FROM GARDENS WHERE WE FEEL SECURE
(Rough Trade, 1983)
In an increasingly tumultuous world, it’s important to seek mental solace from time to time. What better chance to consider this uplifting, pastoral ambient work from British singersongwriter Virginia Astley, which recently – softly – celebrated its 40th birthday?
Even Astley’s name conjures up a watercoloured, bygone era, perhaps the days of Edith Holden’s 1906 Nature Notes, which became a hugely successful 1977 book, The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady, comprising the art teacher’s outdoor observations over a year? If only field recordings had been available to fit that landmark work…
For centuries composers invoked the natural world – birdcalls, weather, rivers, sunrise. It was only a matter of time before Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and its ilk – alongside emerging technology to capture found sounds and foley – would inspire myriad 20th-century musicians such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Brian Eno.
Astley was born in Hertfordshire, her father Edwin was a TV theme composer for Department S, TheSaint, Danger Man and Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) among many others. Skilled in piano and flute, Astley briefly became a busker while studying at Guildhall Academy in the 70s, and even more briefly joined a romantic, post–punk classical–electronic trio, The Ravishing Beauties, featuring future Dream Academy member Kate St John, and Nicky Holland, who would go on to play with Ryuichi Sakamoto as well as recording and writing for Tears For Fears on their 1989 album, The Seeds OfLove.
All the while Astley planned a debut record, She Sat Down And
Cried. But she was also dreaming up an instrumental album on a theme of a summer’s day. Astley spent two months in
