Recorded on the morning of Friday March 24th 2017 using a baritone Fender Telecaster + Ebow, filters, loops & delays. All music improvised in real-time; no edits, so forgive the occasional hiccough.
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Hares are emblematic of spring & renewal, though no hare was ever born that wasn't entirely innocent of such significances however so keenly featured in the ever baffling symbology of humanity down the ages.

Of especial puzzlement are the 'Tinner's Rabbits' found in a cluster of late medieval churches around Dartmoor in the UK in which three bunnies are depicted sharing three ears in such a way that each animal has two.

Latterly known as 'The Three Hares', the device might be traced along the silk road back into the art of ancient China, which makes its appearance amongst these Devonian wooden roof bosses all the more intriguing, giving rise to all manner of speculation as to what such an overtly non-Christian image might be doing in a Christian setting, especially as they're often found alongside depictions of the so-called 'Green Man'.

Considered by many as being equally enigmatic, the 'Green Man' lacks the provenance that marks the Triple Hares as being something genuinely strange. He is, in fact, uniquely Christian & entirely unambiguous in his natural habitat - the 'Tinner's Rabbits', on the other hand, most evidently are not.

Whatever the case, these carvings have long intrigued me, and on this sunny spring morn I am somehow moved to a contemplation of their lingering immediacy via a series of images that have become especially potent to me since taking them whilst on holiday in Devon back in September 2014.

Visiting these churches is to venture off the beaten track into the unspoiled heart of a quintessential English idyll that stands in marked contrast to much of the country where the fields upon which an abundance of hares once sported a mere 30 years ago are now sadly empty.

The surviving fields of my childhood and youth, those that aren't now built over with houses, are grown soulless, bland and pest-free, no doubt; a march of misplaced progress in the face of which nature weeps. Maybe that's what I'm doing here, my guitar gently weeping in the face of such a loss; lamenting the passing of such once abundant wonders as our country steadily turns to shit in which the only hares will be symbolic ones.

Some of these images - from Spreyton, Sampford Courtenay and South Tawton - are included as extras in this download, along with related Green Men and other contexts to perhaps better experience the music.

Sean Breadin, Lancashire, Friday March 24th 2017.