12" vinyl, in reverse board sleeve. 500 hand numbered copies.
The Hardy Tree is the musical project of Clay Pipe Music's founder Frances Castle, her first LP ' The Fields Lie Sleeping Underneath' was the initial release on the label over five years ago.
Through Passages of Time soundtracks buildings and areas of London that no longer exist. Small places stumbled upon by accident, traced on maps, and illustrated in Georgian prints. Frequently visited pubs that have been rebuilt and renamed, the ship breakers yard decorated with wooden figureheads at Baltic Wharf, or the Thames Watermen living in the shadow of the Hawksmoor designed church at Horselydown. Lost places re-imagined and brought to life using clusters of sequenced Moogs, off Kilter electronics, vibes, and Mellotron - capturing the essence of the dark city and its more bucolic outer suburbs. This is a plaint to an older stranger London that is quickly becoming priced out and forgotten. Look carefully and clues to the ancient past can still be found.
SPENCER'S PICK OF THE WEEK - The Hardy Tree, Through The Passages Of Time (Clay Pipe Music) Another beautiful release from Clay Pipe here. Delicate melodies weave themselves in and out of wonderful, warm Moog synths & mellotrons creating an enchanting wistful paean to an England long forgotten. This is hauntingly beautiful and easily one of the records of the year. Please go seek it out and support this amazing label. Spencer Hickman, (DeathWaltz Records) Mondo Music Weekly.
"Through Passages of Time" belongs to another (green) world and congratulations should go to Frances Castle for divining this wonderfully touching collection and successfully capturing it on tape. It's musical psycho-geography par excellence and probably the most human record you will hear all year. Get it while you can as, like much of the city it commemorates, I am sure it will be gone before you know it.The Active Listener
Castle draws distinctive scenes that are as alluring and enigmatic as her acclaimed artwork. An understated yet remarkable genre-bending pleasure in short. DOA
This is a wonderful record, a record that would appeal to anyone who likes good music, but especially rewarding for anyone of a certain age who likes the Vic Mars album The Land And The Garden out on the same label or indeed anyone who is familiar with the music of Vernon Elliott. It is both nostalgic yet modern. Terrascope
Castle draws distinctive scenes that are as alluring and enigmatic as her acclaimed artwork. An understated yet remarkable genre-bending pleasure in short. DOA
This is a wonderful record, a record that would appeal to anyone who likes good music, but especially rewarding for anyone of a certain age who likes the Vic Mars album The Land And The Garden out on the same label or indeed anyone who is familiar with the music of Vernon Elliott. It is both nostalgic yet modern. Terrascope
Through Passages of Time provides elegies for locations such as Newport Market, Sandbridge Court, Sluice House Tavern, even (*shudder*) Cut Throat Lane. The happy use of Moog, Mellotron and other seemingly antiquated instruments is both tribute and reflection. A Closer Listen.