Anne Lister - Astrolabe (2019)

Astrolabe: An instrument used by early astronomers to measure the altitude of stars and planets and also as a navigational aid.
C13: via Old French and Medieval Latin from Greek, from astrolabos (adj), literally: star-taking, from astron star + lambanein to take.

It’s been a long time coming—Anne Lister’s ninth album, with twelve songs, all unrecorded elsewhere until now.
It’s been a long time coming, because Anne has been busy with a number of very different projects, from storytelling and writing to researching a 13th century Occitan story of King Arthur for her PhD at Cardiff University.
It’s also been a long time coming, because of the huge, sad loss of Liv Elliott, good friend and recording genius, when the recording was almost complete, and many other more trivial interruptions along the way.
But now, at last, here it is!

Twelve songs, like the astrolabe of the title track, measuring time and space. One song written in 1970, another written in 2019. A ring found at the extraordinary Roman archaeological site of Vindolanda, a box of memorabilia belonging to a grandmother, a WWI battle, an olive branch for a former lover, the near-death experience of rats, a farewell to a dear friend, and an angel in the form of a starving polar bear. Amongst others.