Music inspired by pagan celebrations
On a visit to the White Peak in England, we came across a young woman meditating near the central cove of a Neolithic stone circle. We saw her leave, walking bare foot through the grassland carrying her shoes. She had left behind a token, a garland of wildflowers placed on a large fallen limestone slab. The giant stone was encrusted with moss and lichen, weather worn by the aeons of time. The central cove was obscured from view from the entrances, a sacred place of ritual.
This was the genesis for this EP release together with later visits to ancient sites through the seasonal festivals of Mabon, Samhain, Ostara and Beltane.
Many believe ancient stone circles served as early cosmic observatories. Their alignment with equinoxes and solstices heralding the changing seasons and the procession of pagan festivals through the Wheel of the Year.
Amongst these mysterious stone giants, one is drawn to muse their origins as we tread venerably in the footsteps of our ancestors and join them in celebrating seasons anew.
Come Join Us!
Thank you to PROGROCK.COM for including “Mabon” from Ritual in Best Music of 2024
Lazland Review – December 2024 Steve Lazenby
“Now, from England, we have Armchair Gods, a ‘zen rock’ instrumental duo Paul Kearns and Steve Peckover. Recently, I played a track on my Saturday afternoon Progzilla Radio show, and now I can present a review of the entire EP, with four tracks, a pagan celebration and simply a joy to listen to.
We open with Mabon, or the Autumn Equinox. The duo provides all the instruments, and they are talented multi-instrumentalists. There is a glorious expansive feel to this opener, great guitar licks, a throbbing rhythm section, and rich soundscapes created by the synths in a piece which combines nicely the seasonal feel of autumn (dark and wet where I live) and the celebrational aspect of the equinox itself. A very pleasing slab of folk rock at the heavier end of the spectrum.
Beltane follows. This is the May Day festival, marking the beginning of summer. A shorter piece, just short of three minutes, the acoustic guitar introduces a track which perfectly describes to me that sense of anticipation for calmer weather and the promise of nature’s bounty following the long, dark winter. Again, very strong are the soundscapes created by the synths, and there is a particularly strong bass melody on this. The guitar solo soars very nicely in the final minute.
Ostara, the Spring Equinox, itself named after the goddess Eostre. The sense of drama is immediate, a military feel to the percussion and synths set against a lighter, and very pretty, piano and wind. The song I think rather brilliantly captures that call to arms of old, the planting of seeds, and evocations to the goddess to make the soil fertile.
We close with the track I recently played, and there is a video for this embedded below. Samhain, or as we call it now, Halloween. Give me this wonder over the ghastly corporate jamboree children are exposed to now any time. Darker, ponderous, brilliantly celebrating the harvest with its expansive feel, but also looking forward with some trepidation to the darker half of the year, the choral voices and crashing symbols personifying this very well. There is some magnificent guitar work, together with some creative symphonic synths and effects which can be disturbing in parts, all underpinned by a solid rhythm section.
Ritual is a wonderful set of songs, and I, for one, cannot wait to hear more in the future.”
Progrock.com – December 2024 Nickie Harte Kelly
“UK duo inspired by an ancient stone circle, and a chance sighting of a woman leaving a garland there. The four pieces are named for Celtic rituals of equinoxes and solstices, and the lush music reflects their significance in denoting the passage of the seasons in ritual. Favorite track: Samhain”
Progzilla Radio – November 2024 Steve Lazenby
“On October 31st Armchair Gods, a duo consisting of Paul Kearns and Steve Peckover, released Ritual which they describe as English Zen Rock and I describe as simply magnificent.”
Brum Beat review – November 2024 Mike Davies Column
“Celebrating the Autumn equinox and harvest, Mabon opens things up with a cosmic swirl of keyboards drums and guitar, proceeding to Beltane the Gaelic May Day festival, the mood calming down to a dreamy haze with stuttering, repeated acoustic guitar patterns, drums and virtual brass. Out of seasonal sequence here since it takes place in March, named for the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostra, Ostara marks the spring equinox, the track with military snare beats, tinkling piano, orchestral keys and timpani returning to the cosmic swell before gently ebbing away on strings. Coming from old Irish and meaning ‘end of summer’, Samhain is synonymous with Halloween and, the longest track at almost six minutes (with a video on YouTube) is suitably brooding and robed in shadowy musical shapes with its steady, relentless drum beat and the hovering ghostly keys and wailing guitars. Something to celebrate indeed.” – Mike Davies
Music composed by Paul Kearns & Steve Peckover
Artwork: Armchair Gods
© All Rights Reserved