these pieces are rather lovely. Normans Records
A quietly stunning full length from Vic Mars on the ever-reliable Clay Pipe label. The Land and The Garden takes a bucolic look at modern composition, with enticing reed instruments and Moondog-esque percussive lines weaving an understated poignancy into the compositions. It's instantly involving, a record unboastful of its melodic and arrangement achievements and sitting somewhere between Pascal Comelade, the afore-mentioned Moondog's most melodic work and something somehow quintessentially British and nostalgic, in the best possible way. Monorail Records
The first non bandcamp release from Hereford born musician Vic Mars gives the impression of what the still shadowed pastoral of Virgina Astley's of From Gardens Where We Feel Secure would sound like if reorchestrated by Belbury Poly. The Wire