The Leaf Label Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Standers is the second album by anonymous musician Craven Faults, amounting to a pilgrimage through sound to the ancient stone monuments that dot the region of northern England - known as standing stones or standers. Using vintage synthesizers and tape machines, the producer plunges the depths of English folk mysticism, coinciding with the nascent pagan revival that has cropped up in recent times. Sonically, meanwhile, each track moves through cinematic pulses, arpeggiating and filter-sweeping through nods to different eras and years; 1213, 1908, 1966.

Review: Music has the power to fan the folk-mystical and spiritual flames inside even the most ardent of rationalists. Anonymous artist Craven Faults knows as much, which is mostly the reason why he's released his latest album Standers. Named after the colloquial term for the standing stones that pepper much of the north of England, the analog electronic music that makes up this album evokes the mood of trekking across wild country in search of these ancient monuments - occasionally stranded, always awed - sonically reviving and clarifying the oft-murky past of the English north.