from gardens where we feel secure

Originally released in 1983 Virginia Astley's delightful From Gardens Where We Feel Secure is a genuinely unique album of melodically varied, rich mood pieces specifically designed to reflect the passing of a hazy lazy summer’s day from dawn to dusk. The original vinyl’s sides were even titled ‘Morning’ and ‘Afternoon.’ This progression through an idyllic countryside is accompanied by field recordings, which include sounds of creaking gates, donkeys, birds, lambs and distant church bells. The gentle flutes and delicate piano creates a peculiarly English air (dubbed ‘pastoralia’ by Wire magazine) - a mixture of Britten, Vaughan-Williams and the Famous Five, and the album sometimes only just manages to remain this side of unbearably twee; but repeated plays unveil a childlike purity and simplicity that is utterly beguiling.

Virginia Astley was born in 1959. Her father was the renowned composer Edwin ‘Ted’ Astley, responsible for the music for a huge number of TV action serials of the 1950s and 1960s, with The Saint and Danger Man being two of the best remembered. In a move away from fast paced jazzy soundtracks, Ted Astley also composed the score for Kenneth Clarke’s monumental 1969 historical documentary series Civilisation. Virginia’s elder sister Karen married Pete Townshend and Ted orchestrated a number of songs for the Who. In the late 1970s the Astley family moved from suburbia to rural Oxfordshire, a tranquil setting which was to inspire Virginia.

In the early 1980s she formed the Ravishing Beauties; a short lived, all female band comprised of Virginia, Kate St John and Nicky Holland. They played a few gigs supporting Teardrop Explodes and recorded a John Peel session before splitting in 1981. St John later leant her woodwind and arranging skills to artists as diverse as Julian Cope, Dream Academy and Roger Eno, while Holland worked with Tears For Fears and the Fun Boy Three amongst many others.

Astley however struck out on her own, worked on demos with John Foxx and in 1982 released a well-received single “Love’s A Lonely Place To Be.” It reached number 5 on the indie charts and featured two simple tracks on the b-side, “A Summer Long Since Passed” and “It's Too Hot To Sleep.” The evocative titles exactly summed up the delightful instrumentals and in 1983 Rough Trade issued the From Gardens… album – full of this material. Virginia’s first solo album is precisely that - she plays all the instruments herself and the gentle piano and woodwinds are mixed with touches of synthesizer and the tape recordings that she’d made near her rural home. 

The melodies are deceptively light and airy, though as the day progresses the rise in temperature causes a corresponding increase in tension, which is subtly reflected in the music. Evocative aural pictures are drawn – the flute that emerges from the dawn chorus sets the morning mood of cheerful optimism, a mood that continues until a donkey brays harshly at the conclusion of “Hiding In The Ha Ha.” The afternoon tracks become darker. The repetitive squeak of a rusty swing becomes a creaky rhythm track, as does a loop of a bleating lamb. This creates a mildly uneasy air, which increases with the faint addition of farm machinery buzzing in the background. Lovely piano and flute (recorded so clearly you can hear Virginia breathing between notes) maintain continuity with the morning music but despite the vaguely disquieting afternoon, the soothing hoot of an owl accompanies the final “It’s Too Hot To Sleep.”

From Gardens… reached number 4 on indie chart in 1984 and Virginia was persuaded to attempt a follow up. Sadly the proposed Tales Of Winter only ever got as far as the single “Melt The Snow”, three versions of which were added to the Japanese reissue of From Gardens… in 1987.

The album was especially successful in Japan, where her rather prim English rose image proved to be enormously popular. Ryuichi Sakamoto offered his services as producer and in 1986 Virginia’s first proper album of songs Hope In A Darkened Heart was issued. Her delicate songs worked remarkably well set in Sakamoto’s synth arrangements, which suited her beautiful diction and clear as a bell vocals. David Sylvian collaborated on the single “Some Small Hope,” a peculiar tune that sounded as if it had been composed in another century, on which his lugubrious croon provided a fascinating contrast with Astley’s schoolgirl clarity.

The following year Virginia Astley dropped out of the music business to bring up her new born daughter Florence, only re-emerging in recent years with All Shall Be Well and Had I The Heavens (partially inspired by Thomas Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders). 

In interviews Virginia Astley would often talk of her desire to unite poetry with music – the Ravishing Beauties had used Wilfred Owen’s Futility on their only single. Whilst this ambition took some years to manifest itself fully (recent work has seen Virginia recording her own poetry), From Gardens…  still contains a lyrical, poetic quality in spite of the lack of words. 

From Gardens… has had a long life - Miranda July’s 2005 film Me And You And Everyone We Know uses “A Summer Long Since Passed” over the end credits, and Rough Trade reissued the whole album in 2003. Although the new digipack version replaces the precious dried flowers of the original cover with a sea of purple blooming in a very English forest (and the back now features a hazy photo of a child as Alice In Wonderland in front of a charming thatched cottage), these images, taken by Virginia, give a very accurate impression of the music within. Pastoral, nostalgic, romantic, soothing and wistful - in recalling a happy past, a time which will probably never be repeated, the poignancy of From Gardens… grows stronger with every passing year.

NB: The Japanese 1987 Rosebud reissue RBXCD1001 added “Sanctus” and three versions of “Melt The Snow” as bonus tracks, but the current Rough Trade CD RETRADECD001 goes back to the original track list.