Cassette available at www.pariahchild.co.uk/artefacts/page/18/

Also available in a bundle with Divining Movements & Cave Hill Ascension.

Beneath the earth, beyond the stars, between stations
These are divining movements
Reveal'd in the light of a buried moon
So as to preserve the mystery...

One of Mojo Magazine's Top Ten Underground Releases of 2021.

West Kennet Ascension is more active, and sees the group expand to a septet with the addition of Diana Collier, Sophie Cooper, and Graeme Lockett. Recorded mostly at a series of neolithic sacred sites and burial grounds in England, including Waylands Smithy and West Kennet Long Barrow, these six pieces capture the ensemble at their best, offering unaccompanied vocal re-interpretations of pastoral folk tunes next to hypnotic harmonium drone suites. It’s masterclass in the wyrd, delivered by some of its finest modern practitioners.

Eoin Murray, The Quietus

An intrinsic sense of freedom present in both their music and group structures sets United Bible Studies apart from others dabbling with avant garde takes on folk. Built around a loose nucleus of David Colohan, Alison O’Donnell, Dom Cooper and Matt Leivers, each of the collective’s works is left to form spontaneously, influenced by a diverse cast of Irish and British collaborators. Within these ensembles, individual contributions and energies become as important as overarching concepts. Despite this continued metamorphosis, the music of UBS always emanates from a place where primal, slightly dangerous forces live. Conjuring improvisations from pastoral forms and earthy drones, their art teeters between fierce exaltations of the flesh and celestial spiritual journeys. West Kennet Ascension lands on the airier side of their oeuvre, brief as a fleeting desire during a busy day. Expanded to a septet with Diana Collier, Sophie Cooper and Graeme Lockett, UBS render “Bless’d Is Albion”, “On Silbury Hill” and “Gather Words For The Fire” into starkly alluring a cappella cuts and plant them where faint birdsong filters through tree branches swaying in the wind – a time and place just out of reach. These songs bookend two sprawling tracks, “Amongst The Illuminations” and “West Kennet Ascension”. Here, drones rise from synthesizers and harmonium, consuming disembodied psalms, thumps and wandering chants into breathless lullabies. When a saxophone’s flutter and a shruti box’s reverberations tear through that fabric, the sensation is hair-raising, like falling through soft earth into a deep sleep.
The core group grow the four parts of Divining Movements from similar roots, before stripping them down. Meditation is the word that first comes to mind, but reducing these pieces to such a functional passive role is almost blasphemous. Instead, the journey through the album’s thundering oscillations and swallowing textures is best enjoyed while being acutely aware of each slow shift and swell, even when time seems to come to a still. Sustained, fuzzy riffs of various origin are the prevailing idiom, but they never rest, as synth rays glisten in the shadows of silence and cymbal hits illuminate the path for rolling saxophone melodies and delicate choirs.

Antonio Poscic, the Wire

United Bible Studies bring us two new releases which follow on from 2019’s ‘Cave Hill Ascension’ to complete the ‘Cave Hill’ trilogy. As might be expected there are themes and moods that weave a thread through all three releases whilst each on their own maintains its singular freestanding character.

‘Divining Movements’ is divided into four movements on a double CD, each movement timed at exactly 23 minutes. For this recording, United Bible Studies are a quartet consisting of Alison O’Donnell, David Colohan and Dominic Cooper with Matt Leivers playing saxophone. Slowly shifting, spacious and elemental waves of sound swell, float and fade away into silence. Richly textured and expressive wordless vocals, brief flurries of saxophone, subtle wisps and shimmers of percussive colour and elegant, occasionally dramatic layered drones create a spiritual, meditative ambience and a lovely indulgent sense of isolation and natural space. Occasional touches of electronic dissonance, synthesized textures and treated vocals are wisely used to embellish and not detract from the immersive and hypnotic ambience. Each of the four movements maintains a core musical ambience and mood but also creates its own personality. Frequent reminders of Popol Vuh, Jon Hassell, Dead Can Dance, monastic chant and the more cathedral-esque and spacious ambiences of John Surman and Jan Garbarek present themselves throughout the four movements in the best possible ways.

