Stephen Prince

Since 2014 Stephen Prince has been working on the A Year In The Country project, a set of year-long journeys through spectral fields; cyclical explorations of an otherly pastoralism, the outer reaches of folk culture and the spectres of hauntology.

More information on A Year In The Country can be found at: www.ayearinthecountry.co.uk

As a project, it has included the above website featuring writing, artwork and music which stems from that otherly pastoral/spectral hauntological intertwining, alongside a growing catalogue of album releases.

The albums have included work by amongst others Magpahi, Polypores, Sproatly Smith, Time Attendant, Lutine, Howlround, The Rowan Amber Mill, The Hare And The Moon, Polypores, Listening Center, Lutine, Keith Seatman and Assembled Minds, alongside work by A Year In The Country.

They have been featured in the likes of the magazines Electronic Sound, Wire and Shindig! and been broadcast on numerous radio shows including Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone on BBC Radio 6 and Late Junction on BBC Radio 3.

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In 2018 the book A Year In The Country: Wandering Through Spectral Fields was released, which revisited writing from the project, alongside new wanderings:

"...an essential field guide to a distinct aesthetic that remains loosely defined, like a fluttering night moth that would die if pinned down." 
Ben Graham, Shindig!

"...the first book of it's kind to catalogue all these disparate strands, many of which cross over time and space to influence one another." DJ Food

“Stephen Prince's densely packed tome covers everything from folkloric film and literature to electronic music to acid folk to folk horror to the dystopian fiction of John Wyndham and the classic unearthings of Nigel Kneale to the formation of under-the-furrows record labels like Trunk, Ghost Box and Finders Keepers… This incredibly well-researched book, which is obviously written by a man with an enormous passion for this subject, is probably as comprehensive as it is possible to be… Books this culturally valuable don't grow on hedgerows, so make sure you harvest it immediately." Ian White, Starburst

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On A Year In The Country and the album releases:

"A Year In The Country quietly go about their business releasing beautifully packaged music that is influenced by folk, electronica, drone as well as by landscape, time and place... each have themes running through them, tying the music together and seemingly telling a story as they unfold." Terrascope

“…another exquisitely packaged affair… murky and ominous as befits the guiding thematic: places that are spectrally imprinted with past conflicts and struggles… a conceptual compilation of excellently eerie electronic music.” Simon Reynolds, author of Retromanina and Energy Flash

"...part feverish dream, part incidental music for a folk-horror movie... another excellent snapshot of current experimental music, showing the coexistence of darkness, strangeness and profound beauty." Bliss Aquamarine

"...beautifully packaged collection of Midwich Cuckoo ghost-folk - a haunting edgelands lament for piano, cor anglais & rustling pages." Mojo

“…a wonderfully curated concept album that rips up the green grass of the idyllic countryside and forces you to consider the darker undergrowth. Beautifully unnerving stuff.” Electronic Sound