My new group, The Institute of Stone Age Sex (IOSAS), is playing on the 11th of May at the Temple Works’ Why Rush? festival. I think we might also be lined up to do a ritual vowel singing workshop.

I’m very pleased with how the sound of IOSAS is developing. After the ‘communal psych’ seven-piece lineup that we started with, things are now solidifying around a quartet of myself (vox/accordion/wind instruments), Layla Smith (vox/harmonium) and dual cellos from Simon Bradley and Briony Yorke. In the interests of documentary, there are a few brief excerpts from a recent rehearsal below. A couple of compilation appearances are lined up for the very near future!

One of the pieces we’ve been working on is a version of O! What do ye Wesh i’ the Beck?, a Yorkshire dialect poem by George Cowling. A version of this song also appeared on the XETB lp The Pyrognomic Glass, at the end of side A (entitled Abital). Layla also discovered the poem independently and sang her own version accompanied by Briony to the bones of Mary Bateman at the Thackray Museum.