Tomb Land - Tomb Land EP

Tomb Land is the lo-fi folk recording project of Leeds-based songwriter Jacob Cracknell. Temporarily uprooted from his Green Gardens moorings, Cracknell’s solo offering reveals his folk sensibilities buried in found sound, homeward bird song and whispered conversation. Tomb Land refers to a street in Cracknell’s hometown, derived from the old English for ‘empty space’. The project's debut deals with emptiness in all its forms. Existing in the tomb land itself.

Tomb Land’s eponymous debut swims in in the pool of Phil Elverum and Mark Kozelek, enveloped with the intimacy of a Maxine Funke record. Scratches and mistakes are allowed to breathe, and imperfections run in unison with the sweetnesses of the small Yamaha 4-track that makes up the extent of the ‘band’ on this fleeting, tender EP.

The first single ‘Birds, in twos’ is the sharpest weapon in Tomb Lands arsenal. Allowing a rare sight of rhythm and solidity in an otherwise fragile set of songs. It is a rolling resolution, finding peace in the consistencies of the natural world. The contrast of a world where death is essential and normal, to the gulf and strangeness of a grieving. Second single ‘Big Smiling Face (Jacob , whatever is wrong with you)’ is an experimental piece of folk-tinged drone music - drawing inspiration from the organ work of Kali Malone, and the guitars of David Grubbs or Bert Jansch. Built around a single recording of Cracknell’s late father, it is layered with multiple organ tracks, field recordings of the Norfolk coast and original Tomb Land demos. All these layers accumulate to one long, deep and swelling breath.

Tomb Land is thick with metaphor, getting to the vast unseen world of grieving, but also having the heart to throw pretense aside, thrust its head out of the dark and simply state ‘I’ve missed you’.