Biography
James Reid is the head musical forager behind Autumn Ferment Records which he started in the autumn of 2007. He has also been known to make a bit of music too.
Hailing from the coastal region of Fife, Scotland, James began his introduction to guitar based music while living and working on a farm in Northern Portugal. It was during the long evenings on the Quinta that he decided to pick up his girlfriends abandoned guitar and begin teaching himself to play, putting music to the lyrics and poems he had written over the years.
In 2005 James moved back to Scotland to live in a small wooden cabin on a farm in Fife. Working again for his keep around the farm and in the vegetable gardens, he found the time and space to begin writing songs influenced by the life, predominately the wildlife, and the environment the farm possessed. It was in the cabin that James started using his limited recording equipment to record the tracks which would become his debut release, 'Like A Buzzard Chased By Crows'. A cdr limited to 200 copies, it was released in November 2006 through the Sheffield based psych folk/drone label Barl Fire Recordings run by Simon Allen. Sold online and in various independent record stores, 'Like A Buzzard Chased By Crows' sold out within the year gaining good reviews from around the globe.
In the late summer of 2007 a track from 'Buzzard' and a so far unreleased track called 'Elder' featured on the download part of a compilation album called 'John Barleycorn Reborn' released through the folk label Woven Wheat Whispers. The two disc album and third download part was advertised as "a discovery of folk music from dark Britannica" and featured many well respected and up and coming musicians from around the UK's diverse folk scene.
In Autumn 2007 James finally put together some plans which had been brewing for some time, the idea of starting a small record label devoted to releasing alternative folk -Autumn Ferment Records.
Available to buy now!
'TALES BETWEEN THE TIDES'
AFR002v
Limited to 500 hand numbered 7" vinyl
Side A
'She Waits by the Shore'
Side B
'Wandering Man'
'Tales Between the Tides' is the collective title that James Reid has given to the latest release on Autumn Ferment Records. The two tracks, recorded by James at his home in Fife at the start of 2007, are available together on limited edition 7" vinyl. With no plans to include them on any future albums they act as a bridge between his debut release 'Like a Buzzard Chased by Crows'(2006, Barl Fire Rec.) and future recordings.
In these songs of the sea James blends salty folk melodies on acoustic guitar, melodica and odd bits of percussion with dusty old field recordings, crackly, textured electronics, disembodied off kilter beats and warm bass lines to provide soundscapes for his sea shanty tales about life on the Scottish coastline.
The A side, 'She waits by the Shore', is the darker of the two; a ghostly tale of a lost love spending an eternality by the shore with only the seas inhabitants as company. The flip side 'Wandering Man', while being an up beat ode to the traditional countryside travelling man and his quirky tramping tales, also weaves in the story of an old beached up wooden boat and the lives of those who found it in the sand.
The second piece of vinyl to be issued from Autumn Ferment Records and the first piece of work to be released by James since 'Buzzard' comes as 500 hand numbered 7" vinyl with sleeve art by artist Stewart Easton.