A folk horror concept album
As Madia embarks on her new role in the quaint Cotswold town of Wychcombe, she finds herself enchanted by its picturesque landscapes and tight-knit community—save for one autocratic figure, her new boss at the local museum. However, as winter blankets the town in snow and isolates it from the world beyond, eerie occurrences begin to unfold, forcing Madia to confront both the unsettling mysteries of the present and a haunting past she thought long buried. "Children Of Belas Knap" is a gripping tale of suspense and redemption, intricately weaving together the beauty of the Cotswolds with the chilling secrets hidden within its folds.
This unique fusion of music and narrative combines an album of evocative music with a captivating novella, inviting the listener/reader to delve deeper into the work's haunting melodies and eerie narrative.
by Television of Cruelty
Fractured pop, rock, folk, dance, ambient and orchestral concept music from the Cotswolds, UK.
Ian Williams is the artist behind the band - and the composer and author of Children Of Belas Knap.
Track Listing
Prologue: The Mists Of Time
Jerusalem (New Home In The Country)
To Be A Pigrim (Mop Fair Morris)
The Green Stone Of Langdale
Sun Will Return
In The Bleak Midwinter (Yuletide)
Snowfall / The Unquiet Grave
In The Bleak Midwinter (Ghosts)
There's Been A Break-in!
Madia's Dance
Sun Will Return (Reprise)
Epilogue: To Make It Come True
In the companion book, every song on the Television Of Cruelty album “Children Of Belas Knap” is represented by one narrative section/chapter. Some of the songs are straightforward representations of the story’s action (or at least musical atmospheres that suit it), others take a more tangential approach. Think of it as a soundtrack for a lost film. Musical styles range from folk-rock to ambient to orchestral to hauntological, but most tracks are at least infused with a sprinkling of folk DNA.
Story Extract
The snow fell heavily that night. When she pulled up the blinds the flakes were black and ephemeral in the reflection of her room. She saw her ghostly face in the blizzard. And in the morning the town was cut off. First the phones went, then the power was out for several hours. All the roads out of the town were blocked. The lanes that led to the north hadn’t been salted and deep drifts had formed on them. Other lanes, that wound up the hillsides out of the valley, were similarly untreated and too steep for any vehicle to attempt. The main road, that led out of the town over Cleeve Hill, was similarly impassable, especially since the local bus had slid sideways into a tree and was now half-buried in snow and lying at an eccentric angle across it. Unable to contact Mr Baylis, she made the decision that the museum would stay closed for the day. Instead, she went for a long walk around the snowbound town – smiling happily at the snowmen on every corner - and then up into the woods and the hills, although she avoided the climb to the barrow. By the time she was crossing the last fields towards home it was dusk and snow had started to fall again.
From Snowfall / The Unquiet Grave
