These songs were recorded over the course of three weeks at the AqTushetii residency in Omalo, Georgia (September 2021). All recordings were made on a tape recorder. The songs are all traditional folk songs from Britain and Ireland.

Omalo is a secluded village on the upper plateau of Tusheti, a remote part of Khaketi, where the old religions still hold a powerful presence and a certain mystical atmosphere lingers in the air. To reduce the culture there to a few lines would be trivialising it - but wine, food and song are important threads that weave together the cultural landscape, much like the rich tradition of carpet weaving for which the region is famous for.

These recordings were made in that vein; I would wander from the residence armed with my tape recorder and either a hangover or a small portion of chacha, into the pine forests nearby or the grassy fields filled with the drone of crickets, the horses grazing nearby and eagles patrolling the highways of the sky. Foggy mornings would turn into brilliant afternoons with the ruins of old stone turrets emerging on the upper hills cutting out imposing silhouettes. Darkness would would blanket everything around us in the evenings, revealing precious gems studded into the black canopy of the night sky. Dinner would be shared by all on a long table outside, huddled like penguins, warming each other with stories, wine and music, losing sense of time until our minds succumbed to tiredness and we stumbled half blind to our beds. The day after would be hazy and romantic, solace in coffee or tea, viewing the felt-covered mountain sides with a humble acknowledgement that that this was perhaps heaven on earth and that we were perhaps it’s angels.

This collection of songs, sung in various levels of intoxication, is an ode to the spiritual nature of this place, an ode to embracing letting go, to submitting to the desires of the soul without regrets. I found a small collection of poems in the library there by the 14th century Persian poet Hafez, who celebrated these very things and whose words confirmed in me that the chasing of small visceral pleasures is as great a pursuit as any in life. These recordings are in no way perfect, nor are they intended to be; but they are in some way more of a document of who I am, for a brief moment in time.

“Let go, and make life easy for yourself,
Don’t strain and struggle, always wanting more;
A glass of wine, a lover as lovely as the Moon - you may be sure . . . they’re all you need.”

- Hafez

I would like to thank the kind people at AqTushetii for putting up with me and encouraging me to sing. I would also like to thank Franz for helping me with the design of the tape and for the creating the cover art, Martijn for sharing his photographs of rocks in Tusheti and to Scott for his photograph.

PS. This tape was totally inspired by "Fieldish Recordings" by Jason Rouse, I take no credit for the idea.