Happy Christmas one and all Rachel and Bill's latest updates!

Happy Christmas from Hushland HQ!

Rachel has just released a 2 track digital Live EP from her recent Stone's Throw , Lament Of The Selkie CD launch to download For Free!



We have been delighted at how well received her Stone's Throw Lament Of The Selkie album has been this year!

Please head over to her personal blog site for her full Christmas update...
http://www.rachel-t-b.blogspot.co.uk

As well as heading up the People Around Here arts charity and releasing his Sir Silence and The Hush- End Of The Pier EP, Bill has been busy in the world of art and has just set up a new Pencil Portraits business called Hushland Portraits...



We are very much looking forward to a creative artistic and musical 2016 and send you all best for happy and peaceful Christmas season,

Rachel and Bill x

Rachel Taylor-Beales New Album Receiving Great Reviews

Rachel Taylor-Beales new album Stone's Throw, Lament of The Selkie is receiving great reviews and is now a featured album on the month on Folk Radio UK

'Outstanding' Adam Walton: BBC Radio Wales
'Hypnotic and Folk Symphonic, with exquisite vocals, haunting musicianship and captivating story lyrics' Stewart Henderson: Poet, Songwriter and BBC Radio 4 Broadcaster

Full transcript of Folk Radio UK review by David Kidman below....

Rachel Taylor-Beales is one of the true originals in the singer-songwriter world, a doggedly and proudly independent spirit whose extraordinary life-experiences thus far have undoubtedly shaped and defined her talents. Her early years involved a bewildering succession of relocations between Australia and the UK: a situation which any child would find unsettling. By the age of 12, she’d lived in 13 different homes, and the difficulty of coming to terms with this somewhat nomadic existence must have made quite a mark on her psyche, giving her a high degree of resilience and no doubt subconsciously encouraging her to forge a distinctive creative personality. This would also likely have stemmed from the presence of several artists in her family, for, always finding a spare guitar to hand in the household, Rachel started writing songs very early on. The Nottingham folk scene of her late teens was both her proving ground and the venue for a fortuitous meeting with her future husband Bill, a visual artist with whom she was to relocate back to Australia, where, forming a dedicated arts company, they spent four years touring and performing in all manner of venues and situations. Since 2000, however, Rachel and Bill have been based in Cardiff, setting up their own record label, with Rachel rapidly establishing herself as a solo performer with a strongly individual character, along the way greatly impressing master s/s Martyn Joseph and gaining an increasing number of critical plaudits through the production of a series of richly inventive studio albums firmly grounded in her own songwriting. These albums – 2004’s Brilliant Blue, 2008’s Red Tree and 2011’s Dust And Gold – together formed a fantastic “colour trilogy”, over the course of which Rachel’s narratives uncompromisingly recounted her own experiences and ongoing emotional journeys, linking these literately within the context of the universal life struggle and common spiritual quest.

Stone’s Throw, Lament of the Selkie engages directly with these themes too, taking the form of a kind of song-cycle. Some three years in the making, its creation both accompanied and was informed by a series of life-struggles that Rachel had personally undergone, including the effects of injuries sustained from a serious fall from stage, her fears of its impact on her then unborn child and the long and painful period of recovery. And it has turned out a tremendous achievement. Rachel herself describes Stone’s Throw as a dark folklore concept tale based around Selkie (Seal-Folk) mythology from the Orkney Isles, and here – following the scene-setting device of the cycle’s initial song (Seaside), with its wonderful, playfully wry observational character-study of the Selkie and what she has had to become in trying to fit into land-based society – the tragic narrative is related almost exclusively from the first-person viewpoint, addressing the listener directly from the mind of the Selkie herself and its inconsolable reflection, wherein every recalled and experienced emotion draws her back to her unavoidable loss. For her dream of living a life on land with her land-bound partner had become unsustainable, due, she realised, to their incompatible lifestyles, leaving her with no option but to return to the sea whence she came and in doing so leave that partner similarly grief-stricken. Rachel’s unique vocal personality beguiles and mesmerises; its cadences connive and convince, drawing us deep into the Selkie’s character through a timbre that’s breathy but tough and yet betokening a seductive, careful enunciation that lingers and caresses for its natural expressive effect and entices us into full sympathy with her plight while invoking the shifting-quicksand nature of her mental state.

