Sidney Sager and The Ambrosian Singers - Children of the Stones LP

Sidney Sager and The Ambrosian Singers - Children of the Stones LP (Trunk/UK)

They Say:

First ever release of the scariest, most inappropriate and possibly most influential kids TV music of all time. When Children of the Stones (AKA COTS) was first shown on kids TV back in 1977, just about anyone who watched was scared shitless. The seven-part drama centered around disturbing happenings in a strange pagan village of very weird and unusually happy people, all set in the midst of the stone circle at Avebury -- known as Milbury for the show. The series shown across British TV (and USA TV in 1980) would scar, disturb, and influence an entire generation. Without COTS it's unlikely there would be hauntology, a relentless interest spooky folk stuff, stone circle clubs, weird walks, and a hunger for such pagan oddities everywhere. And COTS really is the key TV series in many of these modern movements, way before The Wicker Man. Even though The Wicker Man was released in 1973, it was an adult film only released to a few cinemas. Very few people saw it and its influence really started in the late 1990s with the first release of the music. Whereas COTS, on the other hand, was show at 5PM, on schooldays, to a whole nation of impressionable kids, who had never seen or heard anything quite like it. The power of COTS runs deep. So much so Stewart Lee made a whole documentary about it. The release of this long-awaited album will be a "Happy Day" for many. According to rumor, the director of the show was listening to Penderecki as he first approached Avebury to scope out locations. Sidney Sager and The Ambrosian Singers produced and avant-garde and often quite oddly terrifying sequence of vocal drones and dramatic peaks based on ancient Icelandic singular word "Hadave". And yes, it's still scary. There is only 17 minutes of music throughout the series, so Trunk have fitted it all onto a one-sided LP. Artwork is by Julian House, legendary hauntologist (Belbury Poly, etc.) and the man behind some of the greatest spooky band artwork of all time: Stereolab, Broadcast, Primal Scream, etc. Sleeve notes by Stewart Lee and inner sleeve notes by Alan Gubby of Buried Treasure Records. 17 cues in all, plus the bonus HTV West jingle by Radiophonic Workshop GOD John Baker. One-sided black vinyl.

We Say:

Children of the Stones (Trunk) Cheers to England for creating a late '70s television series for children based around the terrifying premise of a pagan cult, like a Wicker Man for wee ones, that was in fact waaaaay too creepy for any kid to watch. Top it all off with a Penderecki influenced avant-garde choral group bringing the terror up to eleven with vocal drones and shrills. This is just seventeen minutes of haunting surrealism. Ghostologists take note!