Banjo with the sound of its own making

by Jacken Elswyth

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

£3 GBP or more
Banjo with the sound of its own making - Wood block edition
Twelve wooden forms approximately the size of a cassette box. Each piece is made from banjo-offcuts, worked and oiled on 5 of 6 sides, with the final side left rough and unworked. Each handmade object is individually numbered.

Sold Out
Tape edition
Cassette + Digital Album
Pro-duplicated yellow cassettes with printed card & labels.

Includes unlimited streaming of Banjo with the sound of its own making via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	Set up 04:40	buy track
2.	Sawing 05:44	buy track
3.	Lull 1 04:52	buy track
4.	Cumberland Gap 02:13	buy track
5.	Planing 05:13	buy track
6.	Lull 2 03:54	buy track
7.	Lost gander 02:51	buy track
8.	Shaping 05:34	buy track

about

This tape is the result of an on-off project of the last year and a half, begun as I started to build my first mountain banjo at the end of 2019 and continued through lockdowns in 2020 / early 2021.

Fretless, gut or nylon strung, and made out of readily available materials, the mountain banjo is a return towards the banjo's gourd-bodied roots developed by people who had played modern open-back high tension instruments but couldn't afford their own. Like the cigar box guitar, it's a folk appropriation and approximation of a mass-market instrument, firmly in lineage with the instruments that preceded that market. This mountain banjo was built of oak, cherry, walnut, bone, calfskin, and pvc, following instructions detailed in the third Foxfire experimental education / Appalachian ethnography collection.

The initial source sound was recorded throughout the banjo build over winter 2019/20 - all the sawing, shaping, and sanding captured with only a vague plan for use. As lockdowns began in spring 2020 I took additional recordings in the garden, on breaks from the workbench in the garage. At the end of the build these recordings were grouped, manipulated, and arranged to provide the basis for the album. As I got to know the instrument I recorded improvisations in response to these tracks, adding the two traditional tunes to showcase a more straightforwardly folk playing of this folk instrument.

At the end of the project I returned to the workbench, fishing from the scrap bin discarded pieces of oak, cherry, and walnut from this and other builds. These were collected together into 12 forms, from which 12 blocks the size and shape of a cassette box could be cut. The cover art shows these scraps arranged and assembled ready for the blocks to be shaped. The blocks themselves have been smoothed and oiled on all sides but one, to reveal the work in their creation.

credits

released November 5, 2021

license

about

Jacken Elswyth London, UK

Jacken Elswyth is a London-based banjo player exploring traditional tunes, extrapolations thereon, and improvisational pieces for clawhammer banjo.

She organises the Betwixt & Between split tape series, and also plays in Shovel Dance Collective. ... more

shows

Jun 1

Green Note

Camden, UK

contact / help

Contact Jacken Elswyth

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Jacken Elswyth, you may also like:

The Water is the Shovel of the Shore
by Shovel Dance Collective

supported by 18 fans who also own “Banjo with the sound of its own making”

One of my favourite albums of 2022. The rich mixture of traditional musics with field recordings and experimentation fit hand in glove. With its long form passages, there is a beautiful surprise around every corner as the music wends its way along its watery course. Teedubyabee
go to album
Betwixt & Between 7
by Shovel Dance Collective / C Joynes

supported by 15 fans who also own “Banjo with the sound of its own making”
go to album
Betwixt & Between 8
by Sullow / The Silver Field

supported by 13 fans who also own “Banjo with the sound of its own making”

Been listening to the album all morning. The whole thing is fantastic, but at the moment I keep coming back to godless/doglegs. This music is coming from somewhere else. musiciansofbremen
go to album
The Water is the Shovel of the Shore
by Shovel Dance Collective

Traditional folk music and field recordings meld into fascinating long-form sound collages on the new LP from Shovel Dance Collective. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 6, 2022
go to album
Long Time To Be Gone
by Nora Brown

Nora Brown continues to bring nuance and resonance to her modern interpretation of Appalachian folk and bluegrass on her latest LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 30, 2022
go to album
Wealth of Sorrow
by Cahalen Morrison

Bright and skipping songs that foreground the sound of the banjo and fingerstyle guitar in music that feels timeless. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 5, 2020
go to album
Betwixt & Between 4
by Jacken Elswyth / Quinie

supported by 13 fans who also own “Banjo with the sound of its own making”
go to album