Richard Skelton will release a new album as A Broken Consort on February 9. It’s called Crow Autumn, and it follows hot on the heels of the British composer’s latest own-name full-length offering, Landings.

A press release explains that Landings, which is out now on Type Records, is the culmination of four years of recording on the moors and hillsides of Northern England, going on to describe it as “a dialogue with the landscape itself”. It’s an utterly absorbing and at times quite difficult listening experience – Skelton’s blend of field recording, acoustic folk, modern classical and ambient modes is never less than melancholy, and at times it’s downright mournful. Arguably his most full-realised work to date, Landings eclipses even 2008’s Marking Time in terms of compositional acumen and sheer furrow-browed intensity; fans of Hildur Gudnadottir, Johann Johannson and suchlike would do well to check it out.  The vinyl edition comes with a bonus CD of extra material.

Skelton, who releases much of his music via his own Sustain-Release private press, teams up with New York’s Tompkins Square label for the new A Broken Consort LP, Crow Autumn. Once again, our man employs a broad range of acoustic instruments to render his dense but disciplined pastoral soundscapes, including violin, accordion, mandolin and piano. The mood is a little less “suicidal farmer” than that of Landings, but it’s still an emotionally involving work, definitely not for the faint of heart.

Landings tracklist:
1. Noon Hill Wood
2. Scar Tissue
3. Threads Across The River
4. Greens Within Brook
5. Of The Last Generation
6. Undertow
7. Voice Of The Book
8. Rapture
9. Pariah
10. River Song
11. Remaindered
12. The Shape Leaves

Crow Autumn tracklist:
1. Day Reveals
2. A Mercy Kill
3. Like Rain
4. Mountains Ash
5. The River
6. Beneath
7. Leaves