KAP: What is Maiden Hair and what is Strands Ov Maiden Hair?
MH: Maiden Hair is an ambient project started during the lock-downs of 2020 in England. Strands of Maiden Hair is a series of spoken-word stories tackling the earlier years of a longer yarn, told in the style of children’s story cassettes from the 1980s and 90s. The latter is a now defunct collaborative project with various members including illustrators, musicians and friends all contributing voice acting and concept art. That was, at least in concept, the difference between Maiden Hair as an individual’s musical vessel and Maiden Hair of England as an art collective. Previously, the albums have followed a very strict chronicle – albeit told in a non-linear way – but that was a choice to be sure any listeners following along wouldn’t come to expect an answer to any growing questions too soon. In fact, the gag really is that the accompanying stories are more in-depth than the standard “mainstream” spiel. We have the entirety of our Strands collection which is, to date, nine stories created to build toward the first album ‘Yonder’, two radio dramas (‘Ancient Borders’ and ‘Trim the Fat’) that expand on the albums ‘Trewanmead’ and ‘Minstrel’, respectively; and an unfinished novel serving as additional reading for ‘the Adder Witch’. The more effort the additional lore, the funnier it is for us.
Does this new record fit into that worldbuilding?
In short: no, OPUS ENGLAND does not fit into the wider narrative. With my co-writer Dean having a child (my nephew, actually), and myself now set to leave this year, we knew we wanted to craft an album that touched on our love of the beautiful countryside we have here and not force ourselves to be too constrictive with a place or time in mind. We live in an area that’s close to mystical ancient sites, outstanding landscapes… we have a great deal of history in almost every direction. It felt important to capture those feelings, and in doing so informed our decision that this would be our final album.
You said you were leaving. Where are you going?
I’m moving back to the United States. I was born in England, but to an American father, and spent the first eleven years of my life in various neighborhoods and schools across the western states. Despite my initial struggle to assimilate to England upon my return (man, do they love to hate Americans), I love this country dearly and Maiden Hair has always been a not-so-quiet way of expressing that.
High Strangeness
I have always been fascinated with Maiden Hair because I just didn’t quite understand them. I sort of enjoy music like this as I am naturally curious about things which elude easy evaluation. For the past few years, whenever I would review a Maiden Hair release it was always at an arm’s length since I knew I didn’t have the space or time to really digest all of its eccentricities. I was thrilled when the creator contacted me since I would have time to sit down with this record in a longer format. It is sort of funny that I am coming into it now at the very end as Opus England is a finale to a strange project which has been mostly dancing in empty rooms.
Opus England begins with an 11 minute track which really doesn’t let the listener prepare before plunging them into a world of ambient estoerica. The album’s opener, “Fusing Branches & The Ease of Waking Life,” is a journey of minimal piano that dissolves into a maelstrom of noise and distortion which feels declarative in its intentions. It is the type of opener one makes if they are either uncaring about the listening experience or using it as a deliberate overture to prime the audience for the correct set and setting for the ensuing journey. Things will not come as expected and this is sort of an announcement of sorts. Maiden Hair, as I now understand it, has been a journey for its creators and much like some of the best projects in music, exists whether or not people are listening or understanding.
Opus England could very well be the de facto starting point for Maiden Hair. Though 2021’s Trewanmead is the project’s most “Dungeon Synth” release with its black and white cover art and close to medieval melodies, Opus England feels like a summation of the entire project which began in the high time of the pandemic. There is most certainly dungeon synth in this record but not as a main character rather a supporting role in an ensemble cast of other equally interesting sounds. “Vert Infini” begins like a moody noir soundtrack before spilling into a courtly procession but somehow in space. The “Field Recordings” are snippets of songs which are displaced throughout the record with some even alluding to them being attached to songs which are further or before in the album. “Peace” is a groovy jaunt following a 70’s era Pink Floyd into some place which feels like a bog. Through the experience of this record comes a sense of dislocation as one never knows where they are — and even if they did they are not entirely sure they can trust their surroundings.
Even though I would want everyone to listen to this record in full, two songs, together make up perhaps the best set of songs to understand Maiden Hair. “Inosculation, on the Life & Death of Communion” and “An Introduction To Grace” come in the middle of this lengthy record and since they are both together and both measure around a third of the running time, I started to think about them as a premiere aspect of the experience. These two songs, both at 15 and 22 minutes feel like a farewell from the creators to those who found it despite the best intentions to keep it obscured. The sounds and melodies are both conclusive and bittersweet as a strange time for the creators is distilled in synthwave melodies, pan flutes, and cinematic scores. The two songs segue into each other providing an unannounced centerpiece, which is perhaps the span most most full lengths, just now inside the record. I do not want to say I finally got Maiden Hair during these songs, though lengthy tracks certainly help since the entire thing feels like an emotional trip.
