more from
Cuculi Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

13 Moons

by Hands of the Heron

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Plastic-free digifile case with original artwork by Jess Grimsdale

    Includes unlimited streaming of 13 Moons via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 30 days

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

1.
Summer harvest broken hearts We are bruised fruit fallen from the same branch I'll take winged loves hidden knife Split us wide open Scatter the seeds for the next life
2.
Reckoning 04:05
I let you see behind the scenes, to the unseen, to my deep sea, each ugly unheard fragment of me. Where do I end and you begin? You've made a nest under my skin. On this last day of reckoning, should I let you back in? If I let you back in, will I just go on sleepwalking, While all my friends do all the talking? We both walk in the shadows, we lie still in the dark, we dance like fighting magnets, pushed together, torn apart. I pull your head to my chest to hear my once-again, once-again beating heart. You know my bones, you know my bones, you know.
3.
See the little dog, see the little brown dog Bounding through the long grass Hidden by the trees, hidden by the hedgerows, running from my deadlines at the dying of the year. October smells like change, and woodsmoke, and the dropping of the amber leaves. The tones of the watercolour fade into one another. The tones of the watercolour fade into one another. October smells like change.
4.
When I was a young girl, I used to spend my whole time skipping, skipping rope. Now I'm a bit older, I just get tangled in the skipping, skipping rope. How did I do it? How did I know how to skip? How did I do it? How did I know how not to trip? Slipping through time Down undefined lines Consequences and signs pass my blinking eyes But time's just a construct of my mind, of my mind. Time's just a construct of my mind, and I don't want to be defined.
5.
Briefly burns the copper green flame Hard-won the knowledge of my own name Days don't always work out as they seem The way that things have been is not the way they have to be.
6.
Dip my brush into the ocean, paint the colours of contrary motion. From the source, let it be between our souls, a moving sea. Don't wanna give you terms and conditions when my harbour's a few bricks short of a prison. I taught you to dive, taught you to wade into the cold water while you showed me that I was already the moon's dancing daughter. Dip my brush into the ocean, paint the colours of contrary motion.
7.
Softly spoken woman, speak softly to me of the things that you have seen, of the pieces you have been. I saw you, I saw you, hiding within. Caught a glimpse of you, caught a glimpse of you just beneath my skin. A reminder, a reminder... That a softly spoken woman speaks softly through me Telling of her stories for those who listen, listen, listen, listen. The only one holding you back is inside your head The thoughts that you think, well, in the tapestry, they are the thread. And all that exists in this moment is of your choosing. Negative thoughts of self-doubt to your soul are a bruising. Because a softly spoken woman speaks softly through you. Mother, maiden, child Warrior, priestess too. Flowing like water, she changes her course. Flowing like water, she changes her course. Flowing like water, she changes her course. Flowing like water, she changes her course. I know a softly spoken woman speaks softly through me. Telling of her stories, for those who listen, truly listen, want to listen to me.
8.
I do not live as half of a double page spread. I gave up that debtor's dream to dwell in an oil painting, a brushstroke, a blue fleck. Or I am a violin - would you have me played to hear the ancient xylem sing? Perhaps you would play me, with cursed hands to hear an unsung spine. You have a tongue in twines, like little snakes, turning your teeth to stone and freezing the dreaming words in their wake. But, if I am a violin, finger-plucked and pliant, command me with your unspent poetry and I may bend and fire a flaming arrow at your will. Or - I might not. For there are days when every other sound is nothing more to my evergreen ears than the incessant self-pity of a car alarm. And, on those days, I pull paint-stained hands back to myself, and stretch, and sigh in my finest tuning. On those days, I am content to sing myself to the unseen spheres, where songs yet sung, in flickering echo caves, as bats in sonic bloom, await, with patient fate, my twinned hands and ready tongue. I am a seedling at the end of summer, I am a seedling at the end of summer, I am a seedling at the end.
9.
Moonbloom 05:30
Moonbloom, moonbloom Moonbloom, moonbloom What is the phase written on your face? What is the phase written on your face? Too late, too late, open the gate, open the gate and let me walk around on this almost hallowed ground. Moonbloom, moonbloom Moonbloom, moonbloom Meet on the hill where the stars and the satellites kiss where our breath becomes small and still in this fleeting wilderness. Here, beneath the moon, each city nymph and urban beast and the burning earth beneath make this almost hallowed feast. Can your light show me which way to turn? Don't know how much longer this fire will burn I'm questing for questions, surviving on crusts I don't earn as each day gives me lessons I ought to learn. Moonbloom, moonbloom Moonbloom, moonbloom
10.
Solar System 03:49
Take me to the swimming pool where chlorine bites, and dapples lie Open-eyed and hair astray, gather together in my name I've done this before. I swim now for my own will in a paint box, I dance. Skim curls upon your skin as smooth as the damp sky falling in, a brave hand gathering. I am a solar system I am a planetary composition Once blended with white light and grass stems, I sit. I am my own bleakness the other side... Notes kissing my useless hands Do you see now? Do you see now?
11.
As the wind blows right through me, I am already there. Swirling twirling all around me, I am so nearly there. Endless days and endless nights and endless days and endless nights, silently sitting, endlessly, endlessly, I am so nearly there. As the sun shines right through me, I am already there. Continuously beating down, I am so nearly there. Endless days and endless nights and endless days and endless nights, silently sitting, endlessly, endlessly, I am so nearly there. (Endlessly, endlessly, endlessly) The woods are a place for a woman alone in her thoughts, in her mind, in heart's beating to, needing to be alone Take me outside I've been locked in a box, a box made of bricks for too long. Endless days and endless nights Take me outside I'm a woman alone I am already there Endless days and endless nights Take me outside I've been locked in a box I am so nearly there. Needing to be alone, take me outside, take me outside. As the wind blows right through me, I am already there.
12.
Sorrow Spun 03:20
I spun my sorrow as a spider's web and the more that I struggled, the more tangled I did get and I've found no way out yet. I swam my sorrow as an octopus; when I pulled free of its tentacles, black ink blinded my eyes and the sea swallowed my cries. I sang my sorrow as a violin and it was as beautiful as silver glistening and I lay down listening.

