Track Of The Day: Karda Estra
Come on in for today’s Track Of The Day from progressive/classical/gothic project Karda Estra.
Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day.
Karda Estra is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist and composer Richard Wileman.
Hailing from Swindon, UK, Wileman’s influences are numerous and varied. They include Steve Hackett, Vaughan Williams, Ennio Morricone, Talk Talk, Brian Wilson, 70s prog, Burt Bacharach, Erik Satie, Malcolm Arnold, Aaron Copland, Kate Bush, The Beatles, John Barry… the list goes on.
Karda Estra have just released a new album, Weird Tales, on the Cyclops label. It is available to buy direct from the Karda Estra website www.kardaestra.co.uk via PayPal.
Our Track Of The Day – Skulls In The Stars – comes from Karda Estra’s brand new album.
Check out our FREE download here: http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/301747817/Skulls%2Bin%2Bthe%2BStars.mp3
The Karda Estra website also has background information on Weird Tales’ other tracks and photos from the recording studio too.
In addition to the regular Karda Estra musicians – not to mention the ‘sometimes scary’, Enya-like voice of Ileesha Bailey – this time round Wileman is joined by Amy Hedges on clarinet and saxophone, and Jemima Palfreyman on tuba.
Wileman, meanwhile, plays classical, electric and bass guitars, keyboards, percussion, bouzouki and… rastrophone!
Allow Wileman to explain: “This is highly obscure! As you may suspect, I enjoy a lot of soundtrack music – including some from Hammer films.
“I was perusing one soundtrack CD with the music by Italian composer Mario Nascimbene who wrote music for Hammer’s dino films like One Million Years BC.
“He devised a percussive instrument which he termed the rastrophone which gave a great thud sound with a creepy bone-rattling after-effect.
“The CD booklet stated how Mario later revealed that a rastrophone was actually… a garden rake!”
Weird Tales also features a collaboration track with Bridget Wishart (ex-Hawkwind/Spirits Burning) on wind synth and Don Falcone (Spirits Burning) on keyboards.
If beautifully crafted, hyper-atmospheric symphonic prog is your bag, then don’t hesitate to check out Karda Estra.