Dungeon synth has many themes which are intriguing for people. There is of course the combination of high fantasy and bedroom production which has become its marquee aesthetic. Others enjoy it for its proximity of 90’s black metal as an ambient arm of dark despondency. I have always found dungeons synth’s incubation for weirdness enjoyable and as the style’s embrace of DIY production and encouragement for audience participation lends itself to be a world where wonderful things are made and celebrated in small communities. When I used to write dungeon synth digests for Hollywood Metal and eventually Invisible Oranges, I would always put the weird little things I found at the back — not in any judgment of quality but rather the lovers of the odd usually find their way to these records as if connected by unseen threads. This is why I was excited when Maiden Hair contacted me as I feel like I wanted to review this record even before it was made.
I have written many things about dungeon synth and the pandemic as this time seemed to be a global period where things felt odd. While it seems to be a period whose effects are waning I feel this moment in which things were made will come to define whatever we are going into next. Maiden Hair began as a pandemic project and from what I can assume now exists as a monument for a weird time in its creator’s lives. The love for the esoteric and desire to even keep parts of the project from general understanding feels authentic and entirely apart of the project’s foundation. It is impossible to predict the next decade or even years for dungeon synth and Maiden Hair’s work has been leaving artifacts around for people to eventually find and put together its puzzle. Opus England, as the creators intended, is the final piece which might be hilariously incomplete as they hid the corners around the house. Perhaps this is the legacy for the project as they seem completely fine with being instigators of high strangeness.
Opus England releases digitally on March 10th 2025 with physical editions through Relics of the Eternal City and High Mage Productions in Spring of 2025.
Interview
What were you doing before 2020? Maiden Hair and its related projects started during the pandemic but what about before?
I’ve been producing music since a young age, starting with heavier metal style projects when I was fifteen years old. Over the years there was a clear progression into softer music, but I suppose the themes from that root system has always remained. By the time I was seventeen I had already toured Britain, and we were lucky enough to play alongside some amazing bands and play great venues. A lot of our friends we made have ended up in much larger stage acts, now, so I guess they wanted it a little more than we did. This kind of trend continued into hardcore music, too, after starting a band in 2008 with my friend Dev (Lungtoucher); cut a record, play a couple shows, tour and then break up. However, once I had worked on an album for a band called Sioux around 2009 (believe me, that album warrants an entire Wikipedia article due to the making-of), I was pretty fatigued with collaborative projects and took a few years to begin making music independently from everyone else. During that time I also began really learning how to produce music for myself. There was a brief stint in a psychedelic jam-band, but what’s notable around 2013 is a project I started named Quiet/Public. Unknown to me at the time I was making dark ambient and harsh noise music, but the project yielded 37 albums in the span of about seven months, which meant a lot of experimentation… and more importantly a lot of learning Audacity and music production overall. Dean, during all of this (we didn’t actually meet until 2017 – 18), never worked in music save for jamming around on the guitar with some friends. Rather he spent the last twelve-or-so years as a professional tattooist. Once we grew closer as friends, there wasn’t a day he wouldn’t swing by my house after work to smoke and let me teach him chords on the piano or share ideas for the greater Maiden Hair story.
The cover for Opus England is striking and looks as if it is a grand landscape from the romantic era of art. Where is it from?
All credit to our friend Tanchhohang Limbu. Exploring the coasts and countryside of Britain, he’s taken some really amazing photographs. I was struggling with a concept for the cover and asked him to send through some of his stuff. After probably three dozen proposals, he sent over that photograph. The swelling clouds really sum up life on this island. Myself and Dean had spoken about our views of England through a lens. Like a sort of simulacrum of England, rather than what it really is now. We wanted to represent that waking inevitability of adulthood and modernity through the CRT television textures of our youth, thus the overlay and edit.
The album is set to come out on tape (from High Mage) and CD (Relics of the Eternal City). You have worked with them before right?
I’ve worked with both labels previously, and coincidentally both in tandem with German label Personal Uschi Records for separate projects. With High Mage we decided on putting together a Food Synth inspired album, ‘Proper British Fish & Chips’, alongside their own Hotdog Cart; a collaboration I was excited to be approached about. They handled the release on cassette in the US while Personal Uschi did a Euro edition. With Relics… I released a side project (Troubles97) on CD and once again Personal Uschi did cassette. I left it up to both labels to piece together art from just artefacts I’d sent through and I think they both did such a great job with that release. The labels really understood the overall feel I wanted to get across, and the spirit of multi-region variants. Honestly, working with High Mage and Relics again is best case scenario for OPUS ENGLAND, in our opinion. Each label has a genuine care for their choice of media and where we wanted the album to see as many formats as possible, we couldn’t be happier with their consideration.
This being a watershed record in terms of overall project, did you approach anything different with Opus England?
Well, for me it’s been several years since I’ve worked closely with another musician, especially on composition. We had a good deal of time, however, with our previous release ‘OP. The Myth of the Weeping Man, no. I – III’, and the consequential live debut for which it was written. Dean has learned piano predominantly with me by his side, so our playing styles are essentially married. All of this really helped build a sonic idea before anything was written. We talked a lot in April and May of last year about what we wanted the album to sound like by sharing snippets of other songs with each other in person, but only one part of the entire album was crafted by both of us being in the same place at the same time. Dean would write and record pieces, sending them over to me to either add to compositions or to expand on. Most of the writing process in person was just us stoned in a field throwing a baseball back and forth for hours; talking about chord progressions we liked, where the album should be louder or soft… It was all kind of theoretical until we were back in our respective nests.
