Uncanny Landscapes

An interview by Justin Hopper with Cheryl E. Leonard.

Cheryl E. Leonard is a musician, sound artist and composer who lives in Northern California and works there - or in Antarctice, or Scotland, or Scandinavia... Her practice of making compositions 'of' and 'with' place combines field recordings with music made from original instruments built from natural objects.

Her website is https://allwaysnorth.com/ and she's also on Instagram.

Her album Antarctica: Music from the Ice is available from Bandcamp: https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/antarctica-music-from-the-ice

A new release just out is Littoral: https://ruralsituationism.bandcamp.com/album/littoral

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

For this special episode, I walked on the South Downs with Jim Jupp of Belbury Poly and Ghost Box Records, discussing the latest BP album The Path.

Good friend of the podcast Jim Jupp recently released a new album under his Belbury Poly name, and through Ghost Box, the record label he co-founded with artist/designer Julian House.

Rather than a solo piece, however, this one involves a 'band' setting augmenting his synths and obsessions with library-music inspired claustrophobic soundtrack-funk, plus my own contribution as narrator, telling a vague tale of a walker descending into madness on the uncanny paths of England.

We walked and talked at the end of the summer, and here 'tis...

Check out Belbury Poly's The Path through all the normal record-shopping and streaming spots, and Ghost Box Records' own shoppe. The music is, obviously, also from that album. BP did the Uncanny Landscapes title theme, too...

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram.

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

Coming up very soon: new episodes featuring landscape artist and composer Cheryl E. Leonard and writer James Canton, and more!

[[Caveat: there were technical issues with this episode; I think I've solved most of them, but apologies for weird stuff that may haunt the ep!]]

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with artist Kirsty Badenoch and writer Tom Jeffreys.

Kirsty and Tom have an exhibition 9-12 November at Staffordshire Street Gallery in Peckham, London, UK, featuring new work made in the remaining patches of boreal forest in northern Scotland.

For information on the exhibition, visit Staffordshire St's website. 

Kirsty Badenoch and Tom Jeffreys each have a site, too, which will help you find out more about the artists book that accompanies the exhibition.

The music in this episode is the track Unnamed Unseen from Memory Islands, a highly recommended new album by violinist Ellie Wilson.

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram.

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

An interview by Justin Hopper with Frances Castle of Clay Pipe Music.

Frances Castle is a London-based artist, illustrator and musician who operates Clay Pipe Music, a record label producing beautiful landscape-inspired LPs and CDs of music combining folk, electronica and hauntological themes.

Clay Pipe's website is http://www.claypipemusic.co.uk/

Frances's own site is https://www.francescastle.com/

This episode includes partial and full tracks from a number of Clay Pipe artists including Frances's own The Hardy Tree. They are all available here from Clay Pipe's Greedbag page. In order of appearance:

A Confluence by Andrew Wasylyk

Walter R Stokes by The Hardy Tree

Saxon Chapel by Tyneham House

Broken Circle by Zyggurat

Adlestrop by Gilroy Mere

Sun Caught Cloud like the Belly of a Cat by Andrew Wasylyk

The Spire of St Mary's by The Hardy tree

Face in the Window, Seaforth Crescent by The Hardy Tree

Stagdale in the Snow by The Hardy Tree

Holloways by Vic Mars

 

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with Lally MacBeth and Matthew Shaw, founders of Stone Club.

Stone Club is an online and in-person affiliation of people in love with ancient landscapes, founded two years ago by artists MacBeth and Shaw. They'll talk about the background on 'why stone club', the importance of mystical landscape and the work influenced and inspired by the places they inhabit.

Stone Club's website is stoneclub.rocks where you can find out about membership, events and ways to join in.

The music in this episode is by Stone Club's Matthew Shaw, who has his own website.

Lally MacBeth also operates the Folk Archive, and other projects, available at this site o'er here.

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram; there is an Uncanny Landscapes twitter feed.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

An interview by Justin Hopper with artist and writer Camilla Nelson.

Camilla Nelson is an artist whose work explores the materiality of language, particularly in regards to the other-than-human.

