Circulus
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This band, probably more than any other, elicits strong reactions in people. They are definitely a band that you do or do not get. If you get with their medieval prog rock miasma then they become one of the pillars of your cosmos.
If you don't, then you will want to pour pestilence and plague upon them.
For some time I did NOT GET THEM. Then one fine day, as the rooks were raucously calling and building their rickety nests I stumbled across a Circulus track on a free magazine CD. For some reason I stuck said track on my ipod and plugged in whilst walking the dog along an ancient Anglo-Saxon earthwork called the Devils Ditch, near where I live.
The track was My Body is Made of Sunlight, the clear spring sunlight filtered through the branches and the roots of the trees arthritically gripped the chalky earth beneath my feet. And I'm buggered if I did not suddenly GET THEM! I chatted through the revelation with my dog who walked beside me, suddenly on two feet with a cavaliers hat at a rakish angle. He felt that I had allowed my modern prejudices to turn me from the truth, and as surely as the mushrooms were laughing at me I had stumbled upon the secret beauty of Circulus.
You see, to be this out there takes a dedication that few mortals can muster, to inhabit a world where the Wicker Man feels like a public information film needs an inner peace rarely found these days.
Listen to them, buy a ridiculous hat, and let me lead you into the woods...
They have been in existence since 1997, yet only recorded their first album in 2004 "The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent". Formed and held together by the medieval glue of Michael Tyack, they create and inhabit a wonderful alternative world completely at odds with the mundane one to be found in supermarkets, mortgages and reality TV shows.
Can I come in please?
Iain Hazlewood
Thought Becomes Reality
Circulus make me want to take my clothes off. Not in a do a streak across the centre court at Wimbledon way, no, that wouldn't do at all. No, it's in the stripping away all the clutter and burden of modern life sense, I would of course then don the gold lamé jump suit or suit of armour that Michael Tyack, the funky medieval main-man of Circulus, demanded of me and board the good ship Circulus for a voyage amongst the glittering orbs of outer space...
Before you roll your eyes and wander off, consider this; have you looked to the skies lately? Not just at the moon and stars, but at the spaces between them. The cold silent unfathomable void between the stars. Is there anything out there in the vastness of space looking back at you? That's what Michael Tyack has been doing, and the void spoke unto him...
Clocks Are Like People
Psychedelic medieval prog-rock is not a pigeonhole that is exactly bursting at the seams with acts, and, as titles go, doesn't inspire confidence. It is with great relief that it's chief inhabitant, Circulus, are so much more than that title would suggest.
They conjure forth a world with corn fields as ripe as the belly of a pregnant woman, dragons flying and a supernatural underworld aching to burst into our sterile 21st Century world. They conjure these images forth with an alchemical marriage of medieval instruments, electric guitar, drums and the oh-so-special sound of the Moog analogue synth. In the blink of a witches eye you are whisked from a misty woodland glade to a drugged out hazy '70's love-in. Their towering achievement is that they make this so accessible, there is no prog styled over-indulgence in endless twiddly noodlings. This is beautifully crafted music.
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Michael, you're appealing to your fans to help you release your next album 'Thought Becomes Reality'. What will they be contributing to?
That's going towards the album cover artist. I'm working her really hard because she's got to do lots of pictures for this album. She's doing the main cover and also the main craft on the inside cover. She's also going to draw six different pictures for singles, as I plan to release 3 singles before the album's out. The whole thing is going to be a big visual treat! We're also thinking about putting clues in each of the pictures, and if you can put them all together they'll be a fantastic treasure to discover at the end of it.
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Circulus audio samples
Circulus video