Скачать или смотреть The Velvet Hour - The Wind Shall Carry Me (EP "Run From The Shadows" - A2)

As my third project, I’m sharing something truly remarkable — recordings from an old, forgotten magnetic reel, left untouched for over half a century.

In 1965, deep in the English countryside of Suffolk, a small group of American teenagers — children of U.S. Air Force officers stationed overseas — came together to make music. At the heart of it were two sisters, Barbara and Patricia Vanderbilt, backed by the creative energy of bassist-composer John Hickenlooper and drummer David Kowalski.

They played mostly in Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, and Cambridge, performing first simply as "Barbie & Patty", and later as "The Velvet Hour". Their lineup changed often, but key contributors included talented local teens: William Thurlow, playing guitar and cello; Michael Ravenscroft, on organ; and John Fairweather, on violin and flute.

Their lyrics gained poetic dimension through a quiet but prolific collaborator, Christopher Featherstonehaugh, a local writer whose imagery gave their music a gentle strangeness — part folk, part dream.

What made their recordings possible was an unusual advantage: thanks to their father’s position, the Vanderbilt sisters had access to a military broadcasting station. In the evenings, it became their improvised studio, where reel-to-reel machines captured songs never meant to be heard outside a handful of smoky clubs.

Dozens of tracks were laid down between 1965 and 1969, with hand-drawn mockups for EP records, typed lyrics, and rehearsal notes. But when General Vanderbilt was recalled to the U.S. in 1970, the group quietly dissolved, and the tapes — misfiled as restricted materials — disappeared into long-term military storage.

Only recently, during a digital archiving effort, were they recovered.

The songs blend garage rock, soulful harmony, early psychedelia, and occasional hints of what would, decades later, resemble punk aesthetics. The recordings have been restored using AI and split — most likely in line with the band’s intentions — into several four-song EPs.


[Disclaimer: This project was created using generative AI tools. All music, visuals, lyrics, and narratives are fictional and produced for artistic purposes only. Any resemblance to real names, likenesses, persons, or events is purely coincidental. No names of celebrities or existing famous bands were used during the creation of this content.]

#LostTapes #60sMusic #GarageRock #BritishInvasion #FictionalBand
#MusicDiscovery #UndergroundMusic #AnalogVibes #ProtoPunk #RetroMusic
#HiddenGems #GenerativeMusic