It is a new beginning for Windhollow Faire, still reeling after the tragic death (a suspected suicide) of singer Arianna – also Julian’s girlfriend – and the chance to swap dingy London squats and endless gigging in the back rooms of pubs for three months in a centuries-old wreck full of carved wooden panelling, antique furniture and small leaded windows, surrounded by hundreds of yew trees. Their reminiscences paint a vivid picture of trippy inspiration and intense creativity, ‘halcyon days and golden nights’ writing and playing music.
In the present day, a documentary maker interviews the surviving bandmates, as well as their manager, the rhythm guitarist’s former girlfriend – now professional psychic, a journalist, and a then-teenage photographer about what happened – or what they think might have happened all those years ago. But singer-songwriter Julian Blake – spookily beautiful, multi-talented and charismatic – then vanishes without a trace, leaving behind his contribution to what will eventually become a critically-acclaimed, highly influential album (named ‘ Wylding Hall‘ after the house). In Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall, a haunted house story meets folk-horror when a brilliant young musician disappears in mysterious circumstances.ĭuring the early 70s, Windhollow Faire, a promising folk-rock band, decamped to a sprawling manor house in the middle of the Hampshire countryside to record their second album.
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