Lovely to get an Agent Starling Track featured on Fresh on the Net – and a great review of it to boot – here’s what they have to say about ‘Valley to Mountainside’ from our second album ‘Constellation of Birds’.
‘One thing I like about Fresh On The Net’s inbox is that you never know what you’re going to get. You will always get surprised. You can never accurately tell which way it’s going to go, and that’s the beauty of an independent music blog. The ten that we close out the summer with are all thought provoking and the first track to open this Fresh Faves is no different, and while I’m listening to this, I hear a bit of folk, a bit of prog rock, Celtic… it’s all there. And it’s dizzyingly good! 3/4 time, a flute, fiddle, a bass riffing away, and vocals drenched in reverb and sung in a round, I feel like I’m in a time warp – a tv show from the 60s and 70s, or maybe lying in the grass in Greenwich Park watching the clouds go by and making shapes… This is something isn’t it? Very dreamy. “Valley to mountainsidehigh up and look down at sea salt to ozone and fly out and don’t look back” This is all sung in a round! Agent Starling is Quentin Budworth on Hurdy Gurdy, Lou Duffy-Howard all other instruments and vocals, except violin by special guest Dexter Duffy-Howard. According to their gorgeously designed site: “Quentin and Lou both have strong musical provenance. Lou was originally in recently reformed prophetic UK Indie band Red Guitars and has gigged and recorded ever since, currently heading up psychedelic rock band Loudhailer Electric Company. Originally part of Suns of Arqa, hurdy-gurdy specialist Quentin is the force behind world fusion medieval rave band Celtarabia. Agent Starling are preparing to tour in 2023.” For some reason I have deja vu around them but I just can’t think why, maybe they are time travellers, and they are evoking the multiverse with their sound, whatever it is, it’s definitely left an impression on me’.
Quentin Budworth Musician 