“All This Remains” by Bert Jansch & Hope Sandoval

Wet cold Sundays require warm nourishing music, so here’s a collaboration between legendary Scottish folk guitarist Bert Jansch (Pentangle) and American musician Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions), “All This Remains”:

“All This Remains” is from Jansch’s 2002 album “On The Edge of a Dream”, released the year after Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions “Bavarian Fruit Bread” which he contributed to. “Bavarian Fruit Bread” was released on Rough Trade Records in 2001. It’s an essential album, but long out of print, with the LP version selling for hundreds of dollars now, and even the CD edition of the album and two related CD EPs “At The Doorway Again” (2000) and “Suzanne” (2002) are hard to find.

As Jansch explains in the sleeve notes: “I played on a couple of tracks on Hope’s album “Bavarian Fruit Bread”, and loved the imagery she evokes – particularly American, but shrouded in mystery. It was suggested we do some writing together, a collaboration, and here it is: “All This Remains.”

As well as Jansch’s acoustic guitar and Sandoval’s vocal, “All This Remains” features subtle percussion from her Warm Inventions collaborator Colm O’Ciosoig (My Bloody Valentine) and Jansch’s son on Adam on bass.

“Alex” by Caroline No

Here’s a treat from Melbourne which casts a little magic. It’s “Alex”, the opening track from the forthcoming “Swimmers” mini-album by Caroline No:

There’s a gentle tension here, a song sounding like the band is playing it for the second or third time so it hints at stumbling at times as it comes together at the start but never does so. In the process it gives the music a kind of very human vulnerable immediacy which draws in and involves the listener.

Caroline Kennedy’s voice also draws in the listener. There’s perhaps some of the melodic directness of a reflective Dagmar Krause in Slapp Happy (matched by the music here) but also the kind of dreamy warm cadence of Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions) while – just to confuse and confound you further –  sounding like neither really.

Mick Turner (The Dirty Three) is a familiar name on keyboards and guitar here but the rest of the Caroline No back story  is a Melbourne mystery to me, so here’s what they say on their Facebook page:

“Caroline No is a project built around the songs of Caroline Kennedy (guitar and vocals) of Plums / Deadstar fame, with Ian Wadley (Mad Nanna, Bird Blobs, St Helens) on drums, then guitar, then moving to bass a few gigs ago with the arrival of David McMillan (Dag) on drums… Occasional keyboard player Helen Johnstone (Garbage and the Flowers) first appeared during the recording of what became the No Language cassette, which has just been re-released on vinyl by Cincinnati label Students Of Decay. Caroline and Ian first worked together on Don’t Tell The Driver, the most recent LP from Mick Turner (Dirty 3) as well as his ‘big band’ assembled to promote it. Around this Mick started work producing a Caroline No album Swimmers, due for release later this year. Think Velvet Underground, Blake Babies, Young Marble Giants, American Spring…”

“I Don’t Mind” by Psychic Ills

Psychic Ills – Tres Warren & Elizabeth Hart

Psychic Ills is a duo based in New York – Tres Warren and Elizabeth Hart. I’ve somehow missed hearing them before, but tuned into ABC Radio’s Inside Sleeve show today as “I Don’t Mind” was playing & thought “hmm, that sounds like Hope Sandoval…”

Turns out this Psychic Ills track from their new (and apparently 5th) album “Inner Journey Out” is indeed a pairing of the inimitable voice of Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star, Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions) and Psychic Ills’ Tres Warren.

“I Don’t Mind” and other tracks streaming on their bandcamp page for the album demonstrate a blissful use of drones and repetition in sparse mid-paced songs. The relaxed/ relaxing meditative feel is reminds me of Spacemen 3 (try their fabulous The Perfect Prescription album) filtered through influences from astral Americana, gospel and sun-bleached desert psych-blues-rock.

Very good indeed… time to check out more of the Psychic Ills catalogue now!