Our Tune of the Day is a track premiere from Jim Ghedi‘s second album ‘A Hymn for Ancient Land‘ due for release on Basin Rock in early 2018. Listen to Home For Moss Valley below:
Jim shared the following on Home For Moss Valley:
“The Moss Valley is a five-mile stretch of ancient woodlands, rivers, moors and farms along the Yorkshire/Derbyshire border. This valley was the landscape of my upbringing, hamlets and small villages all hidden away, forgotten and nested alongside the remnants of rich agricultural labour and industrial workings. I started spending days walking miles throughout the Valley, exploring the land on foot, through hidden walkways, preserved bridleways and ancient woodlands digging into the soil, making tracks and taking in the air. I discovered a sense of place from exploring the natural environments and rich wildlife around the area. It was through gentle movement and close observation which brought an understanding, a connection, a stillness and a rooted sense of belonging.”
Born in Sheffield before moving around various parts of Derbyshire, Shropshire and Scotland and then settling in Moss Valley – an abandoned and forgotten area on the edgelands of South Yorkshire and North East Derbyshire – it makes perfect sense that 26-year-old Jim Ghedi’s music feels both fluidly transient yet also deeply rooted to a sense of place.
In 2015 he released his debut album, Home Is Where I Exist, Now To Live and Die, which was an extension of the folk-tinged six and twelve- string acoustic guitars instrumentals he had been forging for some time around Sheffield’s pubs and then whilst travelling across Europe. On his second album, A Hymn For Ancient Land, his elemental style of playing has expanded into a fuller band set-up, complete with glorious orchestration and dazzling composition that makes it a truly innovative contemporary record whilst still being rooted in great tradition.
Ghedi’s natural ear and eye for capturing the spaces he inhabits creates an immersive environment in which the guitar lines seem to mirror rolling hills, the rich hum of the ambience hangs like a gentle morning fog and the intricacies and beauty of the arrangements create something almost tangible – like a light dew on the tip ends of grass or the sticky moisture of well-trampled soil.
Nature permeates through ‘A Hymn For Ancient Land’ from start to finish, gliding through its core like a bubbling brook. The wealth of instruments (guitar, double bass, violin, cello, harp, trumpet, piano, accordion and numerous others) float in and out of one another, interlocking absorbing guitars, gently whirring strings and drums that beat like the faint sounds of thunder on the horizon.
Jim Ghedi is the third signing to Basin Rock, the independent record label based in Todmorden – a town sitting on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Having toured the UK this May with Julie Byrne, supporting Nadia Reid throughout the summer and playing the Green Man and Sea Change festivals – he’s biding his time awaiting the release of this album early 2018.
Catch him on his last few gigs of the year:
Sunday 29th October – Atlow Village Hall, /with Toby Hay & Nick Jonah Davis
Friday 10th November – Golden Lion, Todmorden /with Michael Chapman
Sunday November 12th – Band on the wall, Manchester /with Julie Byrne
Monday 13th November – The Union Chapel /with Michael Chapman & Julie Byrne
http://www.basinrock.co.uk/jim-ghedi-a-hymn-for-ancient-land.html
https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/
Photo Credit Scott Hukins