The concepts and influences for Maiden Hair…and related projects, seems in depth but certainly interesting for people who appreciate things like hauntology and high concept labels like Ghost Box records. Did you feel you connected with a segment of the DS community even though you were not strictly making DS?
The more years that pass, with more DS projects exponentially springing up, I do understand how tenuous that connection with genuine dungeon synth music is; but yes, I think the connection is there especially via hauntology or general nostalgia. I can only speak for my generation, but growing up in the early 00s felt as if there wasn’t a cultural touchstone like there has been in the past. It’s only now – watching my younger siblings’ generation label aesthetics – through hindsight we have a cumulative feeling of nostalgia for that time. So, much like people around my age I’d imagine they too grew up being influenced by eras before. Especially through music. I mean: vapourwave* was a great example of a trend that really spoke to everyone’s yearning for things that never even existed. But it also transmuted the monotony of the pre-information past into warmth and simplicity. Rose-tinted glasses, I guess. I think dungeon synth is cut from the same cloth as vapourwave.
* (English spelling of this genre left in intentionally because I find it delightful – KAP)
Is there a repository for material related to the Maiden Hair Ov England project?
No. At first, I made sure that these elements would be present digitally – but ultimately we are a musical project separate from that, and more due to the nature of what that project is (going back to our hauntological aspect) I personally would prefer it to survive simply as its physical media. I’ve joked privately that the greatest achievement I can imagine is finding a copy of one of our radio dramas in a charity shop somewhere in Hull many years from now. There’s something so deeply British about being sold for £2 alongside an Atomic Kitten CD. Much like an Argos catalogue, I’d like the Strands series to be something we remember and not necessarily have access to at a whim. Further, every Strands tape and both radio dramas were independent releases, so I feel I owe it to the listeners who supported us to keep them a little more sacred. That being said, like most things, if someone sends me a message asking for a digital download I’ll happily provide.
Do you think the project will continue in America? Will there ever be a Maiden Hair Ov America? What else does 2025 hold for you?
Well, I think as we’ve both decided this will be Maiden Hair’s final album, that’s pretty conclusive. I wouldn’t rule out perhaps non-musical elements making their way back into our lives sooner or later, like illustration and prose regarding the fun lore we’ve planned out over the last few years (I’ve always thought Strands would make a wonderful children’s book series…), but in terms of writing long-winded synth-prog albums: we’re done.Of course, we’ll both continue to play piano and talk endlessly about the beauty of the instrument. Of course, one or both of us we’ll want to collaborate again, even if it’s just for fun. But the next few years are going to be busy in our personal lives. A lot of change. A lot of responsibility. Yes, we’re finally growing up in our thirties. That being said, I also have a solo project of ambient new age music. If I can pull in a favour from an internet friend or two, we may see cassette releases – but I’m in no rush.
Maiden Hair Mixtape
Since the Covered Bridges article, I have enjoyed listening to artists influences and the material which informed the record. Not only do I find it fun to search for the foundations which make the record in other songs, the more I spend in this genre the more I realize it is just made up of passionate people into cool music. Maiden Hair’s mixtape was something I was looking forward to since even my cursory experience with the artist gave the impression I wasn’t going to get expected material. I think if anyone came over to listen to records and they carrying things Can, Mike Oldfield, and Bohren & der Club of Gore, we would be in good company. Even on the most selfish level, I knew asking for influences was more asking for the artist to give me recommendations as I have come to trust dungeon synth artists, and especially ones who hang out in the great beyond, to have an uncanny appreciation for the uncanny. I have never heard Arvo Pärt, Roger Doyle, Dennis Stelmakh, or even this Jóhann Jóhannsson song from the Mandy soundtrack. This mix-tape, for me, gave me more of an appreciation for the artist and also musicians who travel beyond the dark dungeons of the 1990’s for for inspirations. It is something that is transformative and endlessly interesting.
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Artist – Album (Year)
‘Song’
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Arvo Pärt – Tabula Rasa (2012)
‘Fratres for violin, orchestra and percussion’
Mike Oldfield – Incantations (1978)
‘Incantations (Part One)’
CAN – Tago Mago (1971)
‘Bring Me Coffee Or Tea’
Björk – Homogenic (1997)
‘All Neon Like’
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Mandy Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2018)
‘Sand’
Roger Doyle – Time Machine (2015)
‘Coat-hanger Kisses’
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (1985)
‘Cloudbusting’
Dennis Stelmakh – The Nowhere (2018)
‘Nevermore’
The Killimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble – s/t (2006)
‘Adaptation of the Koto Song’
Aurora – Infections of a Different Kind (2018)
‘Churchyard’
Bohren & der Club of Gore – Sunset Mission (2000)
‘Prowler’
Gong – Flying Teapot (1973)
‘The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine’
Kosmischer Läufer – The Secret Cosmic Music of the East German Olympic Program 1972 – 83, Vol. 2 (2014)
‘Morgenröte’