As some of you know and many of you don’t, last year saw the release of the album Orcadia by Black Sheep VC. The album consists of a series of archaeosonic experiments recorded by myself (Common Era) and Vybik Jon inside the Neolithic chambered cairns of Orkney.
Highly experimental and somewhat controversial the album was reviewed by Stuart Lee in the new year edition of The Sunday Times. The review read as follows:
BLACK SHEEP VC – Orcadia (F***Off & Di 300149-7)
“Two pseudonymous hairy-biker types. Vybik Jon and Common Era, travelled to the Orkneys in the summer of 2010 to sit unselfconsciously in Neolithic chambered tombs and improvise appropriate responses, using only their mouths and things found on the floor. Seasoned vocal extemporists such as Phil Minto or Yamantaka Eye might pull this off. Black Sheep VC don’t. Yet Orcadia is heroically ludicrous, its spirited barking, bleating and bellowing occasionally approaching almost transcendent note-splitting. And a beautifully designed and academically thorough booklet consolidates this future classic” — Stuart Lee
The album, recorded in June 2010 and released as a limited edition on Julian Cope’s Fuck Off & Di label in August 2011, consists of four megalithic vocal experiments, the cd also including a highly informative 16-page booklet, much of it written by Julian Cope, under whose wing this project was developed and encouraged. Head Heritage describes the album thus:
“…Who, upon hearing these Growlers, cannot fail to effect within themselves a genuine seismic shift in their consciousness? Will any man or woman — after even a short time listening to ORCADIA — ever again enter the megalithic portals of their local prehistoric chamber without inadvertently emitting similar noises?” —J. Anonymous
READ FULL HEAD HERITAGE DESCRIPTION HERE
