Abendlandung # 163 – Electric Eden Special, Part 6

What could be a better companion on grey, bleak days than visionary music that reminds us of the hidden secret garden and the sun behind the clouds? The sixth part of the ELECTRIC EDEN series dives deep into the wondrous realms of visionary pop music, ambient soundscapes and neofolk from the 1980s and 1990s – with sounds from Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Talk Talk, O Rang, Julian Cope, Virginia Astley, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Current 93 and Martyn Bates & Max Eastley.

The Electric Eden series is a radiophonic adaptation of Rob Young’s phantastic book with the same name, an in-depth look into British visionary music from early 20th to early 21st century, with a strong focus on folk and folk rock.

In his groundbreaking survey of more than a century of music making in the British Isles, Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations – song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators.

In a sweeping panorama of Albion’s soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp / the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams / the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd / the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle / the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd / the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees / The Wicker Man and occult folklore / the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals / and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk / Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism.