Ashburn County is a really weird place but the perfect vantage by which to appreciate Scenes Of Daily Life In The Rural South…Investigating this project’s origins leads down a slippery slope with a MySpace account at the bottom. “The horror, the horror!” Charging on, the search only yields aliases like Assisted.Brain.By.O. and Le Moine, as well as what might be a name proper, Sebastian Boyce. Or not.
Scenes Of Daily Life In The Rural South is an LP length release due out via Cabaret Curioux/Enfant Terrible–so maybe those folks have some info to lay on us about the mysterious Ashburn County. Turns out they do, but though tantalizing, it is also rather scant. That’s okay–some Counties should remain unspoiled. And thus we have these eery snapshots of daily life in the rural south.
This is really the rural south, though? I can hardly believe my ears. Is that a gas station burning down and why is that woman squeezing her head so hard? This place is definitely haunted, and I’m pretty sure the frogs in the Bayou aren’t even real. Wandering the foggy terrain, I’d advise you to avoid the amorous owls and buy yourself a rifle–but that probably goes without saying…
Enfant Terrible’s Martijn Van Gessel reports that some years ago he received an obscure CD-R from Ashburn County. He says it contained a strange but “complete album.” Part electronic, but also filled out with other instrumentation, he described it as “something like Morricone on a dark trip or a soundtrack for Carnivale that was rejected.” While he fell instantly in love with its’ idiocratic sound, it didn’t quite fit his labels’ focus at the time.
However, something lingered from his experience with Ashburn County, and the desire to bring a project like that to vinyl remained. And thus was born the new series Cabaret Curioux. Scenes Of Daily Life In The Rural South is the inaugural release for the new Enfant Terrible offshoot. Due out in late June, the 13-track LP will be issued on a limited vinyl run of 150 copies. Below, you can listen to the Ashburn County track “Sirens Call.”
