Description:	CD on Wayside And Woodland
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Experimental Indie
	Label:	Wayside And Woodland
	Price:	£8.29
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

5
...according to our Phil on 01 April 2010.

Over the years we've sold about a million Epic 45 records. You guys... you love 'em! Well here's another one for you of sorts. It's by EL Heath which is Eric from Epic 45 and it's released on their Wayside And Woodland label. The album is named after Snailbeach lead Mine which was the largest lead mine in the UK back in the olden days when things were harder than they are now. He used to visit there as a child and it obviously had an effect on him as he's returned as an adult after saving up for recording equipment :) and recorded some of the sounds of the rusted up machinery and built up an album around those sounds. Listening to it though you wouldn't know that. It's gorgeous and there's not an industrial clank in site :)...... The Music is very much like latter Stars of The Lid (the last album comes to mind). Rich warm waves of neo classical drone wash over. Occasional vocal tracks take on a different approach as they go down a more British 60's folk route..... They blend seamlessly as the folk tracks still have some of the those warm sounding drones in the bacground. A remarkably moving and soulful album which gets my highest recommendation!

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Sound clips for Snailbeach Mines Trust by El Heath: on CD at Norman Records UK. CD, Wayside And Woodland, W&W009, £8.29.

What their label says...

Snailbeach Mines Trust is the first Wayside and Woodland release from Shropshire based
multi-instrumentalist, Eric Heath. Born in Athens, Georgia, he was brought up in
London and moved to Snailbeach in Shropshire around the age of 6. Eric lived in Snailbeach
up until he was 16. Now 26, he’s been writing and releasing music for 5 years,
mainly through internet sites and CDR labels. He’s also involved with many local bands
and solo artists including epic45, Rob Dunsford (playing accordion on his tracks for the
"Shared" album, produced by Wonder Stuff frontman Miles Hunt), The Exploits of Elaine,
Strap the Button and many more.
Shropshire is the largest inland county in England, flanked by the Welsh county of Powys, Herefordshire,
Cheshire and Staffordshire. The mainly unspoilt countryside and many myths and legends, as well as its
proximity to Wales makes it curious place to live, and Eric draws upon this geographical location greatly in his work.
Snailbeach Lead Mine, in its heyday, was the largest lead mine in England. Though mining took place from Roman times right up until about 1950, the 1800s saw a massive expansion in mining in the area, Eric explains..... “The strange, disconnected atmosphere of Snailbeach really affected me every time I returned, anxious to find every hidden entrance and lost building on the maps, also visiting places such as the Reservoir, which I used to play in as a child. I took some field recordings and sampled the sounds of some of the rusted up machinery and built this idea for an album in my head. I went back home and started recording music round these sounds, mainly interested in mixing the feeling of revisiting an old "haunt" with the age and history of the area. As a child I often imagined what it would be like to be able to explore all the blocked off caverns and levels of the mines, the sound of rushing water and the darkness was both forbidding and exciting. It is a place shrouded in mystery.”
Using guitar, organ, keyboard, field recordings, martenot, piano and voice as the starting point for each of these pieces, Eric then spent time shaping these ideas and fragments to reflect his emotions of returning to somewhere very much engrained in his own childhood. As a result, the pieces display a great deal of emotional depth, ambient beauty and warmth, evocative one minute of the bucolic songs of Nick Drake and Virginia Astley, then effortlessly shifting towards the more reverb drenched layers and textures of Stars of the Lid and Brian Eno.
Eric is currently a full time member of the epic45 live band and will be releasing another full length album via Wayside and Woodland this summer entitled ‘Shropshire Hill Country’.