Earlier this year, Peg Doll Records released Would I Were A Swift (Or A Skylark Be), an album by lo-fi folk explorers The Diamond Family Archive, “a unique multi-instrumentalist roving ensemble based around the guitar playing and songwriting of Laurence Collyer.”
The album is a respite for those of us who find ourselves in office and cities, too far from the places that ground us. Wherever you find yourself on the way “From A to B,” The Diamond Family Archive offers you a mind-bending soundtrack en route. Rachel Lynne Wilkerson, Folk Radio UK
They have just announced the release of Black Autumn on limited edition vinyl. The title is apparently a missaying of the village named Blackawton in Devon close to where Collyer lives. Also inspired by ‘place’ is the opening track Teigngrace, named after a small village in Devon where they sometimes use their hall to make recordings when there isn’t sufficient room in Collyer’s garden shed studio.
In her review of Swift for Folk Radio, Rachel touched on the sense of place the album gave, a theme which is again touched on here. What’s also striking is how they’ve developed their sound through touring and home playing. The release forms a natural trilogy alongside Swift and Ye Poor & Maimed so if you wanted a good excuse to look at the bigger picture, and we encourage you to, be sure to check them all.
We were very captured by the final track of the album ‘The Opposite Of Blind’ which features an old pump organ…
“The track has a great initial take of one mic over the kit and one mic on an old pump organ being driven through a load of effects and an old Wem amp. The pump organ is from 1880 and originated from New York. It spent it’s life in Moreleigh church, another Devon village, until my wife and I went to collect it on our first date.”
Black Autumn is available via The Diamond Family Archive website, Bandcamp and Peg Doll (Ltd Edition Vinyl)