Her workshop BECOMING begins soon and is an exploration of ways to engage with fungus, birds, animals, plants and more through language and art. She'll discuss this online workshop as well as her own work as an artist, writer, performer and educator.

For more on her work and courses, Camilla's Singing Apple Press has a website.

The music in this episode is by Kyron from the album Dreaming Eden, available on LP or as a Download.

Dan Fox's substack is here.

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and includes the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram; there is an Uncanny Landscapes twitter feed.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with artist and musician Jem Finer.

Jem Finer is an artist and musician whose work spans the musical gamut from co-founding The Pogues to creating Longplayer, a 1,000-year-long composition that has been performing itself, so far, for 23 years.

On Mayday, Finer and co-conspirator Jimmy Cauty (of the KLF) release the first record as Local Psycho - a hurdy-gurdy led acid-barn-dance band - and will infuse a newly erected standing stone with its sounds.

Jem talks about Local Psycho and Longplayer, as well as other projects of his, archaeo-astronomy and 'psychocosmology', and more.

Jem's got a website, as does Local Psycho and their label, Heavenly Recordings. The music in this episode is also by Jem, from his album Hrdy-Grdy on Thanet Tape Centre.

 

Caught by the River's event on 29 April includes the new Hurdy-Gurdy standing stone. Separately, Jem is playing Norwich on 5 May.

 

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and has the first post of the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram; there is an Uncanny Landscapes twitter feed.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

An interview by Justin Hopper with artist and roboticist Ian Ingram.

Ian Ingram is an artist and roboticist based in California. His practice is concerned with building robots - kinetic sculptures - that attempt to communicate with animals in their own languages.

 

So, for example, you'll hear him discuss a 'lizard' robot that does push-ups the way some lizards do, to mark territory - yet through a robot inspired by Brancusi. Or a 'squirrel' robot that uses its tails to signal danger to its wanna-be species.

 

Besides his website, Ian has a TIkTok with loads of videos, and Instagram, too. It's well worth looking at these to see the robots while you listen.

 

The music in this episode is by the great guitarist Nick Jonah Davis, from his album When the Sun Came - appropriately spring-like and acoustic for Ian's playful, joyful robots.

 

Host Justin Hopper has an Uncanny Landscapes substack - it's free, and has the first post of the podcast + more. JH can be found via LinkTree or on Instagram; there is an Uncanny Landscapes twitter feed.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly, courtesy Ghost Box Records.

 

The Uncanny Landscapes icon is by Stefan Musgrove.

 

Uncanny Landscapes #12 -Michael Pawlyn

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with architect, writer and systems thinker Michael Pawlyn.

 

Michael Pawlyn is a pioneer in the field of biomimicry - drawing inspiration from mechanisms found in the nonhuman world to inspire architecture and design - and a leading name in regenerative thinking. Michael was one of the key figures in designing the Eden Project, and the Sahara Forest Project and he's co-founder of Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. He operates his own practice, Exploration Architecture.

 

His latest book, Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, is available here.

 

Flourish's co-author is Sarah Ichioka - she has her own site, as well as one for her practice, Desire Lines.

 

I encountered Michael and his work at Flipside Festival 2021: Searching for Albion - a festival of the literature of place held annually in rural Suffolk. Join the Flipside mailing list here.

 

The music is by Woodchester Piano Company, from the album Persevera, available from their bandcamp page.

 

Special thanks to Gareth Evans.

 

Host Justin Hopper can be found via Twitter and Link Tree. There is also an Uncanny Landscapes twitter account.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrove

Uncanny Landscapes #11 - Richard Skelton

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with writer, artist and musician Richard Skelton. 

 

Richard Skelton is a writer, artist and musician whose work explores the human relationship to landscape; along with the poet Autumn Richardson, he is co-founder of Corbel Stone Press, a preeminent venue for contemporary and historical writing about place and nature from around the world.

 

Links:

 

Corbel Stone Press's website and the bandcamp site for their Aeolian music imprint are the places to start exploring Richard and Autumn's work. This includes Richard's latest book, Stranger in the Mask of a Deer, the album Four Workings and their journal, Reliquiae, which are featured in this interview, as well as just-released new publications, recordings and artworks.

 

Host Justin Hopper can be found via Twitter and Link Tree.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative