Army of Briars is a group in the maverick tradition of British folk related music. We're interested in the extended songforms pioneered by greats such as Pentangle, John Martyn, Incredible String Band, and in that line of music as it exists both on stage and in the studio.

The striking and personal imagery of Keith's words is central to the sound and feeling of our first record together, and gives the work as a whole the feeling of being a coherent song cycle. Tim's music is informed by both the folk tradition in which he mainly works, and also by his early training in classical music which comes across in his sometimes unexpected melodic and structural twists. This is contrast to Martin's more improvisatory approach to the studio arrangements, which he likens to a process of painting sounds across, and sometimes over, Tim's music. The focus of the music though is Julie Cole's delivery in a voice of great purity and inner power, and an instantly recognisable sound.

The album begins with the deceptively simple and pretty "To fall", which went through a number of versions before we settled on the rather churchy / Cale like (depending on your perspective) organ . "4 riddles" presents us with the challenge of setting a text where every line begins with "I", and benefits from the grandeur of mellotron (an instrument whose sound character is like the opening of a door into an alien world) at full throttle. Tim's haunting melody on "Mist on the barrows" hangs over an organ drone and 2 laptop manipulated psaltery improvisations dropped by several octaves, while granular-scrambled voices whisper ominously in the background. "The deep park" makes spine tingling (and our first ever) use of harmony voices, and features the only extended improvisation on the record. "A lesson" packs a lush and detailed arrangement into a very short space, with the unison sopranino and electric violin line echoing the otherworldly East of Eden sound. "Hunting stone and light" is beefed up by Terry Todd's fretless bass and a full horn section. "Who but i" features a complex counterpoint vocal over a solemn progession from the guitar and improvised organ clusters. "I travelled north" is maybe the most complex piece, beginning with Tim's baroque melody and instrumental filligrees over a syncopated bassline, and eventually giving way to a collage of laptop manipulated voices which is similar to Martin's "usual" music. "On nine barrow down" features Tim's lead vocal, and a real brass band recorded in Martin's front room, and conducted by him standing on the settee. The surprising organ coda references the great and timeless Faust sound. More dramatic mellotron on the mournful "Birdless", featuring Tim's sweetest melody of the record, before the closer "Gatherer" reprises the lyrical form of the earlier "4 riddles" with a yearning melody over looping synth arpeggios.

Our intention was to create a record of timeless and classic beauty, nothing less. Of course, only time will tell, but we believe we've succeeded. We've certainly pooled our collective skills and pushed them to the limit. As with most Discus releases, we've been superbly engineered and produced by Charlie Collins.

About the musicians

Tim and Julie Cole are a folk duo from Sheffield who are known for their original arrangements of traditional songs. Julie also has an interest in baroque singing, and they have created a folk / baroque style in their recent collaboration with harpsichordist Andrew Watson.

Keith Jafrate is a poet and musician who has spent the last 20 years experimenting with different ways of combining words and music. He's still experimenting, mostly with combinations of players in the collective known as Orfeo 5, and as part of The Word Hoard artists' cooperative. His last book was Songs for Eurydice (Stride Publications)

Martin Archer inhabits a space between free improv, extended rock and contemporary classical musics. He curates the Discus label, on which his work is extensively documented, and he has been described (by journalist Ben Watson) as "bright eyed and cleverer than 1000 contemporary musicians".

This release available principally online from www.discus-music.co.uk