Rachel begins the cycle in a state of relative calm and solace, with the Selkie’s body drifting and glistening in the sun, lazing almost carefree in the pursuit of summer Somersaults (nice wordplay here) when it’s Summer Again and the landscape is beguiling and dreamy. At this point, we sense, the Selkie can almost cope with her landlocked situation – until, that is, the call of the sea is too strong and she cannot but surrender plaintively to its siren-song, its sinuous beckoning reel (which neatly links the track onward into the cycle’s postlude). And May It Be signals the Selkie’s more abrupt recognition of her loss, with the first instance of the cycle’s depiction of her wandering mind. Uneasy string arabesques form a telling counterpart to piano chords that threaten to anchor her thoughts. The “voiceless voice” of the (hitherto unvoiced word) Restless takes over for the next song, adopting that very word as its title in a torrent of suffocating imagery and rumbling keyboards invoking the protagonist’s powerlessness in the face of her situation. Stone’s Throw (the title song itself) seems to bring this situation into sharp focus, a desperate perception of rootlessness and an all-too-abundantly-clear realisation for the Selkie that “this beach I sit upon I can’t call home”, a beach that even then is being submerged by the sweeping tides. Her acute desolation may up to this point have been partly assuaged by the sharing of a common experience through a mutual identity with her struggle and loss.

Yes, the initial effect of the Selkie’s intimate confessional may be therapeutic, but by the time we cross over past the cycle’s central point, into the heart-rendingly sensuous, kantele-dappled plea of Selkie’s Song with its wholly inevitable realisation that “the skin won’t fit like it used to, these bones won’t hold it so well”, there is infinitely more pain than gain in the process, and thereafter, things are never quite the same for the Selkie. The strangely warmly glacial winter-scenario In The Cold depicts the defeated Selkie left emotionally out in the bitter, cruel climate with hackles and voices “raised, like banners”. In a masterstroke of emotional seesawing, the Selkie’s vulnerability is conveyed in the ensuing would-be-comforting hymnal of Fall Into You, enveloping and cocooning her delicate voice in a veritable sea of voices and violins. Its uncontrollable ecstasy is short-lived however, as it almost suffocates before the mournful Until The Snow brings a step back into a fresh perspective of detachment in the Selkie’s necessary separation from her partner. This freshness is cleverly conveyed by the introduction of the limpid, crystalline-clear tones of harp into the texture, before the forward-driven chorus section takes over with its determined mantra of “we’ll play and we’ll play And we’ll play these chords Until the snow, until the snow”. After which, Turning The Day is a kind of summation and epilogue, a wishful, outward-probing prayer that chases the light and eventually, via a cathartic chord-change, turns the corner into the fearless resolve of its final section, declaring the Selkie’s deeply-harboured desire to bend space and time just to see her partner’s face again. On the brief instrumental reprise-cum-postlude (Ghost Of A Reel), we hear the fiddler playing for the dance at the end of time, fading from our consciousness as if to signify the cycle beginning over again perhaps? It’s a powerful yet transient image, that’s for sure.

Throughout the album (as indeed had been the case with its predecessors), Rachel’s music commendably refuses to acknowledge specific allegiance to any defined genre or sub-genre but is undoubtedly influenced and inspired by many: among them folk, roots, indie, blues, jazz and even (I’d venture to suggest) a pronounced element of pop-psych from the late-60s/early-70s. Rachel’s highly-developed singing, writing and multi-instrumental talents both seem to know no bounds and observe no boundaries, as she shape-shifts with consummate ease between modes and idioms. And yet, while this tendency renders her music indescribable in the absolute, literal sense, her vision is invariably as clear-sighted as her bewitching vocal delivery. The mildly unconventional (at least by recognised genre standards) structures of the songs may be deceptive in this regard, for there’s always a clear sense of direction to Rachel’s writing, and her imagery is both precise and tantalising in its expression.

