Across the Water: s/t LP

An unknown and precious album recorded in 1975 by two friends who recorded one side each, they made just two acetates and then handmade beautiful covers from two enlargements of a photograph of the Isles of St Kilda. Side one is a neo-classical prog rock epic in the style of Renaissance and Continuum, inspired by the wild and pagan isles of St Kilda where, as a 16 yr old, the composer Peter Mc Kerrow was taken by military launch to conduct a census on the rare Soay Sheep that live there. A storm blew away his tent on the first night. The other side is by his Canadian pal who attended the same Uni in England, deeply homesick for Canada and surviving a broken relationship these songs are melancholic and Cohen-esque. The original LP is astonishingly gorgeous and one of the most desirable looking artifacts of the prog era.