Compiled! The three albums that heralded the return of former Fairport chanteuse, Judy Dyble to the music establishment. With guest appearances from Robert Fripp and ex-Hawkwind violinist Simon House.
Release Date: 27th June 2025
Label: Cherry Red Records
Formats: 3 x CD
AVAILABLE ONCE AGAIN
Here’s an imaginative and very welcome one! Darkness to Light gathers together the three albums that announced the re-emergence of former Fairport vocalist Judy Dyble as a musical presence, after a period of inactivity that we had feared would last forever.
Before Enchanted Garden made its appearance in 2004, Judy hadn’t released any music since 1970 and she had been (almost) musically inactive since 1973. Enchanted Garden is included as Disc One of this 3-CD set, with follow-up albums, Spindle (2005) and The Whorl (2006) occupying Discs Two and Three respectively. All have been unavailable in any form for a good number of years.
JUDY DYBLE – EARLY VENTURES
Judy was, of course, a founder member of Fairport Convention but, after she was (in her own words) “Unceremoniously dumped” by the band in May 1968, her presence on the music scene slowly faded. She spent a few months with Giles, Giles and Fripp – the band that went on to blossom into King Crimson – then formed the duo Trader Horne with ex-Them guitarist Jackie McAuley. Trader Horne released their sole album, Morning Way in 1969, then split in 1970. Judy retired – temporarily as it later transpired – from the music business in 1973, famously finding employment as a librarian at one point.
Between 1973 and her re-emergence as a musical performer in 2004, Judy’s only public appearances were as a shy guest at several of Fairport’s annual reunion festivals in Cropredy – in 1981, 1982, 1987 and 2002 (she also later appeared at the 2007 and 2017 40th and 50th Anniversary shows.)
RE-EMERGENCE
When Judy Dyble did reappear, it wasn’t in any guise that Fairport watchers would necessarily have recognized. The material for Enchanted Garden was co-written, recorded and arranged by Marc Swordfish, frontman of psych-dance outfit Astralasia. Marc, like so many of us, had been enchanted by Judy’s vocals on Fairport Convention ‘s eponymous debut album – and particularly by her interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s Chelsea Morning – and sensed that her voice would fit with an Astralasia project he was planning.
Looking back in her 2016 autobiography, An Accidental Musician, on the music that she and Marc came up with for Enchanted Garden, Judy had this to say: “The only relationship it bears to any of the previous stuff I’ve done is that none of the previous stuff was anything like the stuff I’d done before. It’s always been different. So it’s following a pattern of difference. There’s been no perceived journey, no intentional progression. The only thing in common is me. The only similarities are the differences.”
ENCHANTED GARDEN
Happily, Judy welcomed Marc’s advances and the result of their collaboration is an album that blends Marc’s “…hypnotic beats across a panoramic soundfield” (as Mike Barnes so eloquently describes in his essay in the booklet that accompanies this set) with Judy’s “poised and eloquent” vocals.
Highlights of Enchanted Garden include Starcrazy, a rich, sax-impregnated soundscape and For You, a song in which Judy’s pure, natural vocals glide above a morass of electronic sound.
SPINDLE
Spindle, the 2005 follow-up to Enchanted Garden, takes a similar approach, although the electronics are given a lighter touch and there’s more evidence of the acoustic instruments – guitars, dulcimer and banjo – that would, perhaps, have been anticipated on a Judy Dyble album. Spindle high points include a whirlwind reworking of Pink Floyd’s See Emily Play, which features some amazing violin from Simon House and breathtaking keyboard work from Marc Swordfish. And, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the lovely Misty Morning is classic, folky Judy Dyble.
THE WHORL
There are plenty fine moments to enjoy on The Whorl, too. Fans of King Crimson, for example, will delight in the version of I Talk To The Wind. Judy had recorded the song before – a version featuring her vocals was released on the 1975 compilation album, The Young Person’s Guide To King Crimson – and the song’s inclusion on The Whorl was at Judy’s insistence. Opening track, Starlight, featuring James Asher’s dulcimer, is delightful and the album closes in style with Forever Shining, on which Judy superimposes her vocals over a Robert Fripp soundscape.
JUDY DYBLE – LATER WORKS
The burst of activity captured by this boxset certainly marked a turning point in Judy’s musical career. Her 2008 album, Talking With Strangers, featured guest appearances from, amongst others, Robert Fripp, Simon Nicol, Ian McDonald and Jacqui McShee. Even more prominently, Judy’s 2008 remake (with The Conspirators) of One Sure Thing, a Harvey Brooks/Jim Glover song that she sang on Fairport’s debut album, became an Indie Chart hit when it was released in 2008.
2013 saw more Dyble product in the shape of Flow And Change, an album she recorded with Alistair Murphy and, in 2015, Judy reunited with Jackie McAuleyt, to give Trader Horne another bash. Then, in 2017, Judy got together with producer/bassist Andy Lewis to record the folk/jazz hybrid Summer Dancing. Judy’s final albums were Earth Is Sleeping (2018) and the collaboration with David Longdon on Between A Breath And A Breath (2020). Judy Dyble passed away in July 2020 after a lengthy battle with lung cancer. We were all greatly saddened by the news of her death.
ANOTHER EXCELLENT CHERRY RED PACKAGE
Cherry Red have done the usual excellent job in repackaging three significant albums from an artist who was regularly – and unfairly – overlooked. In addition to the original albums, the set includes nine bonus tracks, drawn from alternate mixes and outtakes and, once again, the booklet that accompanies the package is packed with illustrations, song lyrics, details of the performers and, best of all, an absorbing, informative Mike Barnes essay. And, of course, the whole schemozzle is presented in an attractive clamshell box. What’s not to like?
Listen to Judy Dyble perform the King Crimson song, I Talk To The Wind – a track included on this boxset – below:
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