On a purely musical (production) basis, Stone’s Throw often exhibits a partly elusive, slightly opaque quality in its rich and aromatic mixdown, imparting an engaging aura of other-worldliness, a feeling of inhabiting a slightly off-kilter alternate universe. This brilliantly mirrors the slightly queasy collation between the worlds of the everyday, Rachel’s own life-story and the time-honoured folklore of the central Selkie legend, and the nature of the lyrics, which are replete with joyously inventive wordplay, as rewarding as they are successful in conveying the essential magic and mystery of the tale. The distinctive conjured soundscapes come courtesy of Rachel’s trusty eclectic collective group of musicians, with a special tonal signature that’s largely characterised by the weaving, keening, almost spectral lines of Lucy River’s violin and the burnished embellishments of Rachel’s own electric guitar and some atmospheric guitar playing from Dylan Fowler and Bill Taylor-Beales, with further important contributions from Rosy Robinson (cello), Paul Gray (bass) and guest appearances from Rachel’s brother Shane (percussion) and Angharad Evans (backing vocals). I’d swear you can hear and feel those Orkney seascapes, the rushing and foaming and ebbing of the waves. Ethereal yet very much present; masterfully conceived and presented, and (is it fanciful to suggest?) this is very probably the sound of space and time bending (if only?… but hey now, be careful what you wish for, Rachel…).

Review by: David Kidman

Rachel Taylor-Beales 4th Studio Album Set for Release in Summer 2015

Press Release Stone’s Throw, Lament of The Selkie

This Summer sees Hushland Records release Rachel Taylor-Beales fourth studio album, a tragic folklore concept tale entitled Stone’s Throw, Lament Of The Selkie.

Taylor-Beales has brought together her ever-growing and eclectic grouping of musicians to this project, Paul Gray (formerly of The Damned, UFO, Eddie and The Hotrods) guests on bass and acclaimed virtuoso guitarist Dylan Fowler returns providing slide guitar and sonic textures. Lucy River’s versatile violin nuances a folk edge to the songs, whilst Angharad Evans backing vocals and Rosy Robinson’s cellos enhance with rich harmonic textures and tones. Rachel’s own brother Shane Beales makes a guest appearance on percussion leaving the rest of the breadth of instrumentation to her husband Bill and herself, including guitars, piano, organ, ukulele, percussion and bass. Rachel moves away from acoustic guitar strains for the majority of this album, replacing them with her own electric guitar playing. The overall vibe is a rich and intricate sound palette that embeds the album’s narrative in Taylor-Beales evocative sonic world.

The album itself is based around Selkie mythology from the Orkney Isles and charts the tragic story of Selkie, who over the arc of the narrative finds herself struggling and unable to sustain life on land with her land-bound partner and eventually returns herself to the sea leaving her partner grief stricken with loss.

“With the title track Stone’s Throw, I imagined Selkie as a refugee in a foreign land, a beautiful exotic being now working in a seafront kiosk, selling seaside tat and chips and tea. To me she was a refugee both in circumstance and in spirit. Having read reports of a seal being found hiding under a car in California earlier this year as a result of the warming oceans and the consequence of changing availability of food source, this image of the Selkie refugee has solidified in my mind.

I must admit to being worried that it would all be just too depressing, this tale of a seal-woman, whose life and loves break down to the point where she falls back into the sea leaving a devastated partner to grieve her… and I wrestled with the urge to lighten the content, but in the end the muse won out. In my personal life the last few years many folks around me have suffered loss. We’ve seen friends struggle with miscarriages, we’ve experienced the loss of a friend to suicide and the loss of family and friends to disease and we’ve seen relationships and marriages falling apart around us. This struggle with loss is a real and unavoidable part of life and the Selkie stories became a vehicle for me to process and retell something of this deep sense of loss in a way that is both personal and universal at the same time. I hope that as well as the dark themes, folks will be able to experience a beauty in the music I’ve created- that’s the intention anyway!”

