Welcome to the home of Rif Mountain Records, a small independant co-op label.
The A. Lords make songs about Dorset, recorded outside and on the hoof. A three inch CD was released on Barl Fire in 2006 (long since sold out) and a second has just been finished, the bulk of which was recorded 2 years ago in a barn at night on the Dorset/Devonshire border. They were featured on the John Barleycorn Reborn compilation CD with the song Summerhouse, and they also contributed to our own Echoes From the Mountain collection, delivering a fine version of Steve Tilston's It's Not My Place to Fail (with Mark Fry).
The A. Lords self-titled LP is a collection of music by Michael and Nicholas. The name comes from a joke made on an autumnal afternoon that no longer makes sense, and probably wasn't funny in the first place. Nicholas is better known for making short elaborate instrumental music as Directorsound and Michael has a history of making longer, gloomier pieces as Plinth. The A. Lords peversely straddle the two, looking down at us with an expression of woe. Some of the songs recorded date back almost 8 years now. Each one was a very slow and deliberate paean to the oft maligned (and rightly so) fields of Dorset. The first batch were improvised on summer days spent in gardens, churches and a lovely old wooden summerhouse. The second set of songs made themselves known over two nights in a rusty old barn during Harvest Festival. Microphones were placed in trees outside and under the floorboards, making the tunes regretfully creak into life.
The LP, comprising 4 tracks from the Barl Fire EP and 6 new songs, is due for release in July 2011 on Rif Mountain. Meanwhile, they're are also working a new full length record with 1970s acid-folk legend Mark Fry.
Photography by Judth Burrows, © 2010 { http://www.flarefilms.co.uk }