Hawksmoor 'Yclept Thorn' LP

James McKeown has a knack for making the kind of music that drops you into another world. As Hawksmoor, his approach is both organic and synthetic: analog machines breathing in wheezing syncopation, eliciting cosmic sentiments and ancient mysteries found in a part of nature we have yet to unlock.

On Hawksmoor's latest, the eerie and beautiful Yclept Thorn, he keeps the mood dialled to urgency and subdued tension.

As the title track hints, there's a tribal, medieval quality here. From organic percussion to ethereal electronics, opening portals to villages frozen in time and ancient rural mystery, Yclept Thorn is a masterclass in dark folk storytelling.