The last few years Rachel has herself been no stranger to struggle,

“I fell from a high stage while on tour in Italy in the May of 2012. I was 5 months pregnant and will never forget the fear that the fall had harmed the baby. Fortunately my baby was fine, but I sustained injuries to my back and hips that took a long time to fully recover from. It was over a year after the incident that I was finally signed off from physiotherapy and then I had to begin to regain core strength as my muscles had completely atrophied from such lack of mobility and I found that I was unable to sing with any clarity or strength for quite some time. As I regained my core strength I ended up re-recording nearly all of my initial vocals as it became increasingly apparent that the earlier ones just didn’t cut in comparison.”

The album has taken a full three years to make from start to finish, and has been produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Rachel and Bill in their own Hushland Studios.

“It's been great developing our own studio and Bill and I have very much enjoyed working together on this album. I’ve never worked on a project for this amount of time before, at times I felt as if it wouldn’t ever be complete, but it is such a satisfying experience to have seen it through, to be coming to the other side of my own physical battles and to now also have a product that I’ve been able to prune and hone in a way I’ve not done before. I’m very pleased and extremely proud of the finished album!”

Stones Throw, Lament of The Selkie is released on Hushland Records July 22nd 2015 and can be ordered via Bandcamp http://www.racheltaylor-beales.bandcamp.com

Rachel Taylor-Beales To Release New Album 2015

This week Rachel Taylor- Beales has announced that she will be releasing her new album 

'Stone's Throw-Lament of the Selkie' this year 2015.

'The album features an eclectic bunch of brilliant musicians, who have all been great to work with.
Paul Gray (formerly of The Damned/Eddie and The Hot Rods /UFO) makes a guest appearance on bass for a few tracks. Lucy Rivers has provided beautiful violin throughout with additional cello strings from Rosy Robinson. Dylan Fowler has contributed slide guitars and sonic textures with his unique sound and Angharad Evans has sung additional backing vocals on many tracks. My brother Shane Beales guests on percussion and Bill Taylor-Beales (aka Sir Silence and my husband!) plays more bass, assorted guitars, percussion and a bit of organ- leaving me with main electric/acoustic guitar, piano, organ, ukulele, and lots of vocals...'

For more information on the back story of the album please visit Rachel's blog page

http://www.rachel-t-b.blogspot.co.uk

End Of The Pier, New EP Release From Sir Silence And The Hush

Press Release:

End Of The Pier, By Sir Silence And The Hush

On the 14^thof March 2015, Sir Silence And The Hush are set to release a digital 4 track EP, End OF The Pier on Hushland Records.

End of The Pier EP is a collection of toe-tapping, post apocalyptic folk-rock-roots tunes that have drawn their inspiration from the imagined world of Charlie Hush, the main protagonist in Bill Taylor-Beales debut novel Kite.

The songs chart themes of ‘End Times’ both in terms of unending rain and devastation through climate change, as well a ‘tongue in cheek’ biblical narrative. As a character, Charlie Hush finds himself on the end of the South Parade Pier, with a hotel copy of a Gideon Bible and a pack of tarot cards conversing with the dead souls of those who accidently or deliberately never made it back to shore. He later finds himself to be a victim of a terrifying climate induced event creating a personal apocalyptic scenario to add weight to his many imagined versions. The lyrics are written from the perspective of Charlie’s world with his folk, rabble roots band.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Bill and Rachel Taylor-Beales in their Hushland studio, the EP features an eclectic array of musicians including Paul Gray (former Damned/UFO/Eddie and The Hotrods) on bass.

Lucy Rivers provides violin and Stacey Blythe plays accordion. Their folk-roots melodies crossing over in dialogue and at times almost playfully jousting each other. Percussion from Shane Beales, and a guest appearance on tambourine from Melbourne based Kim Beales serve to make the collection into a family affair, with Bill and Rachel Taylor-Beales supplementing the rest of the instrumentation and vocal arrangements.

On the 14^th of March 2015 Bill Taylor-Beales will be celebrating his 50^th birthday and has decided to release End Of The Pier to coincide with this!

Please accept his invitation to join in the celebrations by downloading End Of The Pier from www.sirsilenceandthehush.bandcamp.com

(available from 14/03/2015)