Xenis Emputae Travelling Band is primarily the wandering field rituals of Yorkshire native Phil Legard, a sometime collaborator with Ashtray Navigations, and all-around English folk hero, who has released a rush of timeless sounding rural free folk album since XETB's debut in 2001.
As with all his works, on \"Three Spirits\", we find Legard and company following a muse connected to the physical locations they are captured in. These recordings are clearly reverent to a spiritual dimension particular to Yorkshire. Not only does Legard celebrate these themes in the songforms of this album but also with written work, notably the chapbook published recently by Hadean Press \"The Mirror of Elicona.\" For further elaboration on the themes of this album, it's corresponding book and the symbolism used throughout both, we have an insightful quote from Master Legard himself:
\"The image on the front [of the cassette] is taken from a manuscript of Thesaurus Spirituum, attributed to Roger Bacon, and often known as \"De Nigromancia.\"The Thesaurus Spirituum probably dates from the mid 15th century and details the creation of magical paraphernalia and how to use it to call a diverse range of spirits for various purposes, chiefly locating treasure. The circle on the cover of \"Three Spirits\" is the circle of Elicona and Almazim for magical operations in love and friendship. The names of these spirits often occur in general lists used by cunning men and magicians in the 16th century - and it was in one of these lists (in Sloane MS. 36674) that I first became aware of this pair of spirits. The sigils on the inner sleeve are a talisman of Elicona of my own design. I personally felt myself drawn into contact with this spirit during a time when I was staying in the tiny village of Littlebeck, hidden in a wooded valley in North Yorkshire. This album contains the invocation to Elicona and uses recordings from the ritual site.\"
