Sewell And The Gong - Patron Saint Of Elsewhere (2025)

File under: Cosmic / Pastoral / Balearic / Hippy / Alt Folk / Alt Alt / Dancing in a field music /

Artist, illustrator and bestselling author Matt Sewell is an avid ornithologist. He also plays the guitar in Sewell and the Gong, a music project with producer Chris Tate.
Their new album is a sonic journey into a whirling world of wild woods, dancing in the mud, late night pastoral adventures and some sort of 21st century hedonism connected to ancient rituals that mark the passing of seasons. It’s a glorious noise to get lost in.


Matt Sewell and Chris “The Gong” Tate’s first full-length long-player, picks up where the “organic motorik” of their previous track, Passing Oort Clouds, left off. Five of the 7 new tunes could be described as kosmische-influenced. For example, a piece of plugged-in folk, its frequencies fizzing, Morning Of The Magicians opens proceedings with reed-like keys, gentle acoustic picking and swirling synthesised drones.
Most of the music here starts with a similarly pastoral, extended, intro, before adding motorik-inspired rhythms. Absentia builds from piano and electronica loops to a euphoric, climbing chiming. Likewise, Quiet Storm begins with distant thunder ahead of spiralling in spirit-lifting crescendoes constructed from clusters of guitar notes. Communion Phase has fractured fretwork fidgeting, dancing around a clapping, slapping beat. Spectrum Two, after a short spoken sample, takes the tempo a tad higher, and has its kick hit somewhat harder. Sewell now with his amp up to 11, space-rocking, shredding, throwing off the odd sitar-like shape. A jubilant journey, trance-inducing and celebratory and trance-inducing, this struts its stuff like a drug-free, jolly Spacemen 3.
The title track, Patron Saint Of Elsewhere, is the album’s outlier. An acoustic guitar accompanied orchestra swoon, its extremely accomplished, incredibly crafted arrangement mixes folk with classical chamber music. The plucking and bowing summoning a sumptuous `70s production, something, say, by Johnny Harris, while composition’s fuzzed electric edges have a little Jean-Claude Vannier about them. For a finale, a brief false stop and re-start introduces fleeting glimpses of harmonica and flute.
Dr Rob, BAN BAN TON TON