Starless And Bible Black

Debut album out now on CD and 180 gram vinyl Locust Music through Cargo (UK) .
Single "Up With The Orcadian Tide" out on Static Caravan on 18 June 2007.
Starless & Bible Black are a Manchester band drawing musical lines between torch song, bluesy chanson, vintage folk-jazz and early electronic music. Built around the three core members of Hélène Gautier (vocals); Peter Philipson (guitar, dulcimer); and Raz Ullah (electronics, samples, drones), the band have played a succession of shows around the UK both as a stripped down three piece and as a six piece with Paul Blakesley (double bass), Brian Edwards (drums) and Ros Hawley (clarinet).
After releasing their first EP on their own Timbreland Recordings label, the band was spotted by Chicago based label Locust Music and they agreed an album deal in early 2006.
Their music has been described as "Charcoalesque female vocals, antique guitar folk and dark chamber song with radiophonic Moogness" but even that neglects the melodic bass, rolling drums and occasional woodwind section that forms their eclectic sound. As a vague reference the key influences are records by John Martyn, Pentangle, Cocteau Twins and Billy Childish.
While some may assume that their name is taken from the 1974 King Crimson album, it is actually inspired by the classic 1965 recording by Stan Tracey that in turn is lifted from a line in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood.
Reviews
“Full-blooded revivalists of bold 70's folk rock eclecticism……from bare acoustic ballads to Pentangle style rambling and bitter sweet harmonies……they accomplish all this with a firm perception of their own powers, drawing on such varied sources without succumbing to self conscious classicism, and stamping their own personality on their material.” Wire Magazine
“This Manchester-based group is responsible for one of the year’s best folkie songs” New York Times
“…they draw upon any number of intertwined traditions simultaneously….. the group moves crisply through songs informed by Appalachian folk, downtempo jazz, Middle English pastoralism, and smoky continental balladry. Starless & Bible Black perform each of their stylistic shifts with an effortless agility, resulting in a collection that captivates primarily through its graceful, almost nonchalant simplicity.” Pitchfork
“Folk strains, art songs, and electronic atmospherics combine for a beguiling blend in the debut by this Manchester band.” Amazon.com
“For an album that features a breadth of different takes on contemporary nu-folk sounds, taking in some diverse approaches to arrangement along the way, Starless & Bible Black are equally effective when paring a song down to its very core. An extremely promising debut indeed.” Boomkat.com
“a solid record……. a warm, intimate folk experience…..catchy folk with a sublime twist.” Foxy Digitalis
“Starless and Bible Black’s music feels absolutely effortless, born out of thin air. And over this serene percolation, Hélène Gautier sings like an angel with an earthly heart, enhancing, to near impossible levels, the beguiling and mesmerizing effect of the songs. It’s like Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval singing through a curtain of opium smoke and fireflies, only a whole lot more awesome.” Harp Magazine
“Starless engage the tropes of antique folk and folk revival through a rigorously formal songwriting approach...... while “freak-folk” typifies America in all her goofy, communalist, postmodern Californi-ality, Starless & Bible Black blow in with the green, reserved air of the heath and the Arctic Circle, serious and hard.” Dusted Magazine
"the rhythm section feel their way around a dark studio one chord at a time, conversing over a slow-motion drone. The pulse, when it finally arrives, is a cool breeze from a more delicate era -- with hints of cresting jazz polyrhythm but, thankfully, no jazz pretensions. This proves an ideal launching pad for Helene Gautier, a French singer with a clear and hollow voice. Here, her verses sometimes echo the moody side of Pentangle.” National Public Radio, US
“Those songs are built like trellises: finger-picked guitar, banjo, glockenspiel, winds, and brushed skins augmented by carefully placed electronic glitches and synth washes. Gautier, who slips into her native tongue once or twice but otherwise keeps to an appealing, heavily accented English. She can sound wraith-like or husky, like Francoiz Breut channeling Sandy Denny.” Allmusic .com
“ What really sets Starless apart from the average acoustic-based warblers are Helene Gautier’s vocals, notably her airy high notes, throaty alto and French (her native tongue)-via-Manchester accent.” CMJ
“Starless And Bible Black bring much of the mysticism and sounds of the sounds of British countryside to the fore...... a modern fusion of beautiful, classic folk and urban ballads....... an album that’s been a long time coming, but be assured, it's worth the wait.” Manchester Music
"Starless & Bible Black se permettent même d'errer vers des teintes plus sombres et gothiques comme seuls le Velvet Underground ou Nico savaient en apposer sur les murs de leur cave." Rock & Folk Magazine, France
"Le groupe publie en cette fin d'année un album se situant dans la droite lignée des ambiances de Sixteen Horsepower, Led Zeppelin (lorsque Jimmy page et ses acolytes avaient opéré un retour aux sources folk), voire des maîtres Nick Drake ou Bert Jansch." Popnews, France
“melding of early 4AD’s ambient experimentations with the baroque elements found in neo-folkies” Paper Thin Walls
“This apparent bouquet of contrasts is the sonic essence of Starless & Bible Black, a blissful, down-tempo conundrum that maintains a pastoral presence” Glide Magazine
“Distilled sunlight, perfume bottles on an aunt's dresser, driving south, unplanned friends' jams, certain bookstores on cold afternoons, and the raking of leaves.” Poly Revenge
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