CSR100CD. The follow-up to our award winning Folk compilation "John Barleycorn Reborn" from 2007. 34 tracks and 146 minutes of music from the best of current British Folk artists. Curated by Justin Mitchell.

The raw green of spring is burnished through midsummer into the baked golden crust of August, the headlong vigour of new growth slowing, ripening into a sagging, fecund fullness. Crows wheel low over a cornfield, inkblots spilt on the wide blue sky, their ragged cries cracking the drowsy haze of high summer. Cornstalks rustle and whisper secretively, heads nodding sagely in the light breeze, spread resplendent over the land like the bushy sun-bleached beard of Barleycorn himself, basking in the afternoon heat. The image fades, dispersing into the ripples of Mimir’s black mirror, and now the harvest appears as the radiant blonde braids of gentle Sif, Norse goddess of the corn, ever-faithful wife of Thor, patroness of fidelity, of promises kept. Again the mirror ripples, and now the corn forms the mane of a magnificent horse, surging over the earth, alive with energy, bearing the memory of innumerable harvests past and the promise of harvests yet to come, past and future radiating out in all directions from this perfect, poised moment of completion. It’s time to reap. (Simon Collins)

CSR84CD (PARTS 1 + 2). A discovery of folk music from dark Britannica. 'John Barleycorn Reborn' explores seasonal birth, death and rebirth on this double CD.

This compilation explores the darker side of British folk music, evoking the mystery of our ancient past and peoples, the strangeness of their beliefs, arcane traditions and the remnants of this carried down the centuries as folklore. The set has an extended booklet with articles, essays and explorations of the album's concept. All customers can also download a free complementary thirty-three track download only set of further music (PART 3).

Curated by Mark Coyle (Woven Wheat Whispers).