about

A moonlit swirl of skilful textures, a hymn to freedom of creative expression, a warmhearted tribute to community. Ranging from complex vocal canons to irresistible folk-pop gems, Hands of the Heron’s new album 13 Moons is a proudly collective effort from an extraordinary crew of songwriters and multi-instrumentalists - managing to showcase the individual talents of each of its members while presenting a unified musical vision.

Fans of alternative folk music will perhaps already have encountered Hands of the Heron by now. For the past few years, they’ve honed their considerable musical skills and songwriting talents in a variety of live settings. From hidden corners of festival fields to main stage billings, from stripped back acoustic sessions to full sets in some of the country’s most prestigious venues, the sheer range of their musical activity speaks to an admirable combination of drive and versatility.

Perhaps it is this breadth of experience that has made them so comfortable traversing the range of sounds and styles on offer here - from classical inspired choral pieces to dreamy folk-pop, from psychedelic meandering electric arrangements to minimal, lyric led songwriting. The diversity of stylistic experiments and explorations also reflects the way the album came about. Each song is credited as having been written and arranged by the entire band (with the exception of closing track ‘Sorrow Spun’, contributed by their long-term collaborator Ben Osborn). Lyrics come from each of the bands frontwomen, with different members of the ensemble taking the lead at different moments throughout the album. Add to that the fact that each musician happily swaps instrument time and time again, and the result is an eclectic but clear-sighted album with a unified collective voice.

A richly textured ensemble work, 13 Moons is also breathtakingly intimate - the details of each individual voice and instrument discernible despite the complexity of some of the arrangements. From the opening vocal canon of ‘Summer Harvest’, you might think you were hearing something ancient; there’s a hint of Hildegard von Bingen in the close knit voices. It’s a feeling that re-emerges through the album in beautiful, not-quite-classical vocal interludes like ‘Watercolour Fade’, whose long, stony reverb was captured authentically on location at the hundred-year old church of St Annes in Bristol. In Moonbloom - the album’s first single, a haunting lunar lullaby - the same classical-inspired vocal style is embedded within a sparse but steady folk instrumentation of rhythmic pizzicato and Bec Garthwaite’s ethereal flute playing. On ‘Reckoning’, the intricate intertwining of Bethany M. Roberts’ picked banjo and Tom Yates’ electric guitar beneath the vocals bring to mind Sandy Denny-era Fairport Convention or Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon period.

The album’s name refers to the lunar year: a circular and more ancient view of time than the Gregorian calendar. It implies a connection to something sacred and ethereal, but also to something physical and material. What emerges from it is a contrasting mixture of hushed reverence and playful dancing and weaving of musical and lyrical themes.

Despite using neither drumkit nor bass, there’s a gentle rhythmic drive throughout the album showing the influence of folk-pop, folk-rock and psychedelia. Pizzicato strings and gentle percussion provide rhythm, while bass comes from the reeds of the accordion or clarinet. Working with co-producer Alex McIntyre, the band use this unusual instrumentation to their advantage by giving as much as space as possible to the voices, allowing their full range to be explored.

There are reoccurring themes explored by each of the lyricists here, each of whom offers moments of profound self-discovery that range from the psychedelic to the everyday, blending philosophical depth with wry humour. In reverberating folk-pop song Solar System, Bea Rose Piper playfully explores images of loneliness: I am a solar system, I am a planetary composition. As if in response: The woods are a place for a woman alone, sings Claire Vine on the rousing ‘Take Me Outside’. I do not live as half of a double-page spread, proclaims Bethany M. Roberts on string-laden spoken-word number ‘Tongue in Twines’. While in the third single ‘Softly Spoken Woman’, Bec Garthwaite blends self-discovery with questions of perception:
The only one holding you back is inside your head
The thoughts that you think, well, in the tapestry, they are the thread…

In keeping with the collective nature of the project, 13 Moons is released on Cuculi Records: a new independent label run by band members Bethany Roberts and Bec Garthwaite as a space to cultivate their own music alongside the solo projects and offshoot collaborations born from the band. The album will be released on 5 February 2021. It includes the singles ‘Moonbloom’ (20 Nov), ‘Solar System’ (11 Dec) and ‘Softly Spoken Woman’ (22 Jan), all of which have music videos directed by different members of the Cuculi Records community.

credits

released February 5, 2021

Bec Garthwaite: vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, drum
Bea Piper: vocals, accordion, acoustic guitar
Beth Roberts: vocals, banjo, violin
Claire Vine: vocals, clarinet, saxophone
Tom Yates: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar

Cajon: George Whitcombe
Additional strings (tracks 8, 9 & 11) arranged by Bethany M. Roberts, recorded by Bethany M. Roberts & Rowan Elliott

Tracks 1-11 written & arranged by Hands of the Heron
Track 12 written by Ben Osborn & arranged by Hands of the Heron
Tracks 1 & 11 recorded by Hands of the Heron at home during lockdown
Tracks 2, 4-10 & 12 recorded by Theo Passingham at Phantom DS studios
Track 3 recorded by Alex McIntyre in St Anne's church, Greenbank
Album co-produced by Alex McIntyre & Hands of the Heron
Album mixed by Alex McIntyre
Album mastered by Ben Capp

Released by Cuculi Records

2020 © Hands of the Heron / Cuculi Records

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Hands of the Heron Bristol, UK

Alt-folk with all the harmonies.

New album 13 Moons OUT NOW: "A wondrous collection of curious story-songs, choral singing and carefully layered instrumentation" (Joyzine) with "songwriting mastery that perfectly delivers reverberating folk-pop" (Tap The Feed) ... more

contact / help

Contact Hands of the Heron

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Hands of the Heron, you may also like: