Preludes

Ensconced in his family home in rural Leicestershire in the early months of 2020, painter and musician Realf Heygate (b. 1994) picked up his childhood cello for the first time in several years and began to play. Setting himself parameters to only record onto 4-track tape with acoustic instruments – cello, piano and acoustic guitar – he assembled a suite of instrumental compositions that form the basis of Preludes, his debut album as Flaer and the inaugural release on Odda Recordings.

Channelling the tension and unease between the pastoral idyll of the English countryside and the darkness which lurks beneath the surface, the mini-album draws inspiration from the analogue aesthetic of 1970s folk horror films, weaving field recordings of birdsong, church bells and the natural environment into chimerical melodies that reflect on Heygate’s childhood experiences of rural England.

"A miniature masterpiece of the instrumental uncanny” the Quietus

“The sonic analogue of a blissful summer’s afternoon” 4/5 Mojo

“Pastoral tranquility cedes to darker forces” 4/5 Songlines

“Thoughts of The Wicker Man and A Field In England can easily be conjured by the
black beauty there is here” 4/5 Record Collector

“Hedgerow greens and sky blue translucence register as vividly as a stroll through the
tranquil countryside” Electronic Sound

Tracklist

A1. 1. Hew (2.47)
A2. 2. The Hill (2.17)
A3. 3. Pasture (2.18)
A4. 4. Forever Never (3.53)
B1. 5. Landlock (2.18)
B2. 6. Magnolia (3.08)
B3. 7. Follow (3.56)