Child Ballads: CD
Following the well-received performance and subsequent release of their live recording of Cornelius Cardew’s complete Treatise, The London Experimental Ensemble returns with a new approach to the ancient folk songs of the Child Ballads. For the uninitiated, the Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from the British Isles, along with their
Following the well-received performance and subsequent release of their live recording of Cornelius Cardew’s complete Treatise, The London Experimental Ensemble returns with a new approach to the ancient folk songs of the Child Ballads. For the uninitiated, the Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from the British Isles, along with their American variants, as catalogued and studied by Harvard University professor of literature Francis James Child. The ten volumes Child published between 1882 and 1898 earned him a unique association with the canon of British folklore, thus the Child Ballads. On the principle that nothing is more British than free improv, which incubated in London in 1962, and these ballads which encapsulate the last 500 years of UK history and lore, after thoughtful consideration The London Experimental ensemble embraced the challenge of a free improv recording of these traditional ballads.