The third and final part of the trilogy ‘West Kennet Ascension’ is a cassette release boasting an expanded line up where the aforementioned quartet are joined by Diana Collier, Sophie Cooper and Graeme Lockett. It was recorded in several locations and is a more openly diverse collection alternating quite starkly but nevertheless effectively between short unaccompanied songs sung in a stirring folk club session style and lengthier, more exploratory ambient pieces which hold a connection albeit not always a direct lineage to other music across the trilogy through the use of vocal textures, expressive drones and saxophone. Vocals either singular or choral are the essential core here and are markedly more prominent than the other trilogy recordings creating moods and painting with sounds. On ‘Amongst The Illuminations’ organ drones and desolate drums blend with wordless hymnal vocals to create a ceremonial, sacred kosmische feel. The title track concludes the tape and moves elegantly from beautiful vocal soundscapes through slowly building drones towards climax where waves of voice, organ drone and sax swell grandly before evaporating to nothing. There is a sense that in addition to the expanded septet, different recording locations such as West Kennet Long Barrow and Waylands Smithy played a big part in influencing the mood and sound.

These are two very fine releases with their own personality, quiet power and majesty rounding off a trilogy that brings many rewards to the attentive listener. There is an earthy and sometimes unearthly grandeur in these recordings that comes from their understanding of song form and indeed long form and the use of the voice as an individual and collective instrument is both impressive and wonderfully expressive. These are recordings to lose yourself in and let your imagination fly.

Francis Comyn, Terrascope Online

2019 saw the release of ‘Cave Hill Ascension’, the first in a trilogy from the ever-expanding folk music collective known as United Bible Studies. Note that the term folk music is used in its widest form here. While United Bible Studies may not be the only bunch of musicians still moving the boundaries of music which has its base in the folk genre, they are still discovering fresh territories. Now in 2021, the final two pieces of the trilogy are released on the same day. And both are just as compelling and fascinating as ‘Cave Hill Ascension’. The collective have a Bandcamp profile which is worth spending an hour or two checking out or alternatively head for www.pariahchild.co.uk, the label which releases United Bible Studies' music.

To take the trilogy out of sequence (and it matters not, each separate release is a complete work in itself) a listen to the final part, ‘West Kennet Ascension’ was our first stop. Only available as a download or cassette and still not understanding why anyone, especially with music that can be as beautifully fragile or scarily demanding as United Bible Studies, would listen to music on a cassette, we’re taking these thoughts from the download.

The initial part of the trilogy featured three contributors, David Colohan, Alison O’Donnell and Dominic Cooper; on ‘’Divining Movements’ this core trio are joined by Matt Leivers while for ‘West Kennet Ascension’ the collective is expanded to a septet with contributions from Diana Collier, Sophie Cooper and Graeme Lockett. That the six pieces that make up the set were recorded in various locations including, apparently (and appropriately) a number of Neolithic sacred sites and burial grounds in England is no surprise when listening to the tracks. The lengthier pieces perfectly soundtrack a wander around such places even if only in the mind. And that’s part of the fascination with United Bible Studies; they take you out of whatever environment you find yourself in and transport you to places you have yet to discover. At times they might be spaces you didn’t particularly choose to visit but once there and once experienced you’ll long for a revisit. The four shorter pieces are all based on folk songs; in fact, the opening brace of songs will have the listener wondering if the set really has anything in common with the rest of the trilogy. But the two longer, reflective pieces leave little doubt that this collection does belong in the trilogy. The title track and ‘Amongst he Illuminations’ clocking in at nine and eleven minutes respectively are simply breathtaking pieces of music.

The whole spectrum of what makes United Bible Studies so special is on display on these pieces. Wordless vocals coupled with organ drones and saxophone paint such vivid pictures. The images that these soundscapes conjure up fit in perfectly with where they were created. Initial thoughts were that the short, more traditional folk songs might detract from the world the longer, more experimental pieces take the listener to but they fit like a well-worn glove. It’s a thoughtfully put together collection and will not disappoint fans of ‘Cave Hill Ascension’.

Malcolm Carter, Penny Black Music