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From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
 
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From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

~ Virginia Astley
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Audio CD (29 Sep 2003)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Rough Trade
  • ASIN: B00005Q58Y
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 86,035 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

1. With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming
2. A Summer Long Since Passed
3. From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
4. Hiding In The Ha Ha
5. Out On The Lawn I Lie In Bed
6. Too Bright For Peacocks
7. Summer Of Their Dreams
8. When The Fields Were On Fire
9. It’s Too Hot To Sleep

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Originally a big indie hit when released as Virginia Astley's debut back in 1983, From Gardens Where We Feel Secure is possessed of a purposefully English ambience that made her a direct precursor of the Orb and Ultramarine. The album's concept was simple--Astley attempted to conjure the spirit of an English spring day, from dawn to dusk, by mixing piano, flute and occasional flowing bass with a catalogue of field sounds she recorded over a couple of weekends in Oxfordshire. In this way, she used the noises around her to create a wildly varying series of moods. There's the rising, enlivening chaos of the birds' dawn chorus, the comforting peal of distant church-bells, the hilarious bleating of young lambs, the desolate creaking of an old gate, the joyful splash of oars on the river and, finally, the unnerving call of owls. All of it is given structure and added melody by Astley's prettily tinkling keyboard. At the time she was hailed as a modern-day Delius, and indeed the album is a pastoral masterpiece that hasn't dated at all. --Dominic Wills

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pastoral ambient classic, 28 Sep 2003
By A Customer
If "Tubular Bells" was the intstrumental album of the seventies then "From Gardens Where We Feel Secure" was its eighties counterpart.And like "Tubular Bells","From Gardens....." remains a timeless masterpiece,an album so unique that its as relevant today as it was on the day of its original release.

"From Gardens....." is a beautiful blend of pastoral Edwardian style English classical music and Brian Eno-esque type ambient experimentation.

What sets this album apart from twee repetitive New Age improvised doodlings is the level of experimentation afforded to these beautifully arranged piano/flute compositions.

With a back drop of sound effects ( with vari-speed/direction tape effects)which fade in and out of the mix,the music gradually developes from the calm beginning of "With My Eyes Wide Open,I'm Dreaming" to the disturbing menace of "When The Field Were On Fire",before calming down again with the final "Its Too Hot To Sleep".

The album's concept is a childhood memory of a summers day in the English countryside,moving peacefully from dawn to dusk,whilst capturing the rise in temperature ( and tension ) as the day progresses.

This newly remastered version offers extra clarity ( and instrument seperation ) to the sound and comes in a beautifully designed digipack featuring new rural influenced photographs taken by Virginia herself.

This album should be in everyones collection.....buy it now.

Instruments: Piano,flute,guitar,clarinet,synth,xylophone,wordless vocals.

Soundfx:
Bird Song,Church Bells,Lambs,Donkey,Swinging Gate,Clock,Owl,Crickets,Splashing Oars,Childrens Voices, Telephone plus others.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars English garden ambience at its best, 2 Dec 2001
By A Customer
Picture the scene. You're sat in the garden of your typically English countryside home, the sun is going down, the birds are singing and in the far distance you can hear the gentle peeling of church bells. Somewhere a donkey is braying - someone feed him for goodness sake! - and while you're at it, oil the squeaky hinges on that swing.
Yes, all these rustic sounds and much much more can be found on this beautifully-recorded album as former Ravishing Beauty Virginia Astley (that's the name of her old group, and I'm sure she's still very good looking)paints a series of wonderfully evocative aural pictures.
Ms Astley's wonderfully light piano touch and voice wash gently over the various scenes, making this a perfect album to slip on when you need to unwind and float away to your idyllic countryside retreat, or for background music of the highest quality.
It's safe to say that you will never have heard anything like this but, once bitten, forever smitten. This is a real treasure, just waiting to be discovered by the discerning masses.
Take a chance, you won't be disappointed.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Echoes beyond England, 3 Jan 2004
By A Customer
The simple beauty of Virinia Astley's re-issued "From gardens where we feels secure" rests on a minimalist treatment of themes for piano and flute set against sampled measures of pre-recorded sounds.

Nine tracks, divided under headings of 'morning' and 'afternoon', are linked by the introduction of natural and incidental sounds marking the passage of a summer day. From the polyphony of the dawn chorus emerges a simple flute theme, countered by the piano, setting a mood of bright optimism sustained through most of the 'morning'. The birds give way to church bells meshed with the piano in a gamelan effect sustained over a distant 'choir'. Whilst the music is refreshingly free of irony the title track has more than a hint of insecurity. A gently arpeggiated piano theme is disturbed by the phasing in and out of a synthesised note, whilst the flute hints at a wistful mood. Unalloyed lightness of tone is restored in the following track, further levened by a distant second flute carrying a circus-like theme.

After a donkey declares midday there is a darker tone. The piano keeps to the metronomic squeak of a swing as it builds towards impressionistic chords, before a short loop of an exchange between a ewe and lamb usher in an uneasy time signature, next kept by a rusty iron hinge clashing with the gentle piano. The re-entrance of the synthesiser meditiates between the two, but an edgy atmosphere develops through the following track as a rotating machine fades in and out, becoming siren like, masking distant church bells. Grasshoppers, an owl and a reflective flute cohere in a Tchaikovsky-like them, gently punctuated by the flautist's soft intakes of breath.

Intended for the background, the gently persistent music insinuates itself into the foreground, rewarding repeated listening.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless timepiece
I'll hold my hand up here - when I first heard this in '83 I could understand the appeal, me still being a bit of a closet erstwhile proghead at the time, but it came across to me... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. I. Stephen

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice
I do like this cd - I just miss Virginia's brilliant voice! Where is it?
I 1st got into Virginia astley through 'hope in a darkened heart' (buy that cd now! Read more
Published 22 months ago by PhilthyPhil

4.0 out of 5 stars Mood music - but anything more?
I remember that this got rave reviews when it first came out in 1983 and I had not given the album another thought until I found it on Amazon by chance. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2006 by R. Kay

5.0 out of 5 stars objective or subjective views!
Hello
Well, I am musician, have been for over 40 years, and love well written lyrics, melody, music with soul. Read more
Published on 31 May 2006 by B. Hill

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice is back in the Garden
After Sanctus 2000 Virginia Astley did another of her disappearing act.
Amazingly this is the first time her most famous album has been given an official U K release on... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2004 by Richard

2.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, for some.
Imagine (and this has nothing to do with John Lennon) a sixth form student with hopes of maybe becoming either a great pianist or maybe even a composer. Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2003 by georgedennismax

5.0 out of 5 stars A Treasure
Virginia Astley is a treasure to discover. Her delicate, angelic voice is as clear as a bell, unique and gorgeous. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2003 by Bruce

5.0 out of 5 stars To the traditional sounds of an English summer...
...has been added a new noise.

Well, not new - but this album compresses the first 10 seconds of The Orbs 'Little Fluffy Clouds' into a full and brilliantly realised... Read more

Published on 7 May 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars THE GLEAMING HALLS OF HER MORNING
Its took some time for Rough Trade to reinstate the recording they distributed in 1983 for the artistes own Happy Valley label. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars ondispensable
As I run the Virginia Astley fan club & represnt the artiste I'm well qualified to write about this album. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2000

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