Totnes-scene post-rock/post-punk band Abrasive Trees have announced the premiere of their latest work, ‘Mill Session’ – a short film featuring new songs, interview material and spellbinding visual art, all filmed within an ancient mill.
The five-piece, which includes Matthew Rochford and Ben Roberts from Bella Union project Silver Moth worked with a team of local professionals and producer Pete Fletcher from the Isle of Lewis to produce the 20-minute video which features two unreleased tracks ‘Star Sapphire’ and ‘Tao To Earth’. The video premiered on Wednesday 13th December (watch below).
As well as the new music there’s also a live version of the previously released ‘Kali Sends Sunflowers’ and interview material sprinkled through the film - guided by music journalist Andy Hill.
Visual artist Jess Wooller’s work has also been used throughout to produce a solid document of the band’s current creative direction. Filmed in a centuries-old mill in Totnes, the video was crowd-funded by fans of the band from several countries including Scotland, France, Belgium, and Germany.
Matthew said of the film: “We’d aspired to create this film after meeting earlier this year to discuss what we could and couldn’t do - given our commitments to all of our other creative projects. We had considered going into a recording studio but decided to do something completely different and release some of our new material in this way. Somehow it all came together with the right people at the right time and the right place. We received financial and practical backing from the Abrasive Trees community - so it’s a genuinely crowdfunded project”.
‘Abrasive Trees: MIll Session premiered on the band’s channel at 10am on Wednesday 13th December, watch it below.
Totnes has produced many notable artists in recent years including Pale Blue Eyes, 40 Watt Sun, Metronomy, Gravity Machine, Mae Karthauser, Silver Moth, Cosmo Jarvis, Ben Howard, Sounds Like Lily, Harbottle & Jonas, Magic Bus, and The Diamond Family Archive. The Bohemian town also gave rise to the Sea Change festival, and has connections to The KLF, Damon Albarn, Kula Shaker, Talk Talk, and the Cooking Vinyl label.
In addition to being part of their local creative scene, Abrasive Trees have worked with members of Fields of The Nephilim, Rothko, Pulled By Magnets, and Jo Beth Young. Their last EP was produced by Lucy and Matthew Board from Pale Blue Eyes and was featured by Louder Than War.