The Happy Couple are Judith Goodman and David Ross, a unique ambient folk duo who make music inspired by the beautiful countryside surrounding their home in the Yare Valley on the Norfolk Broads.
They can often be heard playing at their favourite spots, such as the ruin of St. Saviour’s, Penguin Dyke or in the secluded backwater known as Newman’s Hole, bobbing along in their rowing boat.
Their new album, ‘Lullaby of Broadland’, contains peaceful yet profound music that is a reflection of the intimate relationship they have to the area and each other. These evocative instrumentals slowly unwind to describe the clear starry night skies reflected in the watery Broadland landscape, the murmuration of birds and micro-worlds of insects, plants, fungi and lichen.
The album sees Goodman perform on a number of stringed instruments that include lap steel, tenor guitar, cittern and the rarely heard Stoessel lute. Ross is a virtuoso of the mouth bow and Jew’s harp, which he combines with subtle live electronics, while the duo also add some local field recordings.
“These tunes were mainly recorded over the long winter evenings at the start of 2023,” the duo explain. “They aim to convey our sense of awe, love and appreciation for the beautiful Broadland environment around us at this time of year. All the recordings are unedited performances made in real-time as this seems to be the best way for us to capture the right feeling in the music. Each piece represents a specific moment in time.”
Having initially announced ‘Lullaby Of Broadland’ with a slowly shifting video for the track ‘Sparkling Horizon’ HERE, clips for every track on the album are available today via Bandcamp HERE that have been filmed at inspirational local haunts.
The Happy Couple have been featured on BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction), BBC 6 Music (Cerys Matthews, Riley & Coe, Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone) and The Nest Collective (Sam Lee’s Singing with Nightingales: Homecoming). Their live performances have included shows at Cecil Sharp House and The Southbank Centre in London, Bath Folk Festival and more.
Judith Goodman studied at Chethams School of Music and the Royal College of Music prior to becoming a freelance French horn player in London. Having recorded and toured all over the UK and mainland Europe, she now lives next to a nature reserve in the Norfolk Broads, where she indulges her passion for collecting and writing music for varied stringed instruments such as the Stoessel lute, bell cittern, dulcimer, tenor banjo, acoustic slide guitar and tenor guitar.
David Ross is an improvising musician, electronic composer and music workshop leader established in the underground music scene for over three decades, working with Evan Parker, Matt Deighton, John Butcher, Sidsel Endresen, Andy Cox, Eugene Chadbourne, The Frank Chickens, Bark Psychosis and more. Since relocating to Norfolk in 2016, he has run workshops/performances for Eastern Ear in Norwich and Great Yarmouth, and developed a modular synthesiser for profoundly disabled artists controlled by EEG data called the ‘Brainwave’ for local charity Musical Keys. A member of the electro-acoustic trio Twinkle3 (recently collaborating on an album with David Sylvian and Kazuko Hohki), he also plays drums in the Kenny Process Team.
LULLABY OF BROADLAND
TRACKLISTING
Part One
1 The Night Must Be Listening
2 Holiday Pay
3 Sparkling Horizon
4 Trifle
5 Lullaby Of Broadland
6 Hiding
7 On The 7th Bridge
Part Two
8 Breathing
9 Once Were We
10 Daylily
11 Barton Moon
12 Patchwork Eclipse
13 Drifting