RIYL The Incredible String Band, Shovel Dance Collective, Bridget St John, Dorothy Carter
The Worm is an avant folk project, rooted in the stories of a fictional, time-travelling character, created and acted out by Amy Lawrence (they / them), a performance artist from Cornwall. With music played on cello, harp, recorders and percussion, Lawrence crafts a strange, enchanting soundworld as The Worm, shaping an inimitable form of abstract roots music enriched by inventive storytelling.
The project’s live performances form the intrinsic cornerstone of this creative universe, incorporating music, costume, clowning and spoken word recitals inspired by opera and dance from the early 20th century. The recording output of The Worm seeks to document the vitality of this performance experience, with raw, simple music guided by a naïve, intuitive production approach.
Attesting to these ideals of dramatic vitality and aesthetic simplicity, ‘Pantilde’ is the bewitching new album of otherworldly folk music by The Worm. Focused on recounting the everyday lives of villagers inhabiting an alternative Celtic landscape, ‘Pantilde’ vividly captures an imaginary oral history through ethereal musicality and fantastical lyricism. Intimate, homespun arrangements often led by either recorder, cello or harp are accompanied by winsome ballads, heart-melting arias and surreal lullabies that give wondrous voice to this fabulated narrative arc.
The first glimpse of this preternatural world arrives with the whimsical chimes and nursery rhyme lilt of lead single ‘Grass Grows pt. 1’. Bringing to mind Bridget St John reciting a melodious playground song, backed by Dorothy Carter, it’s described by The Worm as a riddle related to nature, growth and perspective, with the implicit suggestion that the course of the story - and where it takes you - is more important than concrete answers:
“This hill...this hill, the hill you are sitting on, with your bare child’s feet, rubbing the cold grass and the dandelions. This hill, you won’t believe it, but there is something inside this hill. Something growing. And because it’s in there, well, it’s sprouting. Do you understand? It’s sprouting all this stuff! You could say, this hill is abundant, it is verdant. They say that there is a giant lizard that lives near to this hill. Is it a real, living lizard or a reptile-ish shaped piece of rock? I don’t know.”
Enigmatic yet compelling currents flourish throughout the album. From primitive, bucolic overtures for recorder (‘Through Greeness’), through spare, electro-acoustic hymns to mysterious portals (‘Portal’), to the odyssey of ramshackle found sound and hushed cradlesong acapellas found on the title track - The Worm creates wildly imaginative songs of innocence on ‘Pantilde’, taking the listener through the looking glass with music of extraordinary grace and magic.
After spinning tales of gateways to other realms and of grass growing over human toes - across unique incarnations of folksong, minimalism and experimental electronics - The Worm heads into evermore expansive territories. Moving through curious intermezzos that stitch the seams of the album together (‘Gust’, ‘Path Tune’), The Worm reveals untold depths with the beautifully sombre, Meredith Monk-esque chamber music of ‘Heva’s Village’, and with the minimalist cello cycles of ‘Journey’, which evokes a pagan creation fable as soundtracked by Arthur Russell. Throughout, yet especially on ‘Journey’, the vocal performances are tender, radiant, but majestic; the source of light that illuminates this mythical landscape.
With ‘The Tower of the Eclipses’, The Worm alternates between endearingly ragged DIY alt-pop and resplendent Celtic harp music; a beautiful, easeful farewell that brings to mind a miraculous collaboration between the Marine Girls, Vashti Bunyan and Mary Lattimore. However, like the rest of the album, ‘The Tower of the Eclipses’ is singular and transportive, a wyrd utopia that feels radical and unparalleled; a special place to sink into. At the close of it all, as The Worm’s angelic vocals are met with a climactic procession of bold woodwind tones and soaring chorales, we’re left with the impression of a new world now opened up, left behind with this finale but one that we can return to, a space to be inevitably swept up by again.
‘Pantilde’ is an album that crosses the threshold into a dreamlike, pastoral locale that nevertheless feels distinctly realized. Accessing a fertile world and representing a wide-eyed well-spring of ideas, stories and sounds, The Worm reimagines past histories and traditions for revelatory contemporary artistry. With the project’s new album, The Worm reveals a fully formed new voice, offering a playful, truly remarkable folk fantasia filled with a sublime, childlike sense of wonder.
‘Pantilde’ is out 4th July 2025 on PRAH Recordings.
Available on limited edition lathe cut vinyl (TBA) + digital formats.
Tracklist
1 | Through Greeness
2 | Portal
3 | Grass Grows pt. 1
4 | Gust
5 | Heva’s Village
6 | Path Tune
7 | The Clown is Free
8 | Grass Grows pt. 2
9 | Journey
10 | Falling and Bouncing
11 | The Tower of the Eclipses