Thirty Five Minutes Of Ambient/ Folk Guitar Instrumentals

Not the catchiest title for a Sunday mix perhaps. The photo is of the Mediterranean Sea, taken from the beach near Nerja in the summer. As Storm Austen batters its way round the UK I can't help but think I'd much rather be in Spain. 

This mix came together via a post over The Swede's blog featuring a folk guitarist called Henry Parker whose EP The Dark Peak is a set of contemporary folk instrumentals on acoustic guitar inspired by the Peak District. The song Eowestre Clough sent me back to the Bert Jansch album Avocet, a 1979 set of acoustic guitar folk instrumentals, that I also picked up on via The Swede's blog, Unthought Of, Though, Somehow.

Playing the two tracks back to back led me to the rest of the set, thirty five minutes of guitar based, folk and ambient tunes, mainly from recent releases but with Bert Jansch opening it with a song from his 1979 album Avocet. I meant to include a Thurston Moore instrumental but forgot. Sorry Thurston. 

Thirty Five Minutes Of Ambient/ Folk Guitar Instrumentals

• Bert Jansch: Kingfisher
• Henry Parker: Eowestre Clough
• Andy Bell and Masal: Tidal Love Conversations In That Familiar Golden Orchard
• Kieran Hebden and Wiliam Tyler: Secret City
• Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider: The Story of Your Life
• Robin Guthrie: Coming Up For Air
• Sewell And The Gong: Patron Saint Of Elsewhere

Avocet came out in 1979, Bert Jansch at his best with an album of instrumentals inspired by British birds- all the song titles are named after birds, Kingfisher, Kittiwake, Lapwing, Bittern, Osprey and the twenty minute title track Avocet. Danny Thompson plays bass and is a huge presence throughout and Martin Jenkins plays fiddle. It's a bit of a late 70s gem, totally out of step with everything going on in 1978 and 1979 and in a way is timeless as a result. Much of it sounds like it could have been recorded at any point between the 1960s and this year. 

Henry Parker's The Dark Peak was new to me until this week and I've been playing catch up ever since. Sadly the vinyl is long since sold out so the digital will have to do for the time being. The Peak District is a place we visit fairly regularly, the national park between here and Sheffield. Parker captured some field recordings out in the Peak in March 2025 including some of the birds that Bert Jansch was writing about. The EP is a solo tribute to the moors and the wildlife and those wild, solitary places. You can listen/ buy here. 

Andy Bell and Masal have an album out this year, an ambient/ psychedelic work called Common Primitives. A previous one, Tidal Love Numbers, came out in 2023. Both have been compiled into a double disc vinyl set recently on Sonic Cathedral. Andy brings his guitar and Masal bring their analogue synths and harp. Tidal Love Conversation In That familiar Golden Orchard is from Tidal Love Numbers- mesmeric, folk/ ambient crossed with cosmic jazz. 

Kieran Hebden and William Tyler's 41 Longfield Street Late 80s came out last year, one of 2025's most listened to albums round here. William's guitar playing and Kieran's laptop and production in a Yin Yang situation. Spider Ballad is the final song from the album, a collision of synth drones, acoustic guitars and noise. 

Modular synth player and tape experimenter Jamie Lidell and Nashville pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider released A Companion For The Spaces Between Dreams a year ago, experimental instrumental psychedelia born from their discussions about creating a soundtrack for Lidell's own ketamine therapy sessions. Luke's pedal steel guitar is a wonky delight on this track, the notes bending and shifting deliriously. Inner voyage music

Robin Guthrie's Bandcamp page is a treasure trove of tracks he left off other albums or which never saw the light of day for whatever reason. He's released two beauties this year, Cherokee and Coming Up For Air- the latter is on this mix, a gliding, sparkling piece of ambient/ post- Cocteaus shoegaze guitar music from 2015. 

A year ago I was deeply into Sewell And The Gong's Patron Saint Of Elsewhere, a seven track album of pastoral, cosmic, Balearic folk that still sounds as fresh a year later as it did last autumn. 

It is my wife's birthday, fifty five today. Happy birthday Lou. x