Last month so the release of A Nothern View, the new album from Belfast-based band Arborist, the brainchild of songwriter Mark McCambridge whose solo project, Sea Songs: Anatomy of a Drowning Man, featured on Folk Radio back in June last year.
A Northern View has been picking up some great exposure as well as airplay from the likes of Gideon Coe, John Hillcock, Cerys Matthews, Cillian Murphy and Steve Lamacq, who called it; “One of those records that makes you stop for a second…terrific”. Here is Mark performing the title track live and which is also our Song of the Day.
The stunning video was shot by filmmaker and photographer Tristan Crowe “overlooking Lough Neagh and a chunk of County Antrim”.
Of the track Mark tells us:
The words for ‘A Northern View’ strangely came in one sitting which is a rare thing for me. I did numerous demo versions of it then worked it up with the band to a 9 minute epic. We recorded this longer version in Real World Studios but eventually recorded the slightly shorter version on the final day of the sessions. There is definitely a lot going on thematically but it all falls under the umbrella of coming from Northern Ireland; weather, religion, a lurking tension…but trying to reach for the beauty in there somewhere. I found its tendrils slipping into other songs on the record so it became the title track.
A Northern View is available via Bandcamp (Digital/CD/Vinyl): https://arboristmusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-northern-view