Apr 8: Craven Faults

If you drive through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, on roads near Malham and other well known locations, you will pass over one or more of the Craven Fault System: where different rock types meet, and where the landscape changes. In some places, the contrast this produces is dramatic, and I remember driving that way numerous times when I used to do more hill walking and climbing, including completing the classic 'Three Peaks' walk.

Craven Faults is also the name of a British electronic artist and producer known for combining analogue synthesizers, electronics and field recordings to create music that draws from ambient music, Krautrock and electronica. The name is taken from the Craven Fault System in the Pennines and much of his music draws inspiration from the landscapes of Yorkshire, where he resides.

I like the description of the artist that is on their Spotify profile.

Half-remembered journeys across post-industrial Yorkshire. On first impression it appears to be a journey through a uniform landscape, past familiar mills, peaks and dales. Until you start to notice the details. The devil’s in the details. It occupies your peripheral vision. It leaves you questioning how you arrived where you did. How did we get here? It almost certainly started in Dusseldorf or Köln. Or possibly The San Francisco Tape Music Centre. It’s not important. The journey to Yorkshire is somewhat hazy. Hansa by the Wall, 1977. Stockholm’s Museum Of Modern Art, 1968. Maida Vale, 1963. Rugby, 1986. It enters Yorkshire via Kingston-upon-Hull. Although, even that isn’t set in stone. It’s not important. It’s important to ask the question every now and then. The answers less so. Banks of vintage equipment. A master craftsman at work in a nest of patch cables within an old textile mill.

The tracks often have a geological aspect to them, or are tied to particular locations within the area.

An article on the musician:

https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/features/long-reads/craven-faults-faulty-towers/

Here's a video of the track Far Closes.

And a description:

The journey on Sidings isn’t made with people in mind. It begins in an isolated community which built up around one of the great engineering projects of its age - 14 tunnels and 22 viaducts to open up the north - and finishes at an enclosed field on a moor in 1858. It takes in studios from Los Angeles to Rochdale from 1952 to 1980, while drawing inspiration from the progress in manmade infrastructure and the transport of goods.