Essex-based psych-folk trailblazers THE OWL SERVICE celebrate 20 years with a new career-spanning 2CD set ahead of their forthcoming new album TIED TO THE LAND. The Owl Service started life in 2006 as a solo bedroom project for multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins, but it soon blossomed into a global collective with a rotating cast of singers and players that was as hard to keep up with as their sprawling discography. Apart from a brief alliance with Southern Records and a handful of releases on Static Caravan, Reverb Worship, and Fruits de Mer, they've been fully self-sufficient for their entire 20 year history, cementing their position as perennial alt. folk outsiders. The tracklisting here draws heavily from the band's early self-releases and compilation appearances, and also includes a selection of choice cuts from their 3 acclaimed studio albums. The story is brought right up to date with several tracks from the last 12 months, which have seen a prolific return to recording largely inspired by the arrival of new singers Dorothy Chappell and Rebecca Leivers. The album also includes 1 new and exclusive recording, a version of the traditional song Brigg Fair. The music here shifts from fairly traditional folk, through faithful 1970s vintage folk-rock, to doom-laden folk-horror inspired psych-folk, all of it handled with an impeccable touch that's always respectful towards the band's many diverse influences. This release will be followed in August by an all-new Owl Service album, TIED TO THE LAND (HHTE-028), and later in the year a darker, more fuzz-heavy mini-album, REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE (HHTE-029).

1. Wake the Vaulted Echo
2. By the Setting of the Sun
3. The North Country Maid
4. The Rolling of the Stones
5. Hoodening
6. Turpin Hero
7. Katie Cruel
8. Night Falls on Summer's End
9. A Lyke Wake Dirge
10. The Stone Bequest
11. The Church Grimm
12. The Wooden Coat
13. William, and Earl Richard's Daughter
14. Standing on the Shore
15. A Moor, A Moor, A Mire
16. Rise Me Lads
17. Drive the Cold Winter Away
18. Cold & Raw
19. Winter (A Dirge)
20. The Banks of the Nile
21. Ladies, Don't Go a-Thieving
22. I Was a Young Man
23. Willie O'Winsbury (Reprise)
24. Spring Strathspey
25. The Red Barn
26. Fine Horseman
27. The Widow's Lament
28. The Skater
29. Sea Song
30. She Moves Through the Fair
31. Edi Beo Thu Heavene Quene
32. The Garden Gate
33. The Sea
34. Maids & Gentlemen
35. Time Has Come
36. Stars
37. Long Lankin
38. Brigg Fair