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Avocet

by Bert Jansch

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

  • Art Edition - LP plus Lithograph Prints
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The vinyl edition comes with 6 high-quality, heavyweight lithograph art prints (by UK illustrator Hannah Alice) representing each of the birds on the album, held in a heavy board die-cut gatefold sleeve. This unique packaging is fully interactive - the cover image is interchangeable with any of the prints, though each one is perfectly framable too. Remastered from the original tapes. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avocet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Bookback Edition - CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Beautifully presented in a full colour hard back book, containing 24 pages of notes and brand new illustrations of each wading bird. Remastered from the original tapes.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avocet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Avocet Library Edition LP
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avocet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Library Edition CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avocet via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
Avocet 17:59
2.
Lapwing 01:33
3.
Bittern 07:49
4.
Kingfisher 03:44
5.
Osprey 03:14
6.
Kittiwake 02:47

about

Bert Jansch was often quoted as saying “I’m not playing for anyone, just myself” and this feels no more apparent than on 1979’s ‘Avocet’, his beautifully meditative paean to British birds. This isn’t to say that Jansch was throwing commercial success to the wind, or was unaware of his audience, more that this album feels like a uniquely personal reflection of him. (The subject of British birds is one that Jansch held close to his heart. Indeed, just preceding this album was his 1978 split 7” single with Shirley Collins - with proceeds in aid of the RSPB.)
For fans of Jansch this is often the album that is singled out as his best work. The freedoms of a post-Pentangle career are much in evidence; folk rock and even trad folk give way to an album that is not only without lyrical accompaniment but really quite orchestral, classical even, in its composition. There are surprises in particular in ‘Lapwing’ (a dirge-like waltz that wouldn’t be out of place on a Nils Frahm album) and ‘Bittern’ (which speaks of Arthur Russell’s more experimental pieces).

Featuring ex-bandmate Danny Thompson, alongside Martin Jenkins with sleeve notes by Jansch aficionado Colin Harper (author of ‘Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues revival).

credits

released February 5, 2016

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Bert Jansch London, UK

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