#pentangle

[fabiche]

[guessimdumb]

Bert Jansch & John Renbourn - The Time Has Come (1966)

Virtuoso guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn recorded an LP together before they founded Pentangle, and this song, written by Anne Briggs, was one the highlights.

[jt1674]

[de-salva]

BERT JANSCH & JOHN RENBOURN (Pentangle) - Jack the Orion (1970)

[victusinveritas]

Pentangle - Willy O Winsbury (Set Of Six ITV, 27.06.1972)

A song where the King of Scotland is like “Yeah I’m not going to hang you, Willy, you are totally hot and my daughter absolutely won the lottery when she got knocked up by you, want a lordship and also marry my daughter?”  Willy, a rare hot blond guy in Medieval Ballad Land, is just like ‘I’m all set for lordships, but I’ll absolutely marry your daughter, and I brought some cool horses we can ride away on.’ And then there’s the rare balladic happy ending.  

[musicmags]

[capturing-earths-beauty]

Pentangle - Reflection

from 1972

This recording is one of my favorites, every note is perfection. This song is a true jam! It blends folk, traditional, and jazz with psychedelic rock sounds in such a beautiful way.

The video is also amazing. The camera angles, and use of double exposure from multiple cameras and overall very artsy and surreal look is just captivating. Sorry to sound cheesy, I just love every aspect of this performance and video.

A little technical nerd enthusiasm about the production. This was captured with TV cameras that very likely used a Vidicon camera tube. (Camera tubes are very similar to their CRT TV counterparts but capture images rather than produce them. I won't get into that detail here) These cameras have a characteristic of darkening bright areas of the image or even creating a black circle around a very bright highlight. This results in a very interesting tonality to the image. This video looks like it was transferred from expensive video tape to film for storage which is where the grain and dust comes from which adds another layer of abstraction. When this was produced, there was no such possibility with video, as there is with film and modern cameras, to record multiple camera feeds at once. So every cross-fade, every double exposure, and every cut, was done live during the performance. Editing video in post wasn't an option. It was possible to record multi-tack audio and mix in post, and add that back to the video, but it was likely mixed live as well. I wish I could get my hands on one of these cameras but they are very large, expensive, and rare in working order.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Pentangle - Songs From The Two Brewers, London, England, May 8, 1970

Every now and then, the official Pentangle YouTube channel lurches back into life, usually delivering something amazing. This time around, it's an absolutely wondrous pub gig filmed by the BBC in the spring of 1970, which I'd seen bits of previously in much lower res format. The vibes, as they say, are impeccable, with Renbourn, Jansch, McShee, Thompson and Cox looking/sounding effortlessly cool. The crowd looks pretty cool, too! It was 1970, maybe everyone was cool. Throughout the 25-minute set we get a nice overview of what the Pentangle was all about — groovy folk-pop workouts, harrowing trad reinventions, Bach, bebop and beyond. Grab a pint and get into it.

"Although possessed of one of the most lithe rhythm sections of their era, Pentangle could never be described as 'heavy,'" writes Rob Young in his always recommended Electric Eden. "Especially when Jansch and Renbourn's twin acoustic guitars are rolling and tumbling in a froth of leaping and teasing melodies, sheathed in the woody twang of the bass, Cox's scudding brush-drum gambols and McShee's faerie siren call, the cumulative effect is of an aerated play of light, a sonic mirage in which fragments of styles jump in and out of focus, drawing a curly line between a courtly medievalism and the enlightened foolery of Haight-Ashbury."

[thenightling]

The Rowan Pentacle

This is a Rowan pentacle. It's a ringless pentacle (also called a Haykal by the Baha'i faith) five pointed star, made from the twigs of a Rowan tree. (Rowan is also known as Mountain Ash despite having no relation to the ash tree). The twigs are bound using red string, twine, yarn, thread, ribbon or other red material.

Rowan is supposed to protect against black magick. And the pentacle (which is considered sacred geometry) represents the five basic elements of water, fire, Earth, air, and spirit- the sacred components of nature and of magick. The pentacle can be used to ward against demons, djinn, werewolves, and sometimes vampires (If you have faith in it).

