Siblings Lal and Mike Waterson were members of British family folk group The Watersons, which formed in the early 60s and made a mark in the British traditional music scene, and was where folk legend Martin Carthy got his start. In 1972, the duo released their sole collaborative album, Bright Phoebus, which blended traditional harmonies and melodies with a psychedelic flare, resulting in an album that sounded positively otherworldly–even as the whole thing never sounded anything less than perfectly traditional, the sound that has always been there, even as its melodies to have been carved out of something totally foreign. A long sought-after rarity, Domino has reissued the record, and expanded it with a second disc of demos and unreleased material. The title track, however, is pure gorgeousness; it starts off small and simple, but crescendos into an amazingly large crowd of vocalists. Pure delight for the ears, this.
Bright Phoebus is available now via Domino Records.
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