Psychedelic duo Cobalt Chapel will release second album ‘Orange Synthetic’ on 29th January 2021, through Klove Recordings. Listen to the opening track ‘In Company’ here. Watch the ‘In Company’ video here. Pre order album here.
‘Orange Synthetic’ is an exploration of the epic county they call home, Yorkshire, written during the chaos of this tumultuous turn of the decade. Rooted firmly in place, it is inspired by the humanity, anecdotes and folklore of the region, the creatures and legends of the dramatic landscape surrounding them. The name stems from a line in the title track, telling the story of the fateful Yorkshire Folk, Blues & Jazz Festival in Krumlin, W. Yorkshire, fifty years ago. Hit by a wild storm, it resulted in the devastation of the site, near-deaths from exposure and the promoter being found wandering the moors, days later.
“‘Orange Synthetic’ is music grounded in the Yorkshire earth: its people, the surrounding nature, landscape, and its mythology, from the distant past to modern life. The story of the Krumlin Festival captures something about this island in its disaster – how you can start out with a dream and end up wrapped in a survival blanket, suffering from exposure, on a cold, wet Pennine hillside. It’s an image which reflects the lost, end-of-days feeling of where we’re at now.” (Cecilia Fage & Jarrod Gosling)
‘In Company’ imagines life through the eyes of the writer Angela Carter as a child, evacuated to Yorkshire during the war, listening to her grandmother tell the dark fairytale about a young girl and a wolf, at a time when death and destruction was all around her. It explores the idea of a ‘disobedient girl’, of women who break the rules and defy the conventions expected of them.
‘Our Angel Polygon’ was the first track released from the album, inspired by a personal fascination with RAF Fylingdales, the ballistic missile early warning centre on the east coast of Yorkshire. Its huge geodesic domes, like giant golf balls from a sci-fi film, stood in the middle of the moors, and while controversial at first were iconic by the time they were dismantled.
Cobalt Chapel’s atmospheric style remains distinctively their own, through Cecilia Fage’s crisp English vocals and choral arrangements, and Jarrod Gosling’s use of organs such as the Vox Continental, Philicorda, and the USSR-era Elektronik. These are the foundations of their rich, experimental yet melodic sound.
Following the release of their much-lauded debut eponymous album and tour dates including Festival slots at Green Man, Festival No.6 and This Is Psychedelia, the pair have been working on diverse projects; Jarrod releasing ‘Pig Views’, his latest album for his project Regal Worm, continued collaboration with Dean Honer as I Monster, and creating the award-winning album artwork for Tim Bowness. Cecilia playing on Daniel Pemberton & Samuel Sim’s soundtrack for the Netflix series ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’, recorded and live work with Matt Berry & The Maypoles, plus touring with Maps and contributing vocals on his latest album ‘Colour. Reflect. Time. Loss’, released through Mute.