If you can dream...
maldasi | New Jersey, United States | 11/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you can dream and believe they are angels among us, then buy this cd.
For your quiet moments in life, this cd is a perfect companion.
Virginia Astley might not be known to the masses, but not everyone deserves to meet an angel."
EVERTHING ENGLISH AND PASTORAL
THE FAMILY CAT | Blackpool England | 01/09/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Although Virginia is known as a singer,this,her Ist album,is a collection of instrumentals,in which she takes the listener through an entire day,from the opening Dawn Chorus to the final owl hoot.Its also where she set up her stall,never deviating from the path,always staying in her own turf.
"With my eyes wide open I'm dreaming",the opening instrumental,takes its title from a line by W H Auden and like all the music on here its minmalist,with just piano,flute and bass with the occaisonal clarinet played by ex Kissing The Pink member Josephine Wells..Plus all those glorious Sounds of nature heard throughout.
"A Summer long since past" is the only item here with a vocal and its Virginia and her 2 neices(one of which was Emma Townshend)"la la laing" through the piece,church bells heard in the background.
Virginia,obsessed with her own past,has recreated this moment many times: her most recent song is "I will miss this Holy garden".
Every track is a gem...the most upbeat is "Hiding In The Ha Ha",where the bells seem to go out of kilter,making this very ambient.
Not to everyones taste obviously but this album nevertheless shows an artiste well ahead of her time"
Back again but not really
Richard | Blackpool England | 06/28/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Virginia's most famous album has been available from the 90s in Japan and was reissued on her own Rosebud imprint for America,Thus the CDs were available here on import but have long since dried up as Discoveries in Wiltshire only imported about 1000.
So this new reissue represnts the first time this item has had an official U K CD release.
However the realty is that Virginia is painfully aware that few will even notice and only the completist will want a copy.
As her No.1 fan I bought it twice,sealed and unsealed.
Some indication of Virginia's total Cultdom is right here.Hardly anyone adds a Customer Comment so the Worlds Best Kept Secret...literally as she did a disappearing act right after I issued the CD single of "Sanctus 2000" on my own ASTRA label.
This album,which hit the Indie Top 5 in 1983,went into a life of its own and shows Virginia as an instrumentalist rather than a singer.Here she more or less followed her own late father who had his own label and issued instrumental stuff.
The reissue has no newly discovered items from the vaults its just as it came but without the Bonus tracks they added in Japan.
It has though a brand new sleeve,the dried flowers replaced by Virginia as Alice In Wonderland."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1