Dark Companion Records

I have been trying to persuade Mick to put together a new album for some years now, as I knew he had a cache of unreleased tapes in his bunker studio and that Max Marchini of Dark Companion was as keen to hear these as I was. But Mick, being a modest fellow, he proved rather reluctant.

In the end I had to use a little subterfuge by suggesting we record a ‘witchy’ dark folk album together in the hope that he would dig out his tapes and finish those that needed touching up before I had the chance to contribute the first song. And that’s exactly what happened. Within a couple of weeks I received about 20 tracks which I went through very carefully, selecting those that I thought I could add something to.

That was a particularly interesting challenge as I had to ‘reverse engineer’ my songs by writing in the same key and sticking to the same tempo. I think it all works pretty well and I’m sure Mick (when he is finally released from the sanitorium for stressed musicians) agrees.
Paul Roland, Cambridge March 2021

Credits
Paul Roland: vocals, acoustic guitars, some electric guitar, flute, sax, oboe, piano, tamboura
Mick Crossley: vocals, guitars, bass, electronics, keyboards, percussion, drums
Geoffrey Richardson: viola