From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

1. Morning: With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming

2. Morning: A Summer Long Since Passed

3. Morning: From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

4. Morning: Hiding in the Ha Ha

5. Afternoon: Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed

6. Afternoon: Too Bright for Peacocks

7. Afternoon: Summer of Their Dreams

8. Afternoon: When the Fields Were on Fire

9. Afternoon: It's Too Hot to Sleep

Tracks:

Morning: With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming
Morning: A Summer Long Since Passed
Morning: From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Morning: Hiding in the Ha Ha
Afternoon: Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed
Afternoon: Too Bright for Peacocks
Afternoon: Summer of Their Dreams
Afternoon: When the Fields Were on Fire
Afternoon: It's Too Hot to Sleep

Album Description

UK reissue of the cult favorite's 1983 solo album debut, originally released on Happy Valley. Astley isn't as well known as her many collaborators (David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Kate St. John) but will appeal to fans of intriguing ambient British pop. Nine tracks packaged in digipak format. Rough Trade. 2003.

Album Details

Digitally Remastered Reissue of the Siren's Debut Album. It's One of the Classic English Summer Albums, Recorded in the Mid 1980's Before Ambient Music Became Popular. She also Happens to Be the Sister of Recording Artist and who Remixer Jon Astley and Pete Townshend's Sister-in-law.

Customer Reviews:

If you can dream..........2003-11-30

If you can dream and believe they are angels among us, then buy this cd.
For your quiet moments in life, this cd is a perfect companion.
Virginia Astley might not be known to the masses, but not everyone deserves to meet an angel.

Average customer rating:

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Virginia Astley
Manufacturer: Rough Trade Us
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0007MSU7G
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Tracks:

Morning: With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming
Morning: A Summer Long Since Passed
Morning: From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Morning: Hiding in the Ha Ha
Afternoon: Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed
Afternoon: Too Bright for Peacocks
Afternoon: Summer of Their Dreams
Afternoon: When the Fields Were on Fire
Afternoon: It's Too Hot to Sleep

Average customer rating:

EVERTHING ENGLISH AND PASTORAL

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Virginia Astley
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004S6GS

Tracks:

Morning: With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming
Morning: A Summer Long Since Passed
Morning: From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Morning: Hiding in the Ha Ha
Afternoon: Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed
Afternoon: Too Bright for Peacocks
Afternoon: Summer of Their Dreams
Afternoon: When the Fields Were on Fire
Afternoon: It's Too Hot to Sleep

Album Description

1997 reissue of the 1983 solo debut by this English artist who began her music career alongside Kate St. John (The Dream Academy) in The Ravishing Beauties and touring with The Teardrop Explodes. Features 13 tracks, including four bonus tracks: 'Sanctus', 'Melt The Snow', 'Melt The Snow' (Instrumental) and 'Melt The Snow' (Instrumental 2). A Rosebud release. The full title is 'From Gardens Where We Feel Secure'.

Customer Reviews:

EVERTHING ENGLISH AND PASTORAL.......2002-01-09

Although Virginia is known as a singer,this,her Ist album,is a collection of instrumentals,in which she takes the listener through an entire day,from the opening Dawn Chorus to the final owl hoot.Its also where she set up her stall,never deviating from the path,always staying in her own turf.
"With my eyes wide open I'm dreaming",the opening instrumental,takes its title from a line by W H Auden and like all the music on here its minmalist,with just piano,flute and bass with the occaisonal clarinet played by ex Kissing The Pink member Josephine Wells..Plus all those glorious Sounds of nature heard throughout.
"A Summer long since past" is the only item here with a vocal and its Virginia and her 2 neices(one of which was Emma Townshend)"la la laing" through the piece,church bells heard in the background.
Virginia,obsessed with her own past,has recreated this moment many times: her most recent song is "I will miss this Holy garden".
Every track is a gem...the most upbeat is "Hiding In The Ha Ha",where the bells seem to go out of kilter,making this very ambient.
Not to everyones taste obviously but this album nevertheless shows an artiste well ahead of her time

Average customer rating:

Lovely instrumentals, but what I wanted was Virginia singing
Back again but not really

From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Virginia Astley
Manufacturer: Sanctuary Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Dream Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Ambient Pop | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0001JXOXU
Release Date: 2004-03-23

Tracks:

WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN IN DREAMING
A SUMMER LONG SINCE PASSED
FROM GARDENS WHERE WE FEEL SECURE
HIDING IN THE HA HA
OUT ON THE LAWN I LIE IN BED
TWO FRIGHT FOR PEACOCKS
SUMMER OF THEIR DREAMS
WHEN THE FIELDS WERE ON FIRE
IT'S TOO HOT TO SLEEP

Customer Reviews:

Lovely instrumentals, but what I wanted was Virginia singing.......2005-02-26

As someone who loved Hope In a Darkened Heart in the 80s, and still treasures it, this CD is a bit of a disappointment: it's all instrumentals. I didn't read anywhere here that Virginia doesn't sing on this album. Anyway, consider yourself warned.

Back again but not really.......2004-06-29

Virginia's most famous album has been available from the 90s in Japan and was reissued on her own Rosebud imprint for America,Thus the CDs were available here on import but have long since dried up as Discoveries in Wiltshire only imported about 1000.
So this new reissue represnts the first time this item has had an official U K CD release.
However the realty is that Virginia is painfully aware that few will even notice and only the completist will want a copy.
As her No.1 fan I bought it twice,sealed and unsealed.
Some indication of Virginia's total Cultdom is right here.Hardly anyone adds a Customer Comment so the Worlds Best Kept Secret...literally as she did a disappearing act right after I issued the CD single of "Sanctus 2000" on my own ASTRA label.
This album,which hit the Indie Top 5 in 1983,went into a life of its own and shows Virginia as an instrumentalist rather than a singer.Here she more or less followed her own late father who had his own label and issued instrumental stuff.
The reissue has no newly discovered items from the vaults its just as it came but without the Bonus tracks they added in Japan.
It has though a brand new sleeve,the dried flowers replaced by Virginia as Alice In Wonderland.

Rock Music:

Rock Music