Category: Recordings

Merry Xmas!

Merry Christmas! Here’s a present from us, a new recording of a couple of our favourite carols:
wychwood.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-bleak-midwinter-silent-night

Christmas music’s weird. In a way, it’s just about the only remaining music in our culture that acts as that musical commons we drone on about. (Nobody really knows or cares who wrote or first recorded any carol or Xmas song, yet we all kind of know them and could probably sing along.) There’s loads of gorgeous and fun carols – and yet somehow Christmas is a season when we’re mostly likely to get subjected to aggressively schmaltz and annoying music. (It’s like commercialism ruins everything good, or something?) Anyways, making these recordings is our tiny “be the change” act, and we hope it brings a little more beauty and a little less schmaltz into your holiday season.

Just like its music, Christmas itself can be an annoying and/or bad time for some folk. If that’s you, we see you and care! However the holiday season goes for you, we wish you festive times in there too, with genuine warmth, peace, and things you love.

In this quiet season of long, cold nights we’re grateful for all you lovely people we’ve met through music and everyone who’s listened and played and sung with us. Here’s to lots more music making in the new year.

Love,
Chrissy & Tim ~Wychwood

20.11.2022: You’re invited to the release party for Blackgrass Harvest

There’s a party coming up to celebrate the release of Wychwood’s first “proper” album and you’re invited. Come celebrate our new Blackgrass Harvest album with a combination concert and listening party. We’ll be playing songs from the album with an assortment of guest musicians including Oddeline, David Jackson (Day of Niagara, IMOO), Haley Wolk (Rubber Roses), Justin Dickie (Daipth, Obsidian Will) and Jack Pyl.

There will also be some trippy videos and at least one game to keep things interesting. It should be a good time.

(And just imagine – if you come, you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren “I went to the album release for the first proper blackgrass album ever made!”)

When: Sunday November 20

What time though?: Doors 7:30pm, start 8pm

Where: Spark Beer – 702 Somerset St. W. It’s cute, comfy, and conveniently located in Chinatown

Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at the door
(Pay-what-you-can at the door or in advance by sending an email to info@wychwood.xyz or direct message us on socials.)

Accessibility note
There’s one 6-inch step to get into Spark (and our attempts to borrow a stopgap ramp haven’t paid off, sorry) and a couple doors that aren’t automatic. The bathroom also isn’t accessible.

Covid note
As much as well want to pretend that the pandemic’s over, there are more people in the hospital in Ottawa with covid than any other autumn. If you want to come to this and haven’t got your booster yet, please do so! Not to be melodramatic but we don’t want anyone to die or be debilitated because of a fun time celebrating a little Bandcamp album. Let’s take reasonable precautions, look out for our neighbours, and have fun living life.

About Blackgrass Harvest

Although we have a soft spot for the raw live recordings and demos we’ve shared to date, Blackgrass Harvest is truly a milestone. It’s the first well-recorded album we’ve put out, in many ways our first real album, and the first fully realized demonstration of this “blackgrass” idea that’s motivated Wychwood from the beginning. 

Blackgrass Harvest is an album of mostly dark traditional folk songs played mostly acoustically, but blending in some black metal, ambient, drone and noise music, samples, and other experiments. It was recorded in Tim’s bedroom between the 2nd and 7th wave of the pandemic.

Blackgrass Harvest is out on Bandcamp on 20.11.2022
Have a listen at wychwood.bandcamp.com (samples before that date and the full thing after).

We look forward to sharing these sounds and sharing the evening with you!

New tracks! Best ever recordings

Hey friends, we’re pretty excited to share a couple songs on bandcamp, as a preview of an album we’ve been working on through much of the pandemic. “Blackest Crow” is the first recording we’ve made that really captures that idea of blackgrass that’s been motivating us all along, and “Bury me beneath the weeping willow” is an actually decent acoustic recording, so we’re pretty proud and excited.

wychwood.bandcamp.com

Renaissance woman and true friend Evelyne Russell played cello on “Blackest Crow” and sang on “Bury Me.” We’re probably contractually obligated to point out that none of the effects on her cello or ugly noises on “Blackest Crow” generally are her fault. There will be all-acoustic and black noise versions of just about every song on that album, so you’ll be able to pick your poison then.

In conclusion, please wander over to bandcamp and take a listen.

wychwood.bandcamp.com