The Hardy Tree - Through Passages Of Time

This has been out quite a while now - I'd seen the artwork regularly on the Clay Pipe Twitter feed but never thought any more of it.

Wow. This is an absolutely enchanting work. It sort of channels in to 1960s/70s London but not really focusing on the Ghostbox/Hauntology angle. It's just more an album of evocations.

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Through Passages of Time continues the theme of the first album, recovering stories of vanished businesses, transformed architectures and hidden histories.  By gathering the ghosts of bygone London, The Hardy Tree preserves their memories for some while introducing them to others.  But while the specific subject may be London, the larger theme holds a universal appeal.  Most of us keep a growing list in the back of our minds of places that once beckoned, but are now gone: from a favorite tree fallen to a record shoppe shuttered to a river run dry.  We tell newcomers, “that fashion store was once a pub” or “travel down a certain path, and you might find the old deserted rail line.”  Joni Mitchell once sang, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” but a generation later, they’ve paved the parking lot and put up something else.

 

 

Through Passages of Time provides elegies for locations such as Newport Market, Sandbridge Court, Sluice House Tavern, even (*shudder*) Cut Throat Lane.  The happy use of Moog, Mellotron and other seemingly antiquated instruments is both tribute and reflection.  Once upon a time, these instruments were shiny and new, but now they seem genteel.  While listening, one remembers a not-so-distant past, and wonders at the seeming acceleration of time.

I'd seriously suggest checking it out. I see it's on Spotify and Apple Music too.

This is one of the best things I've heard in ages.

Through Passages of Time soundtracks buildings and areas of London that no longer exist. Small places stumbled upon by accident, traced on maps, and illustrated in Georgian prints. Frequently visited pubs that have been rebuilt and renamed, the ship breakers yard decorated with wooden figureheads at Baltic Wharf, or the Thames Watermen living in the shadow of the Hawksmoor designed church at Horselydown. Lost places re-imagined and brought to life using clusters of sequenced Moogs, off Kilter electronics, vibes, and Mellotron - capturing the essence of the dark city and its more bucolic outer suburbs. This is a plaint to an older stranger London that is quickly becoming priced out and forgotten. Look carefully and clues to the ancient past can still be found.

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A bit late to this one, but yes it’s an absolutely fantastic album. I never really warmed to the first Hardy Tree album, but this one seems leaps and bounds ahead. Gave it a listen on spotify, and then bought the download straight away after.

Very melodic and atmospheric, and making a nice double bill with the new Jon Brooks Applied Music album on a rainy Saturday afternoon.