Castlefest round up, 'new' house, and lack of internet

Tuesday, I returned from Castlefest to a house that is not suitable for human habitation. You’ll excuse me if I’m a little down about that. However, being someone who is generally optimistic, after an initial cry, I am looking forward to the future and am confident that I will get it sorted and will manage to regain some kind of normal life. While we’re on that note, I currently have no internet at home and therefore will only be able to access ‘things’ on my mobile or if I go to an internet café. Incidentally, I also have no mobile phone pick up at home.

I do plan on tweeting as often as normal as this is done from my phone, and will use internet tethering to blog. Sky will be round on the 23rd to set us up for real internet and, until then, my internet presence will probably be limited to twitter, blogging, and maybe facebook messaging.

Anyway, back to the interesting bit, Castlefest. What a wonderful, wonderful time I have had at this festival. Wild horses will not be able to stop me from returning next year. There were some wonderful bands and some wonderful people. I’ll probably do some proper write-up of the individual things once I have facility to upload photos and not just test but until then special thanks go to:

Cesair for putting on some of the most singularly amazing shows I have seen. You should also buy their new CD because it is beautiful in sound and in appearance.

Faun for making my dream of seeing you live come true and for being as awesome as I had hoped.

Folk Noir (and Matt Howden) for putting on a wonderful performance, and for being utterly lovely people, chatting with me for quite a while after the show.

Zirp for getting everyone dancing!

The people who attended for dressing up, being friendly, and generally making the whole thing atmospheric.

The volunteers. In particular those on traffic control at the campsite who spent each night with my mother and I while we waited for her taxi. Their kindness, good conversation, hugs, and pine mead was greatly appreciated.

Folk Noir and Sieben

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Folk Noir is a project of Oliver S. Tyr of Faun (remember that band from Friday?) and Kaat Geevers from L.E.A.F, who are also fantastic but not playing Castlefest (boo!). They are joined by Stephan Groth, who is also in Faun now, and by Alex Schulz and play a kind of thoughtful, nostalgic folk music. Oh, did I mention that they sing in English too? 

I've not managed to get hold of their CD yet, which is rather annoying, so I'm relying on youtube. I detest buying CDs from abroad because of bank charges and shipping but I might have to cave on this one if I can't find any other way of buying it.

Anyway, they have a relatively new music video. This is not my favourite song that I have heard them play yet I could rant on about how much I enjoy it for quite some time. I think that says something! What makes me like this one? Other than the fact it has really romantic lyrics which would sell anything to me, the train sound rhythm is something that really stands out. It's unusual and really quite a fun idea without detracting from the song itself. The simplicity of the video itself is exceptionally effective too.

I'll only put one other video from Folk Noir before moving onto Sieben. This one is probably my favourite recordings of theirs. The way in which Kaat and Oliver's voices harmonise and interact is stunning and rather haunting. The song starts about twenty seconds in and is truly... well.... wow.

Folk Noir are playing with Sieben as they have before. I can't say that I know Sieben but from some googling it seems that he is a gentleman by the name of Matt Howden who plays violin, sings and does some clever technical stuff. According to the ever reliable (yes, sarcasm) Wikipedia, he is also British and from Sheffield which is where my father's side is from. Ooh, maybe I should look into him a bit more hehe.

From what I have heard of his solo work, I like the music but really don't know what to categorise it as in my head. It's enjoyable but in a strange way. I can't help but appreciate the use of the violin too, as a string player myself. There's some talented, technical, but unusual playing going on.

This music video is from 2010, so it's a bit older than those by Folk Noir above. By the way, if you're a Doctor Who fan you might not want to watch this clip... too many statues... you have been warned!

If you're interested in Folk Noir then you can visit their website, facebook (which is where I kidnapped the picture from), or youtube. I've only found Sieben's website so far but oh well!