To mark the opening of a new Field System and Museum of British Folklore exhibition 'FIFTEEN CYCLES OF THE SUN: A FOLKLORE TAPES RETROSPECTIVE', David Chatton Barker and Ian Humberstone invite you to a bespoke live performance at historic St Lawrence Chapel in Ashburton.

The original Folklore Tapes duo have developed two live unique sets utilising homemade and trad instruments, weaving together compositions from the Folklore Tapes archive, alongside new captivating analogue projections using optical light wizardry. This event serves as a ritualistic introduction to the project’s most comprehensive survey to date, weaving together a tapestry of sound and history that reflects a decade and a half of exploration into Britain’s esoteric landscapes.

Since its founding in 2010, Folklore Tapes has occupied a space entirely its own — part archive, part art collective, part magical act. Born from a fascination with Britain's layered landscape of custom, legend, and living memory, the project has produced an extraordinary body of work: handcrafted cassette releases and vinyl albums, artist publications, field recordings, visual art, film, and ritual performance, all united by a commitment to encountering the old, the strange, and the persistently overlooked. Over fifteen years, Folklore Tapes has become an indispensable lens through which artists, writers, musicians, and curious members of the public have come to see the British Isles afresh — not as a fixed and familiar place, but as a terrain still teeming with mystery.

The performance is presented in partnership with the Museum of British Folklore and Field System. To celebrate the exhibition’s opening, the Field System gallery will remain open until 7:00 PM, allowing guests the opportunity for an evening viewing of original artwork, specially made musical instruments, and archival films before the music begins. It is an invitation to witness folklore not as a relic of the past, but as a living, breathing mode of understanding our world today.

Event Information: The performance will take place at St Lawrence Chapel, Ashburton, Devon. Visitors are encouraged to visit the retrospective at Field System nearby before the chapel doors open. The gallery is flat and fully accessible, St Lawrence Chapel has steps at the entrance but there is an accessible route to the venue, however please contact us in advance so we can ensure acess.

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‘Folklore Tapes are doing more than any others to unveil the ghostly heritage of the British Isles, and the results so far have never been nothing less than riveting. And sometimes they’re even scary, in the same way The Wicker Man is scary, because you never know what lurks below the neat lawns and concrete highways of these islands. Do you dare find out?’
Joseph Burnett in The Quietus

*Please note IF there are tickets left on the door these will be available for £22*