"Rowan twigs and strings of red, deflect all harm, gossip, and dread!"

If you hang a Rowan pentacle in your home or over your doorway, it works as a protection ward so evil and those with ill-intent will not enter HOWEVER if you invite someone in, the warding will not work against them and you will have to re-apply all protection wards later for those wards to work against the person again.

A silver version of the Rowan pentacle worn as a pendant will protect against werewolves (and possibly werewolf transformations), demons, djinn, and black magick.

The pentacle is a symbol of Greco-Roman Paganism and of Pythagoras (The father of mathematics) who referred to it as sacred geometry.

The pentacle has also been used by druidic Pagans and Germanic Pagans (particularly in the middle ages when it was hung over doorways in Germany to ward off evil spirits and demons. In Goethe's Faust it was one of the only symbols that could ward out or harm the demon Mephistopheles.

Germans called it the Drudenfuss (Druid's Foot) and preferred the version with the ring around it.), It's also a symbol of the Wiccan spiritual faith and of Baha'i (which believes some aspect of all faiths is true.)

The pentacle, in some form or another, has turned up in just about every religion in the world.

Note: Pentacle and pentagram technically have the same meaning as one means a talisman of five (Pent-acle) and pentagram means five pointed shape.

Pentacle (in modern English) tends to mean the version in the circle while Pentagram or pentangle is the version without the circle.

Some people have taken to using the word pentacle as a blanket term since many associate the word pentagram with the inverted version of the star that was usurped by so-called Satanists. There is no Satan in the original faiths that used the symbol as they are pre-Abrahamic. The concept of Satan didn't exist yet.

[scamallach-1]

Pentangle - No Love is Sorrow

these lyrics always make me wanna cry

[guessimdumb]

Pentangle - Train Song (1969)

With Terry Cox and Danny Thompson as rhythm section, unlike most British folk, Pentangle could really swing. I'll admit that I really don't care for most of Jacqui McShee's vocals, but here we have Bert Jansch on the lead vocal, also weaving his magic guitar with John Renbourn.

Trains are carrying me One and a two, three and a four thousand miles Miles from you

[jt1674]

[1001albumslist]

Day 18

Album: Basket of Light by Pentangle

Have I listened before? no

Familiarity with the artist: never heard of them

Background Knowledge:

 album by the British folk rock group Pentangle, released October 1969

it reached no. 5 on the UK Albums Chart

a single from the album, "Light Flight", the theme from BBC1's first color drama series Take Three Girls, reached no. 43 on the UK Singles Chart. another single from the album, "Once I Had a Sweetheart", reached no. 46 in the charts

Interesting Info:

the album's liner notes state that "Springtime Promises" was written "after a ride on a number 74 bus from Gloucester Road to Greencroft Gardens on an early spring day"

the album cover uses photographs of Pentangle's 1968 concert in the Royal Albert Hall.

a note about the instrumentation states that "all the instruments played on this album are acoustic"

the song "Sally Go 'Round the Roses" is a cover of a 1963 hit by the Jaynetts, a Bronx-based one-hit wonder girl group

Listened on: Apple Music

Listening Notes:

oh this is trad folk lol

i like the singers voice

Indian influences too? sounds like sitar on "Once I Had a Sweetheart"

love the multi-part harmony on “Lyre-Wake Dirge”

love the lalala chorus at the end of “Hunting Song”

it’s funny cause the arrangement of “Sally Go 'Round the Roses” is the most “modern” or pop/rock of all the songs on the album...but that makes sense if it's a cover of a 1963 pop song

Favorite Tracks: “Once I Had a Sweetheart”, “Lyre-Wake Dirge”, “Hunting Song”, "Sally Go 'Round the Roses"

Final Review: I thought it was great! something about folk music just scratches a particular itch in my brain....i always love the melodies and arrangements and this album was no exception. it definitely seemed to lean more in the trad folk direction rather than folk rock in my opinion, but i thought everything sounded great and it was fun to listen to...i'll definitely have to check out some of the other albums from this group as well!

[thepentangle]

Pentangle, 1969

[musicblob]

Pentangle - Wedding Dress (Captured Live 1972)