There are albums that defy categorization, records that exist in a space entirely their own. Comus' 1971 debut is one such work - an album that, over fifty years later, still sounds like nothing else ever recorded. Formed in Beckenham in the late 1960s, Comus emerged from the same South London arts scene that nurtured a young David Bowie - indeed, they performed at his legendary Beckenham Free Festival in August 1969. But while their contemporaries in the British folk revival looked back to traditional melodies or drifted into pastoral psychedelia, Roger Wootton and his ensemble took a different path entirely. Their listening habits ranged from King Crimson and Pink Floyd to Takemitsu and Messiaen; in folk clubs, they covered the Velvet Underground on acoustic instruments.
First Utterance is the result of this singular vision. Recorded at Pye Studios in late 1970 for the Dawn label, the album conjures an atmosphere of Walpurgis Night - that liminal space where the veils between worlds grow thin. Glenn Goring's intricate 6- and 12-string guitar work, Colin Pearson's frenzied gypsy violin, Rob Young's pastoral flute and oboe, Bobbie Watson's ethereal vocals, and Wootton's theatrical, otherworldly voice create something that has been described as the soundtrack to a strange cultist ritual deep in an ancient forest.
The lyrics do not shy away from darkness - vulnerable innocence confronting abusive power, with themes that unsettled listeners then and continue to unsettle now. Yet the musicianship is extraordinary, the compositions intricate and demanding. As The Wire noted in their "100 Records That Set The World On Fire", this is folk rock at its most delirious, devilish and dynamic.
Dawn pressed only 10,000 copies. The album vanished into obscurity, only to be rediscovered decades later by a new generation. Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt has called it a masterpiece; Current 93 covered "Diana"; traces of its influence can be heard throughout the freak-folk revival of the 2000s. For those who seek music that transcends genre, that creates its own world and invites you to wander through it by candlelight, First Utterance remains an essential pilgrimage.
Japanese mini-LP sleeve edition on high-fidelity SHM-CD with 2025 remaster. Four bonus tracks including the rare single version of "Diana", "All the Colours of Darkness", "In the Lost Queen's Eyes" and "Winter Is a Coloured Bird". Complete with liner notes, lyrics and Japanese translation.
