I'm not trying to provoke any cosmic backlash unto me but the fact is that today is Equinox and here I am talking about a record by Oberon called Midsummer Night's Dream.

I just found it by simple hazard (I prefer to call it serendipity) and fell in love with it. It's extremely rare (I think only 150 original copies were made!) and it features some of the loveliest folk sounds you'll likely to hear in quite some time. For seasoned folk lovers, maybe you won't find here nothing new but in my opinion, it has that one ingredient that separates it from most of what you've heard so far: magic.

I especially like the treatment they made to one of Debussy's classic pieces: Syrinx. I could hear it ad eternum and imagine myself daydreaming in a meadow somewhere. Maybe I just will.

I thought it would be appropriate for this midsummer night to invoque a band that perfectly blends pagan traditions with avant-garde music, bordering on folk art-rock. Let me introduce you then to the mystical, scary sounds of Comus' debut album, FIRST UTTERANCE.

I first heard of them when I began to seriously investigate the whole british acid/folk/progressive scene and Comus was always a name that was held in high regard by everyone who was into this particular kind of music. After tracking down their album, it was not hard to see why: the songs have a kind of paganistic ritual to them and the lyrics as well as the singing emphasize this very characteristic. Murder, rape, violence, despair and occasional moments of serene clarity are the main ingredients of this bewitching brew of both ancient and modern sounds.

If you want to know, Comus is derived from Greek Mythology: he is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He represents anarchy and chaos. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Bacchus, Comus was a god of excess. He is a son of Bacchus and Circe. Perfectly suited then for a night like tonight's. Listen to one of their key songs: Herald.

Hello everybody and welcome to my new blog. Maybe 4 blogs the charm? We'll see.

Anyway, if you'd like to keep up with what I'm listening (just like it says in the Aural Greetings), just watch this space. And I hope you like my first recomendation: EARLY MORNING HUSH, an acid-folk compilation that came out in 2006 riding high on the new folk revival that's been happening for a few years to this date. I, myself am a devotee of this particular genre because it conjures all sorts of memories and feelings that belong to years spent watching british children's TV shows like Brendon Chase and the like. Remember those? The word you're after here is "bucolic".

Drawing inspiration from traditional folk music, the tracks on this compilation reveal artists that brought new musical lexicons to a genre once thought old and stale. Stand-out tracks are too many to enumerate here but Shirley Collins singing Poor Murdered Woman is